First Faculty Fellowship Summer Institute in Israel Program A Success

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Following a competitive blind review selection process of over 200 applicants, 15 faculty members from the USA, Canada, Korea and the United Kingdom were selected to participate in the first Faculty Fellowship Summer Institute in Israel June 16-27, 2008.

Partnering with SPME to offer this Institute were Jewish National Fund, MediaWatch-International and Bar-Ilan University, Ben-Gurion University, Haifa University, Hebrew University, Interdisciplinary Center at Herzlyia, and the Technion. The Fellowship was funded with the generous support of the Legacy Heritage Fund.

Fellows attending the first Institute were:

*Timothy Bakken, Law, United States Military Academy
* Elizabeth DePoy and Stephen Gilson, Disability Studies and Social Work, University of Maine
*Howard Kahn, Managmenet and Languages, Heriot Watt University, Scotland
*Chae Young Kim, Religious Studies, Sogang University
*Alan Levine, Medicine, Case Western Reserve University
*Jingbo Liu, Chemistry, University of Texas A&M
*Louis Lyons, Physics, Imperial College-London
*Miscusi Giandomenico, Medicine, University of Rome Medical School
*Ronald Seivert, International Affairs and Law, Bush School of Government, Texas A&M
*Carol Tosone, Social Work, New York University
*Marshall Walker, Mathematics/Statistics, York University
*Merilyn Weisblott, Entertainment Management, York University
*Maurice Woodard, Political Science, Howard University
*Suisheng “Sam” Zhao, International Studies, University of Denver
*Martin Zwick, Systems Science, Portland State University.

Selected for the program, but unable to attend because of the flooding situation in her area was Judy Polumbaum, Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa.

Ed Beck, Laureate Professor, School of Counseling and Social Service, Walden University and President of SPME, who along with Judith Jacobson of Columbia University and Peter Haas of Case Western Reserve University represented SPME on the selection committee, also accompanied the Fellows on this firt Faculty Fellowship in Israel Summer Institute. Also companying the Fellows were the Institute’s Program Director Alicia Post of Jewish National Fund and Sherri Morr of Jewish National Fund. Batya Cohen, a second year medical student at University of Chicago from Israel was the tour guide. Also meeting with the Fellows was Russell Robinson Executive Director of the Jewish National Fund.

Program participants met with colleagues at many of the universities listed to discuss ways of initiating collaborative research and academic programs. The group met all together at Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University and Ben Gurion University where not only some of them meet with colleagues, but they were briefed by University administrators.

The group was also briefed by journalists, government ministers, politicians and expert analysts from across political and ideological perspectives. They also visited Christian and Jewish holy sites throughout Jerusalem and the Galilee, visited the Northern Boarder with Lebanon and the town of Sderot and the collection of over 5000 exploded rocket shells are stored and dated as a result of the shellings from Gaza. They also toured and met with community members Nitzan, the village where the residents of Gaza have been relocated since the unilateral disengagement from Gaza.

FF2Israel Professor Marshall Walker, Professor of Mathematics and Statistics and School of Information Technology, York University, Toronto, Canada has offered to help SPME with forming a Chapter at York University and commented on the Program: “…This trip was for me a life-time best – the political commentary – gut level understanding of the geography – these were the highlights for me…Finally – the lasting impressions are sufficiently strong that I have been inspired to learn Hebrew….”

Professor Ron Sievert, Professor of Law at the Bush School of Government Program in International Affairs and Law returned back to campus and reported that he shared his observations with students and met with a number of government agency associated businessmen in the Austin area to share his impressions and new understandings.

Fellow Professor Tim Bakken, Professor of Law at the United States Military Academy expressed his reactions to the Program as follows:

“…it was one of the most enriching professional experiences of my life.… what the Fellows learned will percolate for years. The Institute is probably a bit like the academic world: that is, academics plunge into something like the Institute or a project–their equivalent of risk-taking–without being sure of what, if anything, will be produced, always with the hope and intention of doing excellent work or great things. I am confident that the Institute will result in a lot of great things, but who knows what that result will be or how long that will take?….I developed friendships and collaborations that will last a lifetime and had an experience that will enrich my teaching, service and scholarship at West Point and in my career. From the Institute, I trust I will be able to help my cadets be better and to contribute in my own way to peace in the Middle East and beyond….”

