Stephen Langfur

After getting a doctorate from Syracuse, Stephen Langfur co-founded the University of Houston’s Honors Program, teaching in it for three years. The promise of peace lured him to Israel in 1979, where he favored hiking over academe, becoming a guide. A decade later, he wrote:

“When I was ten years younger and full of hope, I departed the USA with wife and daughter and moved to Israel. What follow are notes from an army cell, to which I have been sentenced for refusing to go into the West Bank against the Palestinians.” – Confession from a Jericho Jail (Grove Weidenfeld, 1992, now in a 2nd edition by Fomite Press).

After his release, Langfur discovered new research that supports the idea of his dissertation. He has presented the idea in philosophy and psychology journals. He is currently writing a book: When the gift is its receiver: Other, self, and the meaning of being.

Langfur’s son Benny is a musician and his daughter Talya is a physical therapist. He is married to the political activist Roni Ben Efrat.