New York—Touro College President and CEO Dr. Alan Kadish announced today that Michael Oren, Ph.D., Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2013, will receive an honorary degree at the 40th annual commencement exercises at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center on May 26th, 2014.
“Touro College is incredibly honored and privileged to pay tribute to Dr. Michael Oren,” said Dr. Kadish. “Dr. Oren was instrumental in securing U.S. support for Israel’s defense and upholding Israel’s right to security and peace during his tenure. He set an example for Jews throughout the Diaspora by making aliyah in 1979. In the academic sphere, Dr. Oren is an accomplished historian and award-winning author and a true inspiration and role model for our graduating class. And we’re proud to say that in 1999 he was an adjunct professor at Touro, as well.”
Born in the U.S., Dr. Oren earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale and Georgetown, and was a Distinguished Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. He has received fellowships from the British and Canadian governments as well as a Moshe Dayan Fellowship from Tel Aviv University and the Lady Davis Fellowship at The Hebrew University. His last two books, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East from 1776 to the Present, and Six Days of War, were both New York Times bestsellers. He has won the Los Angeles Times History Book of the Year Award and the National Jewish Book Award.
Dr. Oren served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces in the paratrooper unit during the Lebanon War, a liaison with the U.S. Sixth Fleet during the Gulf War and an IDF spokesperson during the Second Lebanon War and the Gaza operation in January 2009. He acted as an emissary to Jewish refuseniks in the former Soviet Union, as an advisor to Israel’s delegation to the United Nations and as the government’s director of Inter-Religious Affairs. He was also a gold-medal athlete in the Maccabiah Games. Dr. Oren is now the Abba Eban Chair of International Diplomacy at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy. He has also joined CNN as a Middle East contributor.
