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Top 10 Amazing Facts about Immanuel Velikovsky

Immanuel Velikovsky at the 1974 AAAS Conference in San Francisco.

Immanuel Velikovsky was a Jewish, Russian-American psychoanalyst, writer, and catastrophist.

He is the author of several books offering pseudohistorical interpretations of ancient history. 

They include the U.S. bestseller Worlds in Collision published in 1950.

Velikovsky’s work is frequently cited as a canonical example of pseudoscience.

It has also been used as an example of the demarcation problems. Let’s take a look at some of the top amazing facts about him;

1. He was born to a Lithuanian Jewish Family in Russia

Immanuel Velikovsky was born in 1895 to a prosperous Lithuanian Jewish family in Vitebsk, Russia (now in Belarus).

The son of Shimon (Simon Yehiel) Velikovsky (1859–1937) and Beila Grodensky, he learned several languages as a child.

He was also sent away to study at the Medvednikov Gymnasium in Moscow, where he performed well in Russian and mathematics.

2. He Learned and Received Various Academic Degrees from Universities across Europe

He graduated with a gold medal in Mathematics in 1913.

He then travelled to Europe and visited Palestine before briefly studying medicine at Montpellier in France. 

He took premedical courses at the University of Edinburgh.

When he returned to Russia before the outbreak of World War I, he enrolled in the University of Moscow and received a medical degree in 1921.

3. His wife Elisheva Kramerin died in 1983 aged 87

Velikovsky married Elisheva Kramerin on 15th April 1923 in a beautiful wedding in Berlin, Germany. 

Elisheva Kramer was born on 27 July 1895, in Hamburg, Germany, to George Tuvia Kramer and his mother, Fanny Schur. 

The two were blessed with two daughters. Their first daughter Shulamit Velikovsky Kogan was born in 1925.

Their second daughter Ruth Ruhama Velikovsky Sharon was born in 1926.

She died on 24 June 1983, in New Jersey, United States, at the age of 87, and was buried in B’nai Israel Memorial Park, in New Jersey, United States.

4. He Initially Practised Medicine

Velikovsky lived in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1924 to 1939, practising medicine. 

He practised it in the fields of general practice, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis which he had studied under Sigmund Freud’s pupil Wilhelm Stekel in Vienna.

During this time, he had about a dozen papers published in medical and psychoanalytic journals.

He was also published in Freud’s Imago, including a precocious analysis of Freud’s dreams. 

5. He was a Passionate Zionist

Velikovsky was a passionate Zionist and it steered the focus of his work, although its scope was considerably more far-reaching than this. 

The entire body of work could be said to stem from an attempt to solve the following problem:

To Velikovsky there appeared to be an insufficient correlation between the written and archaeological records.

Records of Biblical history and what was known of the history of the area, in particular, Egypt. 

Velikovsky searched for common mention of events within literary records, and in the Ipuwer Papyrus. 

He believed he had found a contemporary Egyptian account of the Plagues of Egypt.

Moreover, he interpreted both accounts as descriptions of a great natural catastrophe.

6. His Net Worth was around $1.5 Million 

Velikovsky’s net worth was around $1.5 million was one of the richest Psychologists & listed as the most popular Psychologist. 

He used ancient works of literature, including the Old Testament;

To theorize that Earth had endured catastrophic close contact with planets like Venus and Mars in the distant past.

He got most of his fortune from the sale of his works in books. 

The controversial psychologist and scholar were known for his reinterpretations of historical events.

His book, Worlds in Collision, was published in 1950 and was a bestseller in the US.

7. His Theories were Ignored and Vigorously Rejected

Velikovsky’s theories have been ignored or vigorously rejected by the academic community.

Nonetheless, his books often sold well and gained enthusiastic support in lay circles, often fuelled by claims of unfair treatment for Velikovsky by orthodox academia.

The controversy surrounding his work and its reception is often referred to as “the Velikovsky affair”.

He proposed a revised chronology for ancient Egypt, Greece, Israel, and other cultures of the ancient Near East.

The revised chronology aimed at explaining the so-called “dark age” of the eastern Mediterranean (c. 1100–750 BC). 

He also thought of reconciling biblical history with mainstream archaeology and Egyptian chronology.

8. He was a Citizen of both Russia, USA and Israel 

Born in Vitebsk, then the Russian empire to Jewish parents Velikovsky grew up in Russia. 

Velikovsky then travelled to Europe and visited Palestine.

He then briefly studied medicine at Montpellier in France and took premedical courses at the University of Edinburgh.

He returned to Russia before the outbreak of World War I, enrolled in the University of Moscow, and received a medical degree in 1921.

In 1939, with the prospect of war looming, Velikovsky travelled with his family to New York City, intending to spend a sabbatical year researching for his book Oedipus and Akhenaton.

He travelled to Israel and was part of the team which founded the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  

9. The Hostility Towards His Work came to be known as the Velikovsky Affair

This rejection and hostility framed the discussion in terms of how academic disciplines reacted to ideas from workers from outside their field.

It was also claimed that there was an academic aversion to permitting people to cross inter-disciplinary boundaries.

The scientific press, in general, denied Velikovsky a forum to rebut his critics. He claimed that this made him a “suppressed genius”. 

He likened himself to the 16th-century heretical friar Giordano Bruno, who was burnt at the stake for his beliefs.

10. He died Aged 84 on 17th Nov 1979

He died in Princeton, New Jersey aged 84 years old on the 17th of November 1979.

He suffered from diabetes and intermittent depression.

His daughter said may have been exacerbated by the academic establishment’s continuing rejection of his work. 

He left behind his two daughters, Shulamit Kogan, of Israel, and ruth Sharon of Princeton, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

His works have since earned world recognition over the years. 

Though rejected by mainstream historians, these ideas have been developed by other historians such as David Rohl and Peter James. 

They have also attempted their revised chronologies using some concepts from his works.