THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
12 Friday, September 25, 19131
M.E. Study Programs at U.S. Colleges Downplay Israel, Hebrew'
NEW YORK (JTA) —
Middle East studies pro-
grams in American univer-
sities tend to focus primar-
ily on Arab nations and lan-
guages and to downplay Is-
IS MIAMI BEACH'S NUMBER
Schiff, who recently com-
pleted a survey of Middle
East studies centers at
seven universities — Uni-
versity of California at Ber-
keley, University of
California at Los Angeles,
Columbia University, Uni-
versity of Michigan, Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania and
the Princeton University-
New York University Joint
Center for Near Eastern
Studies — made his re-
marks at a news conference
introducing his just-
published report on the
study.
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program development and
executive assistant to the
president of the Academy
for Educational Develop-
ment, patterns of federal
funding are in part respon-
sible for these tendencies.
The academy is a non-profit
educational research and
consulting organization.
rael and the Hebrew lan-
guage, according to a spe-
cialist in education and in-
ternational affairs.
Moreover, declares Dr.
Gary Schiff, director for
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The conference was
held at the national
headquarters of the
American Jewish Com-
mittee, which supported
Schiffs research.
Noting that the Middle
East institutes he examined
receive funds from various
sources, including the fed-
eral government, Schiff
stressed that he found a
"growing tendency" in these
centers to "regard Israel as -
an entity separate from the
rest of the Middle East."
Specifically, he said, he
found that:
• The "expanding pattern
of funding by Arab govern-
ments or pro-Arab corpora.
tions" exercised "at least a
sublimal influence" on stu-
dents and faculty in. Middle
East centers "as well as on
the nature, content and out-
-
come of the programs."
• Federal funding for the
study or teaching of Hebrew
was "virtually absent,"
while federal funds were
available for the study .of
Arabic, Kurdish, Persian,
Turkish and other Middle
Eastern languages.
ferings," and is considered,
by both faculty members
and graduate students, to be
"objective, scholarly, and
apolitiCal."
Schiff adds that Columbia
is, however, "far less attrac-
tive to; outside financial
support from corporations
doing business in the Mid-
dle East or from most Mid-
dle East governments" than
are other Mideast centers.
• UCLA, which has a
relatively small Middle
East center, conducts a
Jewish studies program
and several programs fo-
cused on Israel, but none
of these. offerings are
handled through the
Near East Center. "Again
we see," stressed Schiff,
"a trend toward the sep-
of
aration or
Israel and activities re-
lated to Israel from the
overall Middle East pro-
gram."
search language was
Arabic and one who was
using Persian.
The AJCommittee, Mel-
vin Merians, chairman of
the human relations agen-
cy's national committee
on special programs, re-
ported, plans to follow up
Schiffs report.
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ments Schiff,
"generally absent" from
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"At the undergraduate
the curricula of the Mid-
level . . . a large number of
dle East centers.
Rothenberg's New
(mostly Jewish) students
• Many federally funded
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take Hebrew for their own
lec-
"outreach" projects
reasons, (but) at the
tures, literature, and other
graduate level, where the
materials designed by uni,
next generation of Middle
versity Middle East centers
East experts is trained, few
for use by high schools,
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students are being afforded
business groups, the gen-
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eral public, etc. —"project a
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• At NYU, "a pattern
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which we have observed
orientation geared almost
niobt
oer
elsewhere appears (here) as
exclusively toward the Arab
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HENNY YOUNGMAN
dents interested in the Mid-
Pointing out that the
CORBETT MONICA
dle East tend to gravitate
United States "will need in-
ROOK FAR! Y
towards separate formal or
creasing numbers of well-
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trained scholars and profes-
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Schiff urged that the federal
• At Princeton, a recent
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of language and awl . dates included eight stu-
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dents
whose
principal
re-
studies.
.1 •
Furthermore, _he, ,4g-,
ring ;
dared, universities offe'
modern Middle Eait stus
"should exercise close ciVei- 7
sight of appointmeties,
course content, sources . o'
funding, and outreach:pro-,
grams in the interest of
preserving . . . scholarly, .
objectivity . . ."
Among the research find-7
ings reported in Schilgs
paper: •
• At Berkeley's Center for
Middle Eastern Studiesi
"none of the doctoral e" mli
dates doing dissertations in
any Middle East-related
topic are dealing with
Call For Details
Israel i
contemporary
Zionism or related fields."
However, Schiff -notes,.
"Berkeley is one of the few .
centers to incorporate even'
a modest sum for the acquisl
ition of Hebrew books' in:its
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