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In this summer camp, professors learn how to teach about Israel.
Photo by. Mike Lovett/Brandeis University photographer
RICHARD ASINOF
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Boston
t wasn't your typical Jewish sum-
mer camp: There were no camp-
fires, no songs, no "bug juice" —
and the participants weren't teenagers.
For the most part, they were mid-
dle-aged, tenured and tenure-track
professors, engaged in an intensive
three-week program to learn how to
teach courses on Israel.
The Summer Institute for Israel
Studies, in its second year at Brandeis
University, brought
together 21 scholars
from a diverse group
of schools. It includ-
ed Catholic universi-
ties such as Seton
Hall and DePaul;
large public universi-
ties such as UCLA,
the University of
Ken Waltzer
Massachusetts at
Amherst and
Michigan State University; prestigious
smaller schools such as Middlebury
and Brown; and very small colleges,
such as Sweet Briar in Virginia.
The goal was to learn how to teach
about Israel — not in the context of
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but,
according to S. Ilan Troen, a professor
of Israel studies at Brandeis, "to ensure
that a more serous and balanced study
of Israel be available at universities."
Troen, the institute's director, said
he wants to transform the study of
Israel from an academic abstraction to
the study of "a living society"
The program helps about 20 aca-
demics a year prepare to teach about
Israel.
"Each year, we're talking about 20-
30 new courses, with hundreds of stu-
dents taking them. Each time we do a
seminar, we're reaching thousands of
students," he said. "If you understand
that these professors will be teaching
year after year for 30 years, the multi-
plier effect is tremendous."
To enroll in the all-expenses paid
program, participants must commit to
teaching a course on Israel. They can
participate only with full approval of
their campus administrators, who
must confirm the desire to have Israel
studies in the
school's curriculum.
The academic
"campers" have
come not just from
American universi-
ties but from Brazil,
England, Australia
and even Turkey.
In a phone inter-
view from Israel
just before the start
of the seminar,
Troen told JTA that
he recently returned
from Turkey, where
he attended a class
Brandeis professor Ilan Troen, director of the Brandeis
taught by one of
University Summer Institute for Israel Studies, addresses a
last year's seminar
group of academics from around the world.
participants.
"There were
talk with settlers about their views on
about 40 students in his class and, on
the withdrawal [sharp divisions within
the day that I arrived, they were
our group] , a day in the Negev visit-
engaged in a debate on how to resolve
ing Bedouin towns and illegal clusters
the issue of Jerusalem between
Muslims and Jews," he said. "The pas- [government finds it hard to prevent
religious settlers from building out-
sion in the room was extraordinary.
posts and Bedouins from building ille-
Muslim students in a Muslim country
gal clusters], an hour with the mayor
were arguing the Jewish side."
of Sderot talking about ethnic divi-
The discussion was based on real
sions between Moroccan Jews and
learning, Troen continued.
Russian Jews from Uzbekistan and
"They had read, they had studied. I
about Kassam rockets falling on
don't know where else that could hap-
pen in the Muslim world — thanks to Sderot [Gaza is close by].
"The seminar raised important
the fact that the teacher had been
questions
about the path of national
through our program," he said.
development in Israel, about social
and cultural change since statehood,
Hands-On Experience
and about cultural expressions in
This year's seminar, which began June
Israel," he wrote. "It raised issues
15 on the Brandeis campus in
about the changing nature of the
Waltham, Mass., involved two weeks
Jewish diaspora and Israel-diaspora
of intense seminars with leading Israel
relations, about Israeli strategic reali-
scholars — morning, afternoon and
ties, and about social divisions within
night.
Israel."
During the third week, participants
"Our 'students' don't teach the
traveled to Israel for "on-the-job"
Arab-Israeli conflict but, rather, Israel
experiences orchestrated by Troen,
as a total society," Troen said. "Israel is
including visits to Bedouin villages in
an incredibly complicated place. Israeli
the Negev, a Palestinian university in
life is more than a sound bite on
eastern Jerusalem and Sderot, an
CNN. The reductionism that comes
Israeli border town that frequently is
from the American media can lead to
the target of Palestinian rocket attacks.
extremism."
Kenneth Waltzer, director of the
Support for the institute comes from
Jewish Studies program at Michigan
many different sources, including the
State in East Lansing, said the experi-
American Jewish Committee. El
ence was eye opening.
In an e-mail, he said, "Especially
JN Staff Writer Harry Kirsbaum
memorable were visits to Ofra, a reli-
contributed to this report.
gious settlement in the West Bank, to
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