Joel Beinin

Biography

Joel Beinin (born 1948) is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East history at Stanford University. From 2006 to 2008 he served as director of Middle East studies and professor of history at the American University in Cairo. Beinin was raised as a Zionist in a secular American Jewish family. On graduating from high school, he spent six months working on a kibbutz, where he met his future wife. He studied Arabic at university, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University in 1970. He spent the summer of 1969 studying Arabic at the American University in Cairo. Intending to move to Israel permanently, he joined other members of Hashomer Hatzair in living and working at Kibbutz Lahav. There, on encountering attitudes that struck him as being contemptuous of Palestinians, he gradually became disenchanted with his early ideals, and declared himself to no longer be a Zionist. He returned to the United States in 1973, and took his M.A. from Harvard University in 1974, and, after working in auto plants in Detroit, obtained his A.M.L.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1978 and 1982, respectively. He has also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Beinin's niece, Liat Beinin Atzili, was taken hostage by Hamas in the October 7 Kibbutz Nir Oz attack, and her husband was killed in the same attack. She was released in the 2023 Gaza War ceasefire. He appears in the 2025 documentary Holding Liat recounting her harrowing experiences.