Gad Barzilai

Gad Barzilai (11 January 1958 – 10 April 2023) was an Israeli professor of law, political science, and international studies, renowned for his contributions to the fields of law and politics, comparative law and politics, human rights, and communities. He authored 18 books and 173 articles, published in prominent academic journals and publishing houses. Barzilai held full professorships in law, societies, and justice, and international studies at both the University of Washington and the University of Haifa's Faculty of Law. He served as the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa from 2012 to 2017 and as the Vice Provost of the same university from 2016 to 2019. Prior to these roles, he was a professor of political science and law at Tel Aviv University, where he co-founded and co-directed the Law, Society, and Politics Graduate Program from 1996 to 2004. Born in Tel Aviv to Holocaust survivor parents, Barzilai pursued higher education across several prestigious institutions, including Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (where he earned his PhD), the University of Michigan for quantitative research methods, and Yale University for his postdoctoral studies. He briefly taught at Yale before returning to Israel. Barzilai was also the founding director of the Dan David Prize from 1999 to 2002. He was actively involved in human rights organizations and advised politicians and NGOs. His academic work focused on law as a dimension of political power, legal pluralism, political elites, critical communitarianism, cultural relativism, and political power dynamics at various levels. Barzilai died at the age of 65.