Peter Haas: Chair, Department of Religion, Case Western Reserve University Tells Why He Contributes to Support ” Big Tent” Orientation of SPME To “Vent, Debate, Argue and….Learn”

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I joined SPME at around the time of its founding for one basic reason. Although it is not my area of expertise, research or publishing, I have found myself drawn more and more into teaching about the Middle East. I took on this task at first after having taught a comparative course in Western religious (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) for a number of years. I finally realized that I could not talk about these religious without addressing the current situation in the Middle East. What I experienced then, and continue to experience now, is the ongoing radical politicization of the field. While I have discovered many fine colleagues in the area who are truly scholarly and academic, I have also found way too many, in the faculty and beyond, who are not. For them, there are simple solutions to the Middle East, because there are simple causes: Western colonialism and the State of Israel. While I do not deny that colonialism and Israeli government policies can be issues of concern and debate, it is equally clear to me that the problems of the Middle East are much too complex, variegated, and deeply-rooted to make facile monochromatic solutions possible. One of the major reasons I joined SPME was to find fellow academics who share an interest in the Middle East and were committed to rational and informed discourse about the region rather than in religious or political polemics.

I have stayed with SPME these last several years because it has more often than not met my needs. It has provided me with a group of academics with whom I can correspond, vent, debate, argue and from whom I can also learn. The variety and “big tent” character of the organization is at times a source of frustration, but it is more often a source of learning and growth. It has allowed be to part of an international community of scholars with whom I can argue and disagree on one day, and yet turn to for help and support the next. This has been a wonderful gift, and is why I continue to be a part of, and active in, and contribute financially to, SPME.

Peter J. Haas
Abba Hillel Silver Professor of Jewish Studies
Chair, Department of Religious Studies
Director, The Samuel Rosenthal Center for Judaic Studies
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH 44106

It is important that everyone receiving this appeal make a contribution to SPME now. Your contribution is tax deductible according to IRS regulations as SPME is a 501(3)(c) not-for-profit educational charitable organization. A financial statement for 2006 is available from spme@spme.org . Instructions for making contributions to SPME can be found at spme.org/donation.html . Please be generous…SPME needs your help. Without you we are nothing. Thank you, in advance for your generosity.

Peter Haas: Chair, Department of Religion, Case Western Reserve University Tells Why He Contributes to Support ” Big Tent” Orientation of SPME To “Vent, Debate, Argue and….Learn”

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AUTHOR

Peter J. Haas

Abba Hillel Silver Professor of Jewish Studies

Director, The Samuel Rosenthal Center for Judaic Studies

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Ohio

Topics:

 

  • Modern History of The Middle East

 

 

  • Western Religions ( Judaism, Christianiy, Islam and their Interrelationships )

 


Read all stories by Peter J. Haas

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