About the Author |
Joe Carlen
Mr. Carlen is an accomplished author. His publications include The Einstein of Money: The Life and Timeless Financial Wisdom of Benjamin Graham, for which he interviewed Warren Buffett and other prominent Graham disciples. A few years later, Mr. Carlen wrote A Brief History of Entrepreneurship: The Pioneers, Profiteers and Racketeers Who Shaped Our World, a book that acclaimed business guru Brian Tracy described as “full of great stories and practical ideas that any entrepreneur can use to be more successful faster." Foreign rights to Carlen's books have been purchased by publishers in Poland, China, Taiwan and Brazil. He also co-authored a few books, including From Lifeguard to Sun King, the autobiography of the founder of the Banana Boat skincare empire.
Mr. Carlen has also been a guest speaker at esteemed institutions, including Columbia University, Fordham University, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and the Museum of American Finance. His media appearances include programs like the Cheri Hill Show, Good Books Radio and the nationally syndicated Money Talk. He has contributed articles to Bloomberg, CNBC.com, ValueWalk, and other prominent financial media outlets. Mr. Carlen's regular work is business appraisal and other forms of business consulting.
So, how is a writer with a business background qualified to write about Zionism? For one, Mr. Carlen's parents met in Israel -- his father an Ashkenazi of Romanian and Lithuanian background who grew up in Canada and his mother a Sephardic woman born and raised in Tunisia. So, even though Mr. Carlen grew up in Canada, both of his parents are fluent in Hebrew and have many Israeli friends. As well, his mother, a Doctor of Sociology and a former professor at York University (in the Toronto area), became an expert in the Jews from Arab Lands. So, Mr. Carlen has a much deeper understanding of this vital dimension of the Israeli-Arab conflict than most English-speaking Jews.
As well, when he was 15, he volunteered at a kibbutz in Israel for a summer and, when he was 19, he spent several months studying Hebrew at Tel Aviv University. Notably, his roommates at the dormitories in Tel Aviv included two Israeli citizens of Arab ethnicity -- one who identified as an Arab-Israeli and the other who identified as a Palestinian. He was on good terms with both, learning some Arabic from them and teaching them some English. It was educational for him to understand why one of his Arab friends seemed proud to be an Israeli and the other was clearly very hostile to the notion of a Jewish State.
Since then, although there have been long intervals when Mr. Carlen has not visited Israel, he has stayed abreast of developments by reading English versions of both Israeli and Arab online news publications on a daily basis. Perhaps more importantly with respect to this project, he has read biographies of everyone from Gamel Abdul Nasser to David Ben Gurion, Yassir Arafat to Yitzhak Rabin and many other historical figures of relevance to Zionism and the evolution of the modern State of Israel. Moreover, Mr. Carlen's undergraduate major was Near Eastern Studies and he has read extensively on Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Of course, understanding the history and theology of those three faiths is essential to a well-rounded understanding of the modern Middle East.
Clearly, as reflected in Mr. Carlen's choice to follow up his successful biography of Benjamin Graham (itself a work of history in some respects) with A Brief History of Entrepreneurship, he has a passion for history. He will apply this same passion to the history and evolution of Zionism and to countering the flaws and inconsistencies in the narratives that seek to delegitimize and demonize Zionism and the founding and continued existence of the State of Israel.
Mr. Carlen has also been a guest speaker at esteemed institutions, including Columbia University, Fordham University, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and the Museum of American Finance. His media appearances include programs like the Cheri Hill Show, Good Books Radio and the nationally syndicated Money Talk. He has contributed articles to Bloomberg, CNBC.com, ValueWalk, and other prominent financial media outlets. Mr. Carlen's regular work is business appraisal and other forms of business consulting.
So, how is a writer with a business background qualified to write about Zionism? For one, Mr. Carlen's parents met in Israel -- his father an Ashkenazi of Romanian and Lithuanian background who grew up in Canada and his mother a Sephardic woman born and raised in Tunisia. So, even though Mr. Carlen grew up in Canada, both of his parents are fluent in Hebrew and have many Israeli friends. As well, his mother, a Doctor of Sociology and a former professor at York University (in the Toronto area), became an expert in the Jews from Arab Lands. So, Mr. Carlen has a much deeper understanding of this vital dimension of the Israeli-Arab conflict than most English-speaking Jews.
As well, when he was 15, he volunteered at a kibbutz in Israel for a summer and, when he was 19, he spent several months studying Hebrew at Tel Aviv University. Notably, his roommates at the dormitories in Tel Aviv included two Israeli citizens of Arab ethnicity -- one who identified as an Arab-Israeli and the other who identified as a Palestinian. He was on good terms with both, learning some Arabic from them and teaching them some English. It was educational for him to understand why one of his Arab friends seemed proud to be an Israeli and the other was clearly very hostile to the notion of a Jewish State.
Since then, although there have been long intervals when Mr. Carlen has not visited Israel, he has stayed abreast of developments by reading English versions of both Israeli and Arab online news publications on a daily basis. Perhaps more importantly with respect to this project, he has read biographies of everyone from Gamel Abdul Nasser to David Ben Gurion, Yassir Arafat to Yitzhak Rabin and many other historical figures of relevance to Zionism and the evolution of the modern State of Israel. Moreover, Mr. Carlen's undergraduate major was Near Eastern Studies and he has read extensively on Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Of course, understanding the history and theology of those three faiths is essential to a well-rounded understanding of the modern Middle East.
Clearly, as reflected in Mr. Carlen's choice to follow up his successful biography of Benjamin Graham (itself a work of history in some respects) with A Brief History of Entrepreneurship, he has a passion for history. He will apply this same passion to the history and evolution of Zionism and to countering the flaws and inconsistencies in the narratives that seek to delegitimize and demonize Zionism and the founding and continued existence of the State of Israel.