Rotem Kowner

Rotem Kowner was born in 1960 in Mikhmoret

Kowner was born in Mikhmoret in 1960 and spent his first years at Kibbutz Ma'ayan Tzvi. His family then moved to Haifa, where he grew up and attended the Hebrew Reali School.

After his army service, he studied East Asian studies and psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He spent a year at the Free University of Berlin and then went to Japan, where he earned his doctorate in psychology at the University of Tsukuba in 1995. He later held postdoctoral posts at Stanford University and at the Hebrew University.

In the Israeli Navy he completed the naval officers course and served as deputy commander of a missile boat. He also commanded a course at the naval command school.

Kowner joined the University of Haifa as a senior lecturer in 1998, became an associate professor in 2004 and a full professor in 2013. He founded the Department of Asian Studies in 2002 and headed it until 2008. His research covers the Russo-Japanese War, race and racism in East Asia, and Jewish communities in Asia.

He has been a visiting professor at Waseda University, the University of Geneva and LMU Munich. He co-founded the Israeli Association of Japanese Studies and directs the university's Liberal Arts Program. He is married, lives in Kiryat Tivon and has three daughters and a son.