George Lenczowski

George Lenczowski (pol. Jerzy Lenczowski; February 2, 1915 – February 19, 2000) was a lawyer, diplomat, scholar, and Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, at the University of California, Berkeley. Lenczowski was a pioneer in his field as the founder and first chair of the Committee (later Center) of Middle Eastern Studies at Berkeley. He was among America's first major scholars of the modern Middle East.

Lenczowski's book, American Presidents and the Middle East, along with The Other Arab-Israeli Conflict by Steven L. Spiegel and Peace Process by William B. Quandt, are considered by historian and former Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, as being "three of the genre's finer examples", focusing on the post-World War II period and seeking to investigate broader aspects of America's Middle East history.

Lenczowski was the father of John Lenczowski, president and founder of the Institute of World Politics.

Early life

George Lenczowski was born as Jerzy Lenczowski of Polish parentage, in St. Petersburg, Russia (then known as Petrograd), on February 2, 1915, at a time when the land of his ancestors was still part of neighboring empires. His father worked as an engineer until the Russian Revolution. One of Lenczowski's earliest memories was a perilous escape from the Bolsheviks through war-torn Russia, which brought the Lenczowski family back to what soon would become an independent Poland, following World War I. It was there that Lenczowski received his education from primary school to the faculty of law from the University of Warsaw.