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College Students, JNF to Rebuild Northern Israel
by Joseph H. Rosenberg
Although Israel's second Lebanon War  occurred more than five months ago, the Jewish homeland continues to suffer from the destruction caused by the multitude of Katyusha rockets and mortars fired last summer. In response to Northern Israel's devastation, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) is planning to assemble and send two delegations of college students, graduate students and young adults to Israel on its Northern Renewal Campaign this March. The JNF plans to send approximately 250 volunteers to sites in northern Israel that endured significant damage during the war. These young adults will help refurbish bomb shelters, plant trees in destroyed forests, upgrade parks and conduct other environmental clean-up projects. The writer is a senior at Indiana University. (Kansas City Jewish Chronicle)
The Call of Ben-Gurion
by Rachel L. Axelbank
 An Israeli university in the middle of the desert is drawing scholars away from the long-established leading institutions around the world - among them Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Ben-Gurion University holds much promise in nanotechnology and other sciences, with plans and government approval already in place for the creation of a $9.3 million advanced technology park adjacent to the university. For the fields’ leading researchers, the reasons to leave Cambridge for Be’er Sheva - where BGU was first established a mere 35 years ago - are myriad and complex. (Jewish Advocate)
Boston: Media Experts Convene to Discuss how Mideast War is Waged in the Blogosphere
  Participants of the 7th Annual Herzliya Conference on the Balance of Israel's National Security, entitled "The Media as a Theater of War, the Blogosphere, and the Global Battle for Civil Society," examined the national security lessons for Israel and the West to be gained from recent incidents of the use and misuse of the media in war. Initiated by noted historian Boston University Professor Richard Landes, the conference attracted hundreds of visitors to the Daniel Hotel in Herzliya last week. Landes, a medievalist by training, has turned his attention in recent years to analyzing how the media is serving as a modern battlefield in the clash of civilizations. (Israel Insider)
Emory Professor Urges Center to Cut Ties with Carter
by Ernie Suggs
 Writing to Carter Center Executive Director John Hardman to decline a position on an advisory panel, Melvin Konner also offered a piece of advice. "If you want The Carter Center to survive and thrive independently in the future, you must take prompt and decisive steps to separate the center from President Carter's now irrevocably tarnished legacy," wrote Konner, adding that the center has to make it clear that, on matters of the Middle East and the Jewish community, Carter does not speak for the institution. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Harvard: Iran Accused of Incitement to Genocide
by Sheri Shefa
  Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz drew a capacity crowd of 3,000 to the Truth, Light and Freedom Rally at Beth Tzedec Synagogue in Toronto last week to speak about the danger Iran poses to Israel and the rest of the world. Speaking in response to the recent Holocaust denial conference in Iran and Iran’s goal to develop nuclear weapons, Dershowitz, an outspoken defender of Israel, said that although Holocaust denial is about the past, it is used to influence the present and the future. “The purpose of Holocaust denial is to delegitimate Israel, to demonize Jews and to legitimate attacks on Israel and attacks on Jews,” Dershowitz said. (Canadian Jewish News)
Rutgers: Muslim, Jewish College Students Offer Hope for Peace in Middle East
by Debra Rubin
 Danielle Josephs, a Jewish senior from Teaneck, and Nadia Sheikh, a sophomore Muslim from Weehawken - came at the invitation of the synagogue, which had collected toys for a drive sponsored by the women of Coexistence House. They were distributed to children affected by the recent war in Israel through the Jewish Agency for Israel and in Lebanon by the Islamic Relief. Both women spoke of coming to the realization that interfaith dialogue and understanding were the only solutions if the people of the Middle East were ever to live in peace. (New Jersey Jewish News)
Vietnam Farm Universities in Israel Tie-Up
 Two universities in northern Vietnam signed an agreement last week with an Israeli training center to send students for an agricultural course in Israel. The Ha Tay College of Agriculture and Nam Dinh Water Resources University will each send at least 10 students every year to the International Agricultural Training Center for a 11-month course. Besides lectures the students will also have the benefit of meeting and working with experts in farms. (Thanh Nien)
Yale: Opening the Ivy Doors
by Steve Lipan
 A few days before Iran opened its controversial conference debating the historical accuracy of the Holocaust, Guy Raz, a correspondent for National Public Radio, discussed media coverage of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel activities. Weaving together personal anecdotes and archival research, playing sound clips from a laptop computer on the podium and answering questions from the audience, he surveyed media perceptions of anti-Semitism from World War II and the Holocaust until 9/11 and Israel’s recent war in Lebanon. His speech marked the final public event of the first semester of The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism, a research center that bills itself as the first such university-based program in North America. (Jewish Week)
