AMITAI ETZIONI: BIOGRAPHY AND CONTRIBUTIONS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Amitai Etzioni is a German-born Israeli-American sociologist by the name of Werner Falk. His family was of Jewish origin, which caused countless problems in his childhood due to the establishment of the Nazi regime. Etzioni obtained a Doctorate in Sociology from the University of Berkeley (California, United States).

Etzioni is the founder of the Community Network. This non-profit organization, without association with political parties, has the function of promoting moral, social and political improvements in society. In addition, Etzioni has written several books in which he affirms that every society must balance the responsibilities of its inhabitants and their rights.

Biography

Amitai Etzioni was born on January 4, 1929 in Cologne, Germany, under the name Werner Falk. His parents and grandparents were Jewish, which meant for the young Etzioni having to escape the Nazi regime, soon to settle after his birth.

His parents were the first to escape from Germany to Greece. Etzioni was taken with them shortly thereafter and studied in that country for a year, where he learned Greek.

Shortly after, he went with his parents to Palestine, where he was advised not to use Werner Falk's name for political reasons. There he adapted his Jewish name and studied at a school in Palestine, until he moved with his family to a small town far from the city.

His father enlisted in a military unit that worked in conjunction with the British Army, while he continued his studies until graduating from high school. After graduation, his original intention was to become an electrician, but he decided to join a military group whose goal was to fight against British control of Palestine.

Military life

Etzioni was trained in military techniques and became part of the Haganah, a special force of the Jewish army in ancient Palestine. During his time as a soldier, the Jewish militias fought against the British regime in order to allow more Jews access to Palestine.

Among his most outstanding actions as a military man, his participation in an armed operation in which his unit placed a bomb on an English radio transmission antenna stands out, which was intended to detect ships of Jewish immigrants and intercept them.

Following Israel's declaration of independence, the unit to which Etzioni belonged fought in the 1948 Israeli war against the Arabs. There Etzioni participated in the defense of Jerusalem, where together with his unit he made his way through the Arab defense lines and established a path to Tel Aviv.

Back to studies

Following Israel's independence and the end of the war against Palestine and the Arab nations, he enrolled in an institute established by Martin Buber, an academic who received 10 Nobel Prize for Literature and 7 Nobel Peace Prize nominations.

While he was studying at university he met his first wife, with whom he had two children. He then enrolled in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he graduated from sociology studies in 1954 and completed his doctorate in 1956.

He specialized in classical and contemporary studies of sociology, and in 1957 he emigrated to the United States, where he entered the University of California, Berkeley.

In his university life he worked as an assistant to Seymour Martin Lipset, the famous American sociologist known for his studies of social organization and public opinion.

After graduation, Amitai Etzioni stayed in the United States to continue his professional life. At that time he divorced his wife, as she wanted to return to Israel.

Academic life

Etzioni spent 20 years as a professor at Columbia University and met his second wife in 1966, with whom he had 3 children before she was tragically killed in a car accident in 1985.

He was appointed one of the directors of the Department of Sociology at Columbia University before going to teach at the Brookings Institution. He subsequently collaborated with the President of the United States as a senior advisor.

He was president of the American Association of Sociologists from 1994 to 1995, and founder of the Society in Advancement of Socioeconomics and the Community Network. He is currently a professor at George Washington University, where he serves as Director of the Community Policy Institute.

Contributions

Fight against nuclear weapons

Etzioni has been noted for his fight against nuclear weapons. He worked against the Cuban Nuclear Missile Crisis and criticized the Vietnam War.

Etzioni has written 24 books throughout his life; three of these books were focused on the cause against nuclear war and the promulgation of peace.

Community approach

It is from the 70s when he takes a different approach in his career and begins to deal with issues related to ethics. Studying this branch of sociology was when Etzioni began to speak about the community cause.

In his books about this cause he explains the social problems that current democracies have and how the presence of excessive individualism damages societies.

Founder of socioeconomics

Etzioni was the founder of socio-economics, being a different option from neoclassical economics. In 1988 he founded the World Society of Socioeconomics, heading it as its president.

Communitarianism

The community cause has been the main focus of Etzioni's career since the late 1970s. Etzioni's communitarianism has as its argument the promulgation of a communal life that focuses more on the benefits of society.

According to the sociologist, people have as a priority to act only for their own benefit, ignoring what is happening around them.

Communitarianism, according to Etzioni, must work on all the individual aspects of a society, such as the school and the family, in order to introduce positive values ​​within it.

In addition, it seeks to promote the development of all individuals within a community to ensure a more effective growth of society in general.

References

1. Amitai Etzioni's Profile, Columbian College of Arts & Scienve, (nd). Taken from gwu.edu
2. Amitai Etzioni Biography, (nd). Taken from amitaietzioni.org
3. Who We Are, The Communitarian Netowrk, (nd). Taken from communitariannetwork.org
4. Amitai Etzioni, (nd). Taken from asanet.org
5. My Brother's Keeper, Amitai Etzioni, 2003. Taken from books.google.com
6. Amitai Etzioni, (nd), March 4, 2018. Taken from Wikipedia.org