Dr Sylvia Kedourie

British political scientist and academic who edited “Middle Eastern Studies”.

DESCRIBED BY a colleague at Bar Ilan University as a“super talented editor and academic observer,” Dr Sylvia Kedourie, who has died in London, aged 91, took over the role of her late husband, Professor Elie Kedourie, founder-editor of the prestigious English language academic journal,

after his death in 1992. The journal was founded in 1964 by Frank Cass at the suggestion of Prof Kedourie, a Middle East historian. “He knew right away it would be a success,” Kedourie recalled, in large part because

was a first-of-itskind publication in the United King- dom and North America.

WhileCassremainedinnominalcontrol, the Kedourie couple spent the following years laboriously editing, proofreading, fact-checking, approving and improving submissions. The journal claims to provide the most up-to-date research on the history and politics of Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East, North Africa,Turkey, Iran and Israel.

Yehudit Oren of Bar Ilan considered that Sylvia Kedourie’s insights and knowledge surpassed those of the scholars seeking publication in Within the field of academic research, her skills and hard editorial work boosted the journal to the top of the list of academic journals in the area of Middle Eastern studies.

Sylvia Haim, the daughter of Seraphine Somekh-Basra and Gourgi Abraham Haim, was born in Baghdad and educated at the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Baghdad, and the School of Oriental & African Studies in London. She gained her PhD in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in 1953. She married Elie Kedourie at Bevis Marks Synagogue in 1950 and they had three children, George, Michael and Helen.

W r i t i n g u n d e r h e r maiden name, Sylvia G Haim, she edited or co-authored several publications, including