From Chae Kim, Chair of Religious Studies at Sogang University Korea, an FF2Israel Fellow:

“…It made me rethink alot about the Jewish way of life in such a suffering time but always with hope…Above all I would like to express my appreciationa of your such wonderful and humane passion and vision for peace in the earth. I came to see your deep touch and vison in whatever and wherever I hear your talks. This trip is giving me an good vision for me to understand the human world,especially the Middle East. I will try to extend more rooms to hear about Israel issues, especially in my academic works and meetings. Once again I do not forget my memories of persons, natures and events and so on…in Israel….”

From Fellows Liz DePoy and Stephen Gilson, University of Maine:

“…As you know, Stephen and I have put most of our time into meeting with colleagues and developing proposals for sustained funding. I applied because of the potential for this trip to kickstart a long-term collaboration with Israeli scholars and to meet an interdisciplinary faculty with similar aims. Because this area was my passion, I contacted people and exchanged scholarship way in advance of the trip, as well as made friendships and work contacts with people on the trip. Stephen had not been to Israel so his interest was in getting a broad picture of the country….”

Fellow Martin Zwick of Portland State University writes:

“… the FFSII program was absolutely wonderful, and the extra week that I stayed allowed me several additional and valuable professional interactions…My Israel experience was very rich in so many ways. I felt significantly informed about Israel’s current political situation from many perspectives, about its history both recent and in the distant past, and about the land, its special sites and different places. I encountered aspects of Israeli social and cultural life that were new to me. I learned about higher education in Israel, its impressive achievements and its current problems. I enjoyed meeting many people from different walks of life and having different views and concerns. In general, I loved the intensity and the intrinsic meaningfulness of life in Israel…[The trip] deepened and broadened and became grounded in more concrete realities…

…My discussions with Israeli colleagues were interesting and valuable, and I have been in contact with several of them after my trip. Many many thanks to FFSII for making these interactions possible…It was great meeting and spending time with you, and again, many many thanks for this wonderful opportunity that SPME and JNF provided me and the other fellows…

I have long been a strong supporter of Israel, but I would say that the experiential/factual basis for this support was thin. Visiting Sderot and the border with Lebanon where the soldiers were kidnapped, seeing again the very narrow waist of Israel and the wall/fence that has helped security, etc., made my appreciation of Israel’s situation more grounded. Other experiences in my stay in Israel after the program reinforced my understanding. Only 45 minutes after the event, I was on the very road where the Palestinian tractor driver killed several people. I had to very hurriedly partially empty my suitcase when it did not fit into the x-ray machine at the Jerusalem bus station. I saw the bomb shelters that my cousin and a friend in Haifa used during the Lebanon war. My support for Israel had been abstract, and this visit made it more concrete. Also, though I have long been aware that there is a wide spectrum of political views in Israel, there is nothing like hearing different views actually expressed, and feeling humanly connected with people having different perspectives. I gained a deeper appreciation of the complexity of the situation that Israel faces…Someone to whom I described the program said it sounded like a ‘once in a lifetime experience’! While I must admit to hoping for many more experiences of similar richness and intensity, this does capture the exceptional nature of this program….

Both SPME President Ed Beck and FF2Israel Program Director Alicia Post expressed their overall satisfaction commenting that the partner groups hope to build on this year’s participants’ feedback to build this Fellowship Program into hopefully yearly Fellowship offering to bring interdisciplinary faculty from around the world to Israel to work with colleagues and to emerge themselves in the cultural while developing collaborative relations with Israeli colleagues.

SPME would also like to extend thanks to Sharon Tzur of MediaWatch International whose shared vision with SPME and JNF and whose energetic and effective efforts to provide the funds, resources and staff support for this important initiative were critical to this program’s existence and success.

