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Arizona: As Grad Student in Germany, Visiting Judaic Studies Prof Confronted SS Men
by Sheila Wilensky
 Shlomo Aronson, a political scientist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, arrived in late August as a visiting professor at the University of Arizona’s Center for Judaic Studies. “I was very much interested in the impact of the Holocaust on us Israelis,” says the author of the recently published “Hitler, the Allies and the Jews.” Already immersed in his new role, Aronson participated in a public forum, “Israel, Lebanon and a ‘New Middle East?’” presented by the UA Center for Middle Eastern Studies. In a lively debate, he repeatedly pointed out that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial policy showed that he “wanted to wipe Israel off the map.” (Arizona Jewish Post)
BGU President Aims to Attract 'Best and Brightest' to Negev
by Paula Amann
 Two days into the recent Israeli war in Lebanon, the campus where Rivka Carmi makes her professional home turned into a summer camp to house refugees from Israel's north That ability to find fascination and value in another academic's logistical headache will likely serve Rivka Carmi, who just took on the presidency of Ben-Gurion last May. With her ascent to the top leadership post at BGU, the geneticist and physician became the first woman to lead an Israeli university. "I was part of innovation in the medical school," said Carmi, citing the development of programs in community and global health. "Now I want to extend this to the entire university." (Washington Jewish Week)
Brown: Pre-Meds Land in Israel During War
by Sarah Geller
 Brown students often undertake demanding volunteer work during school vacations, but this summer Nadia Maccabee '08 and Alex Ewenczyk '08 may have ended up with more than they bargained for. The two spent the summer  working as first aid ambulance responders in Israel, and halfway through the summer they found themselves in a war zone as conflict with neighboring Lebanon exploded. As pre-med students eager to experience emergency medicine firsthand, Maccabee, Ewenczyk and their friend Addie Peretz '07 volunteered with Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross. (Brown Daily Herald)
Interdisciplinary Center: Many Israeli/Hizballah War Issues Unresolved: Cotler
by Jenny Hazan
 Canadian Liberal MP Irwin Cotler said there are many issues surrounding the Israeli-Hizballah war that have yet to be resolved. The former justice minister was speaking at a Sept. 11 to 14 conference held at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. He was on the last leg of a fact-finding mission to the Middle East. Cotler said several important aspects of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 have yet to be implemented. (Canadian Jewish News)
Georgetown: Tense Dialogue over Lebanon
by Alejandra Fuster
 There was no shortage of tension in the ICC Auditorium as Ahmed Younis, the National Director of Muslim Public Affairs, and Robert Lieber, a Georgetown professor of Government and International Affairs, squared off in a discussion entitled "Two Perspectives, One Conflict: A Dialogue on Lebanon, Israel and the Future of the Middle East." (Georgetown Voice)
Harvard: Professor Talks of Jihad - on the Battlefields and in the Classroom
by Rachel Silverman
  After producing two books, seven articles and a course that earned widespread accolades from the student body, James Russell was sure he'd be a shoe-in for tenure at Columbia University. But Russell, an expert in Armenian studies, soon learned that other factors besides the quality of his scholarship were under consideration. "Two senior professors in my department explained that I could not expect, as a Jew, to be kept as a tenured professor in the Middle East department," he said. Now, three years later, Russell, a tenured professor at Harvard University, speaks brazenly against anti-Semitism in academia. (Jewish Exponent)
Pittsburgh Clamps Down on Israel Study as JUC Leaders Balk
by Meredith Mishkin
 Rebecca Van Wagner is studying abroad at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In Tel Aviv, Toby Liss already has plans to volunteer at Tel Aviv University's Botanical Gardens. So they were appalled when Pitt's Study Abroad Office asked them to come home. "I received a phone call from the Study Abroad Office at the university, informing me that they want me to return, but at this point are not forcing me to do so or to withdraw," Van Wagner wrote in an e-mail from Jerusalem. William Brustein, the director of the Center for International Studies at Pitt, said that a student who wishes to study in Israel cannot do so as a Pitt student; he or she would have to take a leave of absence. (Pittsburgh Chronicle)
Princeton: Kurtzer Questions Iran Role in Israel-Lebanon Conflict
by Chip McCorkle
  Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt, refuted the popular theory that Iran was involved in Hizballah's actions against Israel earlier this year as "unpersuasive" in a lecture yesterday and repeated his call for the United States to withdraw troops from Iraq. Kurtzer was in Israel when fighting broke out in July. He remained for much of the conflict's duration and met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in an effort to end the hostilities. (Daily Princetonian)
Al-Qasemi: Muslims from Israel Bring Fresh Views to the Boston Hub
by Charles A. Radin
 Al Qasemi College, which was founded in 1989 as the first institute of Islamic higher education in Israel, is trying to export revolutionary openness and liberalism to the wider Islamic world, leaders of the faculty told educators, Jewish leaders, and local Muslims during a four-day visit to the Boston area that ended last week. Speaking at campuses, mosques, and the homes of Muslims, the Al Qasemi faculty said that it is time for Muslims to quit blaming others and examine their own responsibility for the troubles of Islamic civilization; time for Arab Israelis to call themselves Israelis, not Palestinians; and, above all, time for women to have full equality with men in the Muslim world. (Boston Globe)
USC: Jordan Signs Agreement to Create Middle East Cinema Institute
 King Abdullah of Jordan presided over a ceremony in New York last week to create the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts (RSICA) in Jordan's Red Sea resort town of Aqaba. The institute is a joint effort of the Royal Film Commission of Jordan and the School of Cinema-Television at USC. Jordan drew on the expertise of filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who recommended the partnership with USC, to make this project a reality. "When His Majesty the King approached me on the subject of a Jordan-based, world-class film school serving every country in the Middle East, including Israel, I immediately saw the importance and significance of such a venture," Spielberg said. Construction is set to begin in early 2007 in Aqaba, a special economic zone in Jordan on the Red Sea, bordering Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel. (PRNewswire)
