This past Wednesday, Nobel Laureate, NIF International Council member, and generous donor Daniel Kahneman left this world. Professor Kahneman was a man of great insight, who dedicated his life to understanding what motivates people and why we make the choices we make. His groundbreaking work in the fields of behavioral psychology and economics shaped the way we understand ourselves and others.

Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker told The Guardian back in 2014, that Kahneman’s “central message could not be more important. Namely, that human reason left to its own devices is apt to engage in a number of fallacies and systematic errors, so if we want to make better decisions in our personal lives and as a society, we ought to be aware of these biases and seek workarounds. That’s a powerful and important discovery.” 

This insight is immensely valuable today, especially in light of all that American Jews, Israelis, and Palestinians face right now.

Kahneman was a great friend of NIF, and worked to advance the same principles of democratic and equality that it stands for. “Daniel was an absolutely unique individual,” said Talia Sasson, who chairs NIF’s International Council. “He was not only a genius in his own field, but a generous man, and the State of Israel was very close to his heart.”

May his memory be a blessing. You can read his full obituary in the New York Times here.