Shoshana Bryen, a foreign-policy expert and longtime advocate for strong U.S.-Israel relations, died on July 16 after what her husband, Stephen Bryen, a deputy U.S. undersecretary of defense during the Reagan administration, called a “long struggle with cancer.”
She was in her early 70s.
“She was truly a woman of valor and a loving mother and grandmother,” Bryen wrote of his wife, who was born in 1953.
The Jewish Policy Center, where Bryen was senior director and editor of inFOCUS Quarterly, stated that she was the “intellectual heart” of the center and “devoted her life to the security of the Jewish people and strengthening the alliance between the United States and Israel.”
Bryen was a “leading specialist in U.S. defense policy and Middle East affairs,” the center said.
“Those who sat across the table from Shoshana will remember that she was, more often than not, the smartest person in the room but never once made anyone feel it,” the center stated. “She listened before she spoke. She gave younger colleagues room to think, and credit when they earned it.”
“Her intelligence was matched only by her generosity, and generations of analysts, officers and writers owe part of who they’ve become to her leadership,” it said.
Bryen worked at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America for 32 years, including as senior director for security policy at JINSA, and as executive director from 1981 to 1991.
“She, as much as anyone, was responsible for turning JINSA from a small think tank into the very significant face of the American Jewish community to the U.S. military that it is today,” stated Joshua Katzen, the publisher of JNS.
“She built personal relationships with dozens of U.S. generals and admirals and was a major bridge to their counterparts in the Israel Defense Forces,” added Katzen, who is also on the board of the Jewish Policy Center and is a former JINSA board member.
“We see the effects of her work now more than ever, with the cooperation between U.S. Central Command and the IDF against Iran,” he said.
The Jewish Policy Center said that Bryen “devoted herself to the security of the United States and Israel and to the strength of the Jewish people” and “mentored many and made this world better than she found it.”
It also credited her with turning inFOCUS Quarterly into “a serious and widely read journal of ideas and policy.”
“She brought clarity, conviction and a lifetime of expertise in American defense policy and Middle East affairs to everything she touched,” it said. “Her voice was fearless and unmistakable, and her insight shaped the thinking of countless colleagues, readers and leaders.”
Bryen previously worked with the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College and the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv and lectured at the National Defense University and wrote extensively over decades, the center said.
In addition to writing for publications like The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, Bryen published in JNS and was a guest on JNS podcasts.
Besides her husband, she is survived by children Gabrielle, Ari, Mollie and Sarah, as well as five grandchildren, according to the Jewish Policy Center.
