2008 Woodie Awards
FROM THE DESK OF THE EXECUTIVE EDITOR: The Grass is Greener on...?
Ari Fridman
Issue date: 3/8/05 Section: Editorials/Op-Ed
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As Jehuda Reinharz, president of Brandeis University, watched Middle East departments at other American universities selfishly slug out their own political agendas rather than pursue a greater understanding of the Middle East, he conceived of a new kind of Middle East study center. "We need a first-rate center for Middle East studies that is not pro or con anything," Reinharz told The Jerusalem Post in a recent interview.
Brandeis's new Crown Center for Middle East Studies, principally funded by the Crown family of Chicago, will boast endowed chairs in Israel studies, Islamic studies, Arab politics and possibly Turkish studies. The center's modus operandus, according to Reinharz and Brandeis officials, is to create an institution impartial to political allegiances of the Middle East-specifically those Arab and Israeli, and to study the broader Middle East in context, not just the Arab-Israeli conflict that dominates departments of other universities.
Brandeis's welcome move coincides with the controversy rocking Columbia University's Middle East studies department, which has come under national scrutiny over alleged anti-Israel rhetoric by department professors, as well as student claims of intimidation against those professors. While Israel supporters have privately accused Columbia's Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures department of promoting an anti-Israel agenda, the most recent charges were publicly exposed in a documentary film titled "Columbia Unbecoming," produced by a Boston-based Israel advocacy group, The David Project. Adding to the tension, Jewish alumni of Columbia have threatened to cease their financial support of the university if "free speech" is not restored to its classrooms, while the accused professors have denied the intimidation charges. All this has caused President Lee Bollinger to set up a committee charged with investigating accusations of professorial intimidation by MEALAC students.
As Columbia struggles to rectify a predicament that promises no obvious end in sight, Brandeis has clearly taken a wise step toward promoting a more fair and balanced approach to academic study of the Middle East. Instead of a forum for professors to launch polemical debate, the Crown Center pledges to steer clear of the heated atmosphere that has, for example, plagued Columbia's department. Brandeis also hopes to temper student biases in the classroom. Pressed on the question of whether students, apart from their teachers, also have a tendency to turn classroom discussions political, Shai Feldman, formerly of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, and now director of the Crown Center, told the Post, "I wouldn't exclude the possibility of students trying to pull presenters in a polemical direction," but "serious people (the center's professors) will resist that pull."
Brandeis's new Crown Center for Middle East Studies, principally funded by the Crown family of Chicago, will boast endowed chairs in Israel studies, Islamic studies, Arab politics and possibly Turkish studies. The center's modus operandus, according to Reinharz and Brandeis officials, is to create an institution impartial to political allegiances of the Middle East-specifically those Arab and Israeli, and to study the broader Middle East in context, not just the Arab-Israeli conflict that dominates departments of other universities.
Brandeis's welcome move coincides with the controversy rocking Columbia University's Middle East studies department, which has come under national scrutiny over alleged anti-Israel rhetoric by department professors, as well as student claims of intimidation against those professors. While Israel supporters have privately accused Columbia's Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures department of promoting an anti-Israel agenda, the most recent charges were publicly exposed in a documentary film titled "Columbia Unbecoming," produced by a Boston-based Israel advocacy group, The David Project. Adding to the tension, Jewish alumni of Columbia have threatened to cease their financial support of the university if "free speech" is not restored to its classrooms, while the accused professors have denied the intimidation charges. All this has caused President Lee Bollinger to set up a committee charged with investigating accusations of professorial intimidation by MEALAC students.
As Columbia struggles to rectify a predicament that promises no obvious end in sight, Brandeis has clearly taken a wise step toward promoting a more fair and balanced approach to academic study of the Middle East. Instead of a forum for professors to launch polemical debate, the Crown Center pledges to steer clear of the heated atmosphere that has, for example, plagued Columbia's department. Brandeis also hopes to temper student biases in the classroom. Pressed on the question of whether students, apart from their teachers, also have a tendency to turn classroom discussions political, Shai Feldman, formerly of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, and now director of the Crown Center, told the Post, "I wouldn't exclude the possibility of students trying to pull presenters in a polemical direction," but "serious people (the center's professors) will resist that pull."