Manfred Gerstenfeld

Manfred Gerstenfeld was born in 1937 in Vienna

Gerstenfeld was born in Vienna in 1937 to Orthodox Zionist Jewish parents. The family fled to the Netherlands, and during World War II he and his parents hid in Amsterdam for about a year. After the war he joined Bnei Akiva and later headed the movement in the Netherlands.

He earned a master's degree in organic chemistry at the University of Amsterdam and also studied economics in Rotterdam. He held a teaching degree in Jewish studies and completed a Ph.D. in environmental studies in 1999. From 1963 to 1967 he chaired the World Union of Jewish Students.

In 1964 he moved to Paris and worked as an analyst of pharmaceutical company stocks. He moved to Israel in 1968, ran an economic consultancy, and sat on the board of the Israel Corporation. In 1977 he was among the founders of the Democratic Movement for Change.

From 2000 to 2012 he chaired the board of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, where he founded its antisemitism program. His statements about antisemitism in Norway drew criticism there. He died in Jerusalem in 2021 and was survived by two sons.