German School Children Learn About Israel
by Oliver Bradley
 The Israeli embassy in Berlin, in cooperation with several regional culture ministries, has completed a series of seminars in schools throughout Germany. The “Project Days - Getting to Know Israel Differently” aimed to give school children and teachers further insight into Israel from an Israeli perspective. Almost 1,500 children and teachers attended the Project Days hosted by the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart (Baden-Wuerttemberg), the Technical University of Chemnitz (Saxony) and the Wilhelm-Loehe-School in Nuremberg (Bavaria). (European Jewish Press)
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Brandeis Group Pursues Carter Visit
by Marcella Bombardieri
 President Jimmy Carter may yet come to Brandeis University to speak about his controversial new book about Israel - and even get the stage to himself. Some professors are planning to craft a new invitation to Carter to give a lecture without having to debate an opponent. The former president said he declined an invitation to Brandeis because of the string attached. President Jehuda Reinharz, at a trustee's suggestion, invited Carter to campus to debate "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" with a vehement critic of the book, Alan Dershowitz, a professor at Harvard Law School. Carter said Dershowitz knows nothing about the situation in Palestine. (Boston Globe)
Israel's Kollek, a Friend to BYU, Dies
by Carrie A. Moore
  Brigham Young University's Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies, now located on the Mount of Olives, would probably not exist "in its present form or place without Teddy Kollek's help and encouragement," according to David Galbraith, former director of the center. Kollek, who served six terms as mayor and became known as "Mr. Jerusalem," died Tuesday morning at age 95. (Deseret News)
Denver: Academic Addresses 'Triple Threat' to Israel in '07
by Rick Hellman
 Communist China and the former Soviet Union are the focus of Prof. Jonathan Adelman's academic specialty, and their interests still play roles in the Middle East drama, the professor noted, as he elucidated the "triple threats" of his lecture title. "First and most obvious is the Islamic Republic of Iran," Adelman said. "The U.N. sanctions, thanks to Russia and China, are very weak. We can't even agree on whether the 23 companies involved in the nuclear program get light sanctions or heavy sanctions. And we don't go to the heart of the issue, sanctions on Iran itself." (Kansas City Jewish Chronicle)
Harvard Students to Study in Israel
by Itamar Eichner
Harvard University, one of the top ranked universities in the world, will allow students to study abroad in Israel, according to Israeli Gove rnment Secretary Yisrael Maimon. Maimon revealed that Harvard University recently established a new program, in conjunction with Hebrew University in Jerusalem and MASA, which will go into effect this year. The program will allow dozens of Harvard students to study in Israel and receive formal credit from Harvard for courses done abroad. (Ynet News)
Leeds, UK: British University Union Votes to Gag Jewish Society
by Jonny Paul
 The student union at a prominent British university has voted to gag the Jewish Society from complaining against an increasingly intense anti-Israel campaign by the university's Palestinian society. The student union at the University of Leeds, home of a large Jewish student population, voted on a motion proposed by the Palestinian Solidarity Group to ignore complaints by the Jewish Society "as long as Judaism as a faith is not offended." (Jerusalem Post)
USC: Jewish and Muslim Students Share Dorm and Friendships
by Nick Street
 At a time when Jews and Muslims in other parts of the world aren't having much luck learning from one another, the setting for it at USC's Parkside Apartments are both quietly revolutionary. Here Jewish and Muslim students live together in harmony. Rabbi Susan Laemmle, dean of Religious Life at USC, says the name "Shalom Housing" came to her when she was head of USC Hillel. Several students had sought her advice about finding a way to keep kosher while living on campus. Soon after Laemmle moved to become dean, a group of Muslim students enlisted her help with a similar project. "The Muslim wing is more international," she said, "and it has more guys. There are more girls on the Jewish wing." There are 50 students on the coed floor. (Jewish Journal)
Yeshiva: U.S. Students in Israel Respond to Call for Blood Donations
 Yeshiva University in Israel responded immediately to the urgent appeal made this week by Magen David Adom for blood donations. The University will be sponsoring three blood donation opportunities in Jerusalem and Haifa for YU students and faculty in cooperation with the MDA. Scores of people are expected to participate. (Ynet News)
Student: I Feel Israel Is My Home
by Yaakov Lappin
 Jewish students from around the world met in Beer Sheva on Monday, the second day of the conference of the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS). For some of the students, it was their first time in Israel, and many were excited to visit a country where they felt they were "part of the majority," as one student from Australia told Ynetnews. (Ynet News)
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