University of Haifa to award honorary doctorate to Baha’i leader

HAIFA (Press Release)–The University of Haifa will award the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, honoris causa, to Dr. Albert Lincoln, Secretary-General of the Bahá’í International Community, during the University’s 38th Meeting of the Board of Governors, which will take place on June 1-3. The honorary doctorate will be conferred upon Dr. Lincoln in recognition of his contribution to the promotion of mutual understanding, coexistence and cultural pluralism.

The Senate of the University emphasized Dr. Lincoln’s contribution to Israel’s community and to the city of Haifa in particular, as well as his longstanding friendship with the University of Haifa, which is expressed in ongoing collaboration between the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa and the University.

Dr. Lincoln was born in the United States in 1945. He is a direct descendent of the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, and a more distant relative of the sixteenth, Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Lincoln received a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and during his professional career worked as a lawyer in four countries (France, Central African Republic, Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire), three languages, and many different fields of the law, ranging from human rights, intellectual property and natural resources to torts and criminal law.

In 1994 he was appointed Secretary-General of the Haifa-based Bahá’í International Community. In this role, which is a form of volunteer service to the community, offered without remuneration, Dr. Lincoln has been responsible for the relations between the Bahá’í World Centre and all religions and communities in Israel. Noteworthy milestones in his sixteen-year period of service include the inscription of the Bahá’í sites in Haifa and Akko on UNESCO’s prestigious World Heritage List in 2008.

Over the years Dr. Lincoln’s efforts toward achieving equality and human brotherhood have been based on a positive view of diversity. This approach has earned much recognition, as expressed in the Tolerance Medal that he received from the District Governor of the Rotary Clubs in Israel in 2004 and the Award of Merit given by the Beit Hagefen Arab-Jewish Center in 2005.

Since 2000 the Department of Middle Eastern History and the Bahá’í World Centre under Dr. Lincoln’s leadership have collaborated in a series of public lectures on the Bahá’í Faith, opening the Bahá’í Community to the general public in Israel and contributing to the bridge of understanding between religions.

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Preceding provided by the University of Haifa