Professor Emeritus J.C. Hurewitz, 93, died on May 16, 2008, of pneumonia.
Professor Hurewitz began studying Middle Eastern politics in 1950, before the field had emerged as an academic discipline. From 1970 until 1984, Professor Hurewtiz directed the university's Middle East Institute, where he taught and mentored hundreds of students including future diplomats, some of the early women who entered the field, and Ismail Khalidi, the father of Rashid Khalidi, the current director of the institute.
The New York Times obituary is available here.
