Dr. Jerome M. Segal – President

Dr. Jerome M. Segal is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Intenational and Strategic Studies as well as a Research Scholar at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland. In addition, he is President and founder of The Jewish Peace Lobby.

Initially trained as a philosopher, Dr. Segal received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He taught for several years in the Philosophy Department of the University of Pennsylvania. He then returned to school, and received an MPA from the Hubert Humphrey School of Public Affairs (University of Minnesota).

Between 1975 and 1979, he served as an aide to Congressman Donald M. Fraser (D-MN), first at the United Nations and then in Washington. In that capacity he was the Administrator of the House Budget Committee’s Task Force on Distributive Impacts of Economic Policy.

Starting in 1979, he worked in the U.S. Agency for International Development, first as Coordinator for the Near East, and then as Senior Advisor for Agency Planning. During the 1980’s he returned to the academic world.

Since 1982, he has been active in the American Jewish peace movement. In the Spring of 1987 he was part of the first American Jewish delegation to meet with the PLO leadership (then in Tunis). During 1988 he played a role in the events leading up to the opening of the U.S./P.L.O. dialogue in December 1988. Earlier that year his essays in Palestinian and American papers played a catalytic role in the PLO’s decision to issue a Declaration of Independence and launch a unilateral peace initiative. In 1989 he started the Jewish Peace Lobby, which is now an organization of roughly 4,500 people including some 400 rabbis.

Dr. Segal is the author of five books, Creating the Palestinian State (Lawrence Hill, 1989), Agency and Alienation – a Theory of Human Presence (Rowman and Littlefield, 1991), Graceful Simplicity — Toward a Philosophy and Politics of Simple Living (Henry Holt, 1999), Negotiating Jerusalem (co-author) (SUNY Press, 2000) and Joseph’s Bones: Understanding the Struggle Between God and Mankind in the Bible (Riverhead, 2008). He is the author of over 50 op-ed pieces on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and over 100 radio and TV appearances.

Visit the website of the Center for International and Security Studies (CISSM), a part of the University of Maryland.