About the Program

The ACF DC and the Austrian Press & Information Service are delighted to host a book presentation by Daniel Aschheim, author of KREISKY, ISRAEL, AND JEWISH IDENTITY. The personal and professional life of Bruno Kreisky (1911–1990), Austria's long-serving social democratic chancellor (SPÖ) from August 1970 to May 1983, has been the focus of many books and articles. However, his ambiguous and complex relationship to his Jewishness, the State of Israel, and Zionism, as well as his connections to his overall political project and global aspirations, remain only partially researched. This book studies and analyzes these more systematically and comprehensively and places Kreisky in a comparative perspective with other twentieth-century European Jewish politicians who attained similar pinnacles of power. At the same time, the book will show that Bruno Kreisky was among the most influential and controversial political leaders since World War II. The book revolves around understanding and illuminating the myriad ways in which the longtime Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky's Jewishness was—or was not—a formative factor in his treatment of "Jewish" questions within Austrian politics, Austrian-Israeli relations, and his active engagement in Middle Eastern affairs.

About the author

Dr. Daniel Aschheim currently serves as Deputy Consul General at the Consulate General of Israel in Chicago. Prior to this he was appointed to West Africa as Deputy Chief of Mission at the Israeli Embassy in Dakar, Senegal. Dr. Aschheim holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem where he completed his MA in European Studies. He completed his BA in Government, Diplomacy and Strategy from the Reichman University.

Kreisky Image © University of New Orleans Press