Jeffrey Kopstein

Jeffrey Stephen Kopstein^[1] (born 1962)^[2] is an American social scientist specializing in interethnic violence and minority voting patterns, focusing on Jewish history in Europe and Russia.

Career

Kopstein got his PhD at University of California, Berkeley in 1991, holding held various positions at University of Colorado Boulder until 2002. Kopstein then became a full professor at University of Toronto until 2015. Since then, he has served as the Chair of Political Science at University of California, Irvine.^[3]

Research

Kopstein's recent research has focused on why Jews were massacred by the local populations in Eastern Europe in 1941^[a], while locals in other localities did not kill Jews en masse despite Nazi encouragement. According to Kopstein, polarization within the community was necessary for a massacre to happen.^[2]^[4]

The Holocaust in Poland

According to Kopstein, research conducted inside and outside of Poland has found that some Poles participated in the Holocaust, including the Szczuczyn pogrom in 1941. Kopstein has called the 2018 Polish amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance an attempt to censor historical facts, as those who publish findings in this regard would risk a fine or imprisonment.^[5]

Books

	Publications
List (year in descending order)	The Assault on the State: How the Global Attack on Modern Government Endangers Our Future.(with Stephen E. Hanson) Polity, 2024 ISBN 978-1-509-56316-6 Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms on the Eve of the Holocaust, (with Jason Wittenberg), (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 2018). Growing Apart? America and Europe in the 21st Century, co-edited(with Sven Steinmo), (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008). Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order, co-edited (with Mark Lichbach), (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press), 1st ed. 2000, 2nd ed. 2005, 3rd ed.2009, 4th ed. 2013. The Politics of Economic Decline in East Germany 1945-1989, (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1997).

Footnotes

↑ In some 10 percent of localities

References

[4] In some 10 percent of localities

[1] ttps://www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/apply/sponsorship-programmes/feodor-lynen-research-fellowship/feodor-lynen-search-for-a-host/singleview?tx_rsmavhsolr_solrviewlynenhost%5BpPersonId%5D=1065752&cHash=02786601718d90ceb79b12c7a93b430e

[Haaretz201801-2] 2.0 ^2.1 'It's Hard to Get People to Kill Each Other, but You Can Easily Get Them to Hate'

[3] Jeffrey Kopstein at UCI, Jeffrey Kopstein homepage

[Kopstein-5] Kopstein, Jeffrey S., and Jason Wittenberg. "Deadly communities: Local political milieus and the persecution of Jews in occupied Poland." Comparative Political Studies 44.3 (2011): 259-283.

[6] Yes, some Poles were Nazi collaborators. The Polish Parliament is trying to legislate that away., The Washington Post, 2 Feb 2018, Jason Wittenberg and Jeffrey Kopstein

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