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Baylor: Discussion About Middle East Conflict Turns Contentious
by Tim Woods
 A panel discussion at Baylor University about the conflict between Israel, Palestinians and Hizballah turned into a debate of sorts between two visiting professors last week. The panel featured Norton Mezvinsky, a history professor from Central Connecticut State University who has worked as a consultant in Israeli-Arab peace negotiations; Nehemia Geva, a political science professor from Texas A&M University, who was born in Israel; and William Mitchell, a Baylor political science professor. While the discussion was intended as an examination of the issues behind tensions in the region, it quickly became somewhat of a debate between Mezvinsky and Geva, providing thought-provoking material for the 100 or so Baylor students in attendance. (Waco Tribune-Herald)
Boston University - Haifa Program to Reopen for Spring Study
by Alex Taylor
  Boston University plans to resume the Haifa, Israel study abroad program this spring, despite the threat of violence in the region, according to BU and University of Haifa officials. The university suspended its fall program amid violence between Hizballah forces and the Israeli army. "We have confidence in the security measures taken by the University of Haifa," Institutional Relations Director Joe Finkhouse said. "We are optimistic that the program will run as scheduled for the spring semester, although we consider the situation very fluid and subject to change without notice." (Daily Free Press)
Columbia Drops Talk by Iranian President
by Karen W. Arenson
 A Columbia University dean invited the president of Iran to speak. He said yes. Less than 24 hours later, she withdrew the invitation. But that was long enough to throw Columbia into another Middle East-related contretemps, echoing a debate that engulfed the campus last year over issues of anti-Semitism and academic freedom. The dean, Lisa Anderson, of the School of International and Public Affairs, or SIPA, said she withdrew the invitation yesterday morning, after Columbia officials told her security and other logistics could not be arranged so quickly. (New York Times)
Gainesville State College: Israeli Hopes for Peace in Mideast
by Jeff Gill
  An Atlanta-based Israeli Consulate official told a group at Gainesville State College that he hopes for peace with Lebanon and Syria. "They're our neighbors. Who wants to be fighting with their neighbors all the time?" said Dov Wilker, the consulate's director of academic and community affairs. Wilker spoke at a public forum sponsored by the college's Politically Incorrect Club. During an hour-long presentation marked by questions from his mostly student audience, Wilker gave the history of the recent war with Lebanon, including the growing influence of the terrorist group Hizballah in south Lebanon bordering Israel. (Gainesville Times)
War Penetrates the Goucher College Bubble
by Erica Green
 Rebecca Gil '09, and Abby Berkson '09, joined about 300 students in Israel this summer in the Haifa program, studying Hebrew when the war began. Both are active members of Hillel. In addition, Gil is the founder and president of Gophers for Israel. Both understand that their obligations have implications on their politics, but express that being in the middle of the war did not deter them from understanding its complexity. Gil and Berkson said they were not informed as to what was really transpiring until about 15 minutes before the first bomb hit Northern Israel. (The Quindecim)
Rally at U.N. Draws NYU Students
by Shira Rubin
 NYU students from the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life flooded East 47th Street yesterday to promote the war against global terrorism and the role of the U.S. in attaining a real and lasting peace in the Middle East. Religious and political speakers at the four-hour rally, which drew about 25,000 people according to police estimates, emphasized the message that terrorism anywhere undermines peace everywhere. (Washington Square News)
Pittsburgh: College Students Search for Innovative Methods of Peace
by Daniel Armanios
Through a forum called Session: Middle East, founded at the University of Pittsburgh, the successes of the 1978-1979 Camp David Summit and the 1991 Madrid Conference and, yes, even the failures of Camp David II in 2000, were considered in light of current events to help promote new grassroots methods for peace. Student participants role-played not just leaders intimately involved in the conflict but also journalists, scientists, and others devoted to regional awareness and peace. Unlike other conventional simulation methods, for participants to understand the “other,” role reversals were conducted so that those holding pro-Israeli views were often asked to adopt Arab positions and vice versa. (Peace Journalism)
Purdue: Universities Ban Student Travel to Israel
by Kate DeWeese
 Since 2001, no Purdue students have had the opportunity to study abroad in Israel due to travel warnings put in place by the State Department. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, several other schools have chosen to cancel study abroad programs in Israel until the spring semester at the earliest in response to the war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hizballah, which began in mid-July when two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and eight others killed. Philip Schlossberg, executive director of the Hillel, said he finds it ridiculous that students cannot travel to Israel. "I wouldn't be recommending students (to go to Israel) over Winter Break if I didn't think it was on safe," he said. (The Exponent)
Queen's U., Canada: Volunteer Bonds with Kids in Israeli-Based Program
by Sheri Shefa
  For Kim Edwards, spending part of her summer volunteering for Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) in Israel isn’t a completely selfless act. “People have told me how I have made a difference there, but in all honesty, the children, the staff and the doctors have made a much greater impact in my life than I could have ever imagined,” Edwards said. For the past two summers, Edwards, a fourth-year psychology student at Queens University spent six weeks at a time playing, dancing, and laughing with children from all over the world who are brought to Israel through the Save a Child’s Heart program. (Canadian Jewish News)
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