BOSTON CELEBRATES ISRAEL
14
MAY 6, 2011 THE JEWISH ADVOCATE
Boston
Celebrates Israel
A Brandeis center becomes
go-to place about Jewish state
Schusterman draws scholars from around globe
By Leah Burrows
Advocate Staff
Transmitting the love of Israel
to the next generation...
Happy Birthday, Israel
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8th Grade Students on Schechter’s Israel Study Tour
Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Boston
60 Stein Circle | Newton, MA 02459
© 2011
On a sunny Friday morning,
in a bright conference room on
Brandeis University’s campus,
something strange happened.
A group of about 20 people,
young and old, conservative and
liberal, American and Israeli,
Jewish and Christian, gathered
around a table, ate egg salad
sandwiches and talked about Israel. Civilly.
There was no eye rolling,
mumbling, pointed political
comments or gotcha questions.
It was simply a group of students and professors, trying to
understand a country.
And it was a typical afternoon
at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, the largest academic resource of its kind outside of
Israel.
Last summer, the center
moved to the third floor of the
$22.5 million Mandel building,
the university’s new home for
the humanities.
In addition to housing the offices of some faculty and staff,
the center also displays the work
of Israeli artists and maintains a
small library of scholarly books
about Israel.
Founded in 2007 by a Schusterman Family Foundation grant,
the center is a hub for Israel research, not only for the Brandeis
campus, but for scholars worldwide. Since it opened, the center
has been visited by professors
from more than 160 universities.
The center runs programs,
hosts lectures, produces a scholarly journal and provides funding for the study of Israeli politics, history, culture and art.
Unlike an academic department, the Schusterman center
does not offer regular classes. Instead, the center serves as a
meeting point, helping scholars
and students develop contacts
and tap resources.
It offers conferences that help
professors from other universities learn how to establish their
own Israel studies departments
or classes.
It also runs a fellowship program, Schusterman Scholars,
which supports about a dozen
Brandeis doctoral students from
such departments as sociology,
anthropology, political science
and Near Eastern Studies. Their
dissertation topics range from Israeli hiking trails to Palestinian
theater to Russian Zionism.
If it has to do with Israel,
there is probably a place for it at
PHOTO BY MIKE LOVETT, BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
Director Ilan Troen, center, with Schusterman Scholars Ofir
Abu (left) and Zeynep Civcik
the Schusterman center – with
one exception.
“There are those who may
think we engage in advocacy, but
that’s not true,” said Ilan Troen,
who has been the center’s director since it opened. “Within the
camp of those who engage in Israel studies are people of every
perspective that one can imagine.”
The center has sponsored
‘There are those who
may think we engage
in advocacy, but
that’s not true.’
Ilan Troen,
Schusterman Center director
such speakers as embattled
South African jurist Richard
Goldstone, Israeli opposition
leader Tzipi Livni, New York
Times journalist Ethan Bronner
and the best-selling Israeli author Amos Oz.
The Schusterman scholars,
who fall across the political spectrum, share a network of gray cubicles in the center’s office at the
Mendel Center at Brandeis. Conservatives and liberals not only
sit next to each other, but help
one another with research and
dissertations.
“Most of us have internalized
the idea that there is a place for
advocacy,” said Shay Rabineau,
a third-year Schusterman fellow. “But when we are in that
office, we approach [Israel] as
academics.”
Biweekly seminars for fellows
and professors, held Friday afternoons over lunch, have featured
lectures on Israeli democracy,
politics and history.
Even when people disagree,
Rabineau said, they do so respectfully. “There is passion, not
anger. People can say what they
want without feeling attacked.”
Rabineau, and other fellows,
attribute that atmosphere of acceptance to the center’s director.
“I’ve been Professor Troen’s
[teacher’s assistant] for two semesters and when people sit in
his class, he doesn't show his
hand,” Rabineau, 30, said. “They
don’t know where he stands …
in his class, any viewpoint is
OK.”
Troen is a Boston native and
an alumnus of both Brandeis
and Hebrew College. He traveled to Israel as a young man
and fell in love with the country.
After earning a doctorate in
history at the University of Chicago, Troen made aliyah in 1975. “I
wanted to be part of the most
significant story in Jewish history
in last century,” he said.
As a professor at Ben Gurion
University, Troen pioneered the
field of Israel studies, creating
classes, curriculum and petitioning the department to offer its
first degree in the subject.
Since that first degree, the academic study of Israel has grown
exponentially on campuses
throughout the world.
While at Ben Gurion 16 years
ago, Troen founded the journal
Israel Studies to cover the new
field. Now based at the Schusterman center, the journal circulates at 2,000 university libraries.
Continued on next page
BOSTON CELEBRATES ISRAEL
THE JEWISH ADVOCATE MAY 6, 2011
Scholars promote civil dialogue on Israel
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Continued from Page 14
Over the last four years, the
center has widened its scope
beyond the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict and international politics to include the humanities
and social sciences. It covers
Oz as well as Rabin, just as a
Russian studies program may
cover Tolstoy as well as Gorbachev.
“Because people are coming
in from all different disciplines,
each one with a different
method, you become exposed
to different ways of thinking,”
said Joseph Ringel, a Schusterman
scholar
studying
Sephardic Judaism in Israel.
The scholars also bring varied personal backgrounds. Although the fellows are primarily Jewish, they include Christians and Muslims as well.
“We all have different backgrounds,” said Ringel, who is
also studying to be a rabbi at
Yeshiva University, “but we are
all interested in exploring what
Israel is all about. That’s part of
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The Schusterman Center’s new home at the Mandel Center
for the Humanities at Brandeis University
scholarship, the search of
truth. It’s not about imposing
your own belief system, it’s
about learning.”
Schusterman scholars say
they hope to change the tone
of the debate over Israel.
“This is an important model
for other campuses,” said
Rachel Fish, a fourth-year
scholar. “The more knowledge
students have about Israel the
greater the chance you have for
students from a variety of positions to understand the state
and the challenges that face it.”
Beat of Israel to replace CJP festival this year
New England Celebrates Israel will not be
held this year. Instead, Combined Jewish Philanthropies will be sponsoring the Beat of Israel, an afternoon of music and dance for families with children ages 5 to 10.
The event will take place June 12, from 1 to
3 p.m., at Congregation Mishkan Tefila in
Chestnut Hill. It will feature music by Mama
Doni Band and Yom Hadash; Israeli dancing;
face-painting; and Israeli food.
In past years, CJP has mounted a festival
with booths representing Jewish organizations;
music; and camel rides. Citing staff changes,
CJP said it didn’t have time to organize New
England Celebrates Israel this year.
For more information on the Beat of Israel,
call 617-457-8782.
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Spaces still available
SHAS Summer Program
June 27-August 5 (for ages 21 mos.-6 years)
Outdoor fun, water play, art, music, sports, AC inside
Pick your days and pick your weeks
NEW FAMILY DISCOUNTS
(contact Anne or Suellen: summer@striarhebrew.org)
Mazal Tov to our 6th Grade
Graduates 2011/5771
Micah Beiser
David Lutati
Jakob Diamond Adam Greene
Shira Ellenbogen Zevi Traum
Yonatan Diamond
Elisheva Goldman
Shoshana Massefski
Jacob Kosowsky
SHAS 6th graders visiting author Lois
Lowry at her Cambridge home.
www.striarhebrew.org
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