No less important and without whose cooperation in this initial venture contributed to its success, SPME would would like to thank the administrations and faculty members of each of the Israeli universities who participated in this first time venture and extended themselves to our Fellows. These included ( with apologies to any who may have been inadvertantly omitted):

*Prof. Haim Rabinovich, Rector, Hebrew University* Prof. Avraham Sela, Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace* Prof. Gail Auslander* Dr. Dan Avnon* Prof. Hagit Messer-Raron, Vice President for Research and Development and Raanan Rein, Vice Rector, Tel Aviv University(TAU)* Prof. Daphne Barak–Erez, Law Faculty, TAU* Prof. Tamie Ronen, Social Work, TAU* Dr. Ron Margolin, Philosophy, TAU* Prof. Emanuel Peled, Chemistry, TAU* Prof. Yaron Oz, Astronomy and Physics, TAU* Prof. Ruth Shaigi, Medicine, TAU* Itay Harlap, Film and Televisin, TAU* Gideon Doron, Political Science, TAU* Prof. Arnon Lotem, Zoology, TAU* Etti Mond, Development and Public Affairs, TAU* Prof. Mina Westman, Management, TAU* Prof. Zvi Zeiger and Michael Krivelevich, Mathematics* Prof. Bash, VP Research, Bar-Ilan University (BIU)* Dr. Dan Katcoff, Life Sciences, BIU* Prof. Chaya Schwartz, Nachmi Baum and Leora Findler, Social Work, BIU* Ruth Cohen, Public Relations, BIU* Boaz Ganor, Institute of Counter Terrorism and Dean of Psychology, BIU* Barry Rubin and Eric Zimmerman, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzilya (IDC)*Shlomo Shertok, Vice Rector, Ben GUrion University (BGU)* Prof. Orit Nuttman-Schwartz, Social Work, Sapir College, Sderot and BGU,

Fellows also met with and were brief by:

Mark Regev, Prime Minister’s Office, Foreigh Press Advisor; Meir Ben Dov, archeologist and author, Historical Atlas of Jerusalem (2002); Khaled Abu Toameh, Journalist for the Jerusalem Post and US News and World Report; Gideon Litchfield, Journalist for Israel and the Palestinian Territories for The Economist; Eetta Prince-Gibson, Editor-in-Chief, Jerusalem Report; Talia Peled Keinanz, Channel 10 News;Contemporary film makers, writers, Tamar Yarom, Nitzan Giladi, and Etgar Keret; Brig. Gen. Ephraim Sneh (ret.) former Deputy Minister of Defense and Minister of Transportation and head of Israel Hazaka Party; Effie Eitam, Member of the Knesset (MK), National Religious Party Chairman; Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Ha’aretz Correspondents and co-authors of The Seventh War: How We Won and Why We Lost the War With the Palestinians (2004, revised 2005) and 34 Days: Israel, Hezbollah and the War in Lebanon (2008); Composer/musician Yoel Ben-Simhon; Ronit Tirosh, MK, Kadima Party and member Committee on Education, Culture and Sports; Rabbi Michael Melchiore, MK, Labour Party, Chair, Education, Culture and Sports Committee; Daniel Ben-Simon, until recently a journalist with Haaretz, who resigned to become a candidate to be a Member of the Knessett, Labor Party, Judith Werchow, rabbinical student, Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and Mercaz Ma’aseh (IsraCorps), Ido Aharoni, Israel Assistant Foreign Minister and local officials from Sderot on the day the “cease fire” with Hamas began.

Finally and with ongoing gratitude, SPME also extends profound thanks to Rabbi Dr. Eric Lankin, Chief of Institutional Advancement and Education at JNF, who has championed SPME’s efforts from our very beginnings and without whose support, friendship and guidance, SPME might not have been able to engage in this wonderful and important partnership and series of experience for the Faculty Fellows Summer Institute in Israel program.

First Faculty Fellowship Summer Institute in Israel Program A Success

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Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) is not-for-profit [501 (C) (3)], grass-roots community of scholars who have united to promote honest, fact-based, and civil discourse, especially in regard to Middle East issues. We believe that ethnic, national, and religious hatreds, including anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism, have no place in our institutions, disciplines, and communities. We employ academic means to address these issues.

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