The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Sam Lehman-Wilzig, an Israeli scholar, will give a free public lecture entitled, “Between Past & Future: Contemporary Challenges Facing Israel,” 7 p.m. Feb. 5. The lecture will be held in the University Reception Center on the 8^th floor of the Mary and John Gray Library on Lamar University campus.

Lehman-Wilzig is one of two international scholars who will be visiting Lamar this semester to talk to assistant professor Dominic Beggan’s Middle East Politics class. Beggan traveled to Israel and Egypt last summer as a Fulbright Scholar and gathered research for the class, which began in January.

“While I was in Israel, I was lucky enough to attend one of Lehman-Wilzig’s lectures. He’s a dynamic speaker and offers a wealth of knowledge. After the lecture we talked about the prospect of him speaking at Lamar and fortunately we were able to make it happen,” Beggan said.

Lehman-Wilzig was born in New York City and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the City College of New York. He completed his Ph.D. in government at Harvard University before moving to Israel. Lehman-Wilzig has taught in the political science department at Bar Ilan University since 1977 and served as the department chair, 2004-2007.

He served as the founder and head of Bar Ilan University’s public communications program since 1994, chairman of the Israeli Political Science Foundation since 1994, and head of Bar Ilan’s journalism and mass communication studies department, 1991-996.

Lehman has published two books and numerous articles on Israeli extra-parliamentary behavior and Israeli media and election campaigns. He has also published a popular communication textbook, “Handbook of Mass Communication” (Hebrew, 1994) and authored several articles on political communication and new media.

The lecture is open to the public and free of charge.

For more information, contact Beggan at (409) 880-7801.