Robert S. Wistrich

Robert S. Wistrich was born in 1945 in Lenger

Wistrich was born in 1945 in Lenger, in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, to leftist Polish Jewish parents. After the war the family returned to Poland, then left for France and later England because of antisemitism. He grew up in England and attended Kilburn Grammar School.

He studied history at Queens' College, Cambridge, earning a BA in 1966 and an MA in 1969. At Cambridge he co-founded and edited the arts magazine Circuit. He spent 1969 to 1970 in Israel as literary editor of New Outlook and received his PhD from the University of London in 1974.

From 1974 to 1980 he was director of research at the Wiener Library in London and edited its bulletin. In 1982 he moved to Israel and joined the Hebrew University, and from 1991 to 1995 he also held the Chair of Jewish Studies at University College London. From 2002 he headed the university's center for the study of antisemitism and edited its journal.

He wrote and edited many books on Jews and antisemitism, and scripted documentaries and radio dramas. From 1999 to 2001 he sat on the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission on Pope Pius XII. He died of a heart attack in Rome in 2015, shortly before he was due to address the Italian Senate.