Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Rubin Center Facing Closure: Final Plea for Support


Dear Friends and Readers,

Throughout his year-and-half battle with cancer, Prof. Barry Rubin, founder of Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center—today the Rubin Center—continued to write and analyze events in the region and across the globe. When he could no longer type, he dictated. Even from his hospital bed, while hooked up to an IV dispensing chemo, he struggled to get the words out, publishing his final article just two weeks before his untimely death.

In his final days, he was very much occupied with the future of the Rubin (GLORIA) Center. It was his dream that the center would continue on the path he had set.

“My approach,” he once remarked, “…is to ignore the Western scholarly literature and to examine the facts on the ground.” He stressed that events “should be approached as objectively as possible with an honest attempt to be accurate, to produce evidence proving one’s assertions, and to follow where the facts lead.”

"The great thing about being alive is that every day amazing things happen to startle, entertain, and bemuse you. The great thing about being alive and studying the Middle East is that these things happen just about every hour." –Prof. Barry Rubin


As a non-profit organization, Rubin Center content is offered free of charge 



Click here to make your tax-deductible donation from the U.S., Canada, Israel, or the UK. Your contribution is vital to our ability to continue making this otherwise inaccessible information available to you!



For nearly two decades, the Rubin Center’s exclusive frontline reporting has brought you breaking stories, analysis, and research. Rubin researchers have reported from areas inaccessible to most researchers and journalists, often risking their lives to bring you the most accurate and up-to-date analysis.

Rubin Associate Seth Frantzman’s reporting from the frontline in Mosul, Iraq (Photo credit: Seth Frantzman)

Rubin Center achievements:
  • Revealing the Islamic State's use of chemical weapons
  • Creation of a unique archive of over 1,000 Islamic State documents by Rubin Fellow Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi and exposing the inner workings of the organization
  • Rubin Center Director Dr. Jonathan Spyer one of the only Western correspondents to report from both the regime and rebels sides during the Syrian civil war
  • Reporting and collecting material in Mosul, Iraq, during and after its liberation from the Islamic State, published in major media outlets
  • Rubin Associate Alex Grinberg identifying and analyzing threats and statements in the Iranian media relating to its crisis with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, then picked up by major global media
  • Rubin Fellow Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi's testimony before Congress and the British Parliament on the topic of Syria and the Islamic State

Syrian Reconciliation Affairs Minister Ali Khaidar addresses a foreign delegation in Damascus, April 2017.  Jonathan Spyer can be seen on the left. (Source: Jonathan Spyer)

 
Prof. Rubin was a pioneer in the field of Middle East research. He established The Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) in 1996, at a time when internet publications were not yet developed. MERIA, which produced high-quality articles on the region, was one of the first open-access, online Middle East journals and has always been offered free of charge.

Prof. Rubin believed in efficiency and accessibility. He noted, The money spent on a single conference or on a print journal could probably fund a journal or other online project for one or two years. In one of his final projects, "Free Books," he offered 13 of his books online at no cost.

Among the titles featured in the Free Books project


The Rubin Center has been completely self-funded, receiving no financial assistance from the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya. As a non-profit organization, the center has always operated on a very modest budget-- investing its time and money in frontline reporting and research.

Prof. Rubin also believed in encouraging talented young scholars and invested a great deal in helping those who were unrecognized develop and grow. The Rubin Fellowship program was founded in 2014 in his memory. Our first Rubin Fellow, Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, is now a renowned expert sought out by government officials and whose work has been published in major media outlets.


Rubin Fellow Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

Many more promising young researchers have joined the Rubin Center since, including Dr. Seth J. Frantzman, Dave McAvoy, Sarit Zehavi, Neri Zilber, and Aynur Bashirova.

In our final conversations with Prof. Rubin, he urged us to continue the research.

If you value our work, please make a tax-deductible contribution today. In doing so, you would be supporting groundbreaking research, promising young scholars, and Barry Rubin’s legacy.

If we do not receive funding, the Rubin Center will be closing its doors at the end of December 2017.

As a non-profit organization, Rubin Center content is offered free of charge


 

Click here to make your tax-deductible donation from the U.S., Canada, Israel, or the UK. Your contribution is vital to our ability to continue making this otherwise inaccessible information available to you!



Yours,

Judith Colp Rubin, Honorary President

Dr. Jonathan Spyer, Director

Yeru Chernilovsky, Director of Management/Publications


Rubin Fellow, Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi