Editor's Letter

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Israel Travel Matters

w

ithout much fanfare, Michigan State
University's Jewish Studies Program has
become a national model. From humble
beginnings, it has grown to 800 students a year and
awaits a new Chair in Israel Studies. With this
momentum, it's no surprise that MSU renewed facul-
ty-led student study abroad in
Israel. MSU suspended offering
such study when Palestinian terror
against Zionism began again in
late 2000.
Jewish Studies Director Ken
Waltzer will lead a study abroad
group to Israel next summer. The
Robert A. Sklar group will be based at the
Editor
Rothberg International School at
Hebrew University.
The University of Michigan should follow MSU's
lead and lift its ban on study abroad in Israel.
The U.S. State Department still warns against travel
to Israel. It acknowledges that the frequency of attacks
has lessened, but that the "potential for further vio-
lence remains high." Waltzer did a great job explaining
to MSU decision makers how conditions have cau-
tiously changed for the better in Israel and that study
abroad in Israel is integral to the program.
Opportunities include biblical research, Hebrew
immersion, and exposure to the politics and values of
the Jewish homeland.
The change atMSU allows Jewish and non-Jewish
students to tap into a scholarship fund endowed by
Bloomfield Hills philanthropist Ed Levy Jr. for study
in Israel. MSU operates one of the nation's largest
study abroad programs; 2,000 students study in 60
countries. The Jewish Studies Program is part of
immediate past President M. Peter McPherson's lega-
cy and counts new President Lou Anna Simon among
its backers.
Allowing study abroad in Israel links well with the
new Michael and Elaine Serling and Friends Endowed
Chair in Israel Studies at MSU, the sixth such chair in
the U.S. Michael Serling is a Birmingham attorney
who heads the campus Jewish Studies lay advisory •
board. Jewish Studies enrollment is expected to rise to
1,000 by fall 2006 with the addition of this endowed
Chair and a contract professor in Jewish Religious and
Philosophical Thought. Students take courses in eight
departments over three colleges. They can't major in
Jewish Studies, but they can specialize in it.
To control safety and security MSU will not recog-
nize students who enroll directly in Israel universities.
It will require students in faculty-led groups to sign a
statement of responsibility that affirms the risk.
Israel's voluntary pullout from the Gaza Strip and
its security fence along the West Bank border helped
convince Provost Kim Wilcox to reverse the study
abroad in Israel policy. Wilcox directed the Study
Abroad Security and Risk Assessment Committee to
watch Mideast developments so that the scheduled
summer trip can be reconsidered if necessary, the
State News in East Lansing reported.
I'm impressed with the depth of MSU's commit-

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Novernber 24 • 2005

ment to protecting students and faculty who go to
Israel to study. Lifting the ban was not made lightly.
With the travel ban lifted, students no doubt will
sign up. Last summer, nine MSU students studied in
Israel through non-MSU programs. Before the ban, 12
to 14 MSU students took part each year in faculty-led
study abroad in Israel.
Ohio State, Wisconsin and Indiana are other Big
Ten universities that now permit restricted study
abroad in Israel. Northwestern, Penn State and the
University of Michigan haven't budged from the U.S.
State Department warning against Israel travel.
The University of Michigan need only look to the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit for inspira-
tion. Federation will take more than 700 people to
Israel on a family mission this December.

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Pro-Israel student activists have challenged the U-
M ban to no avail, the Michigan Daily reported. I urge
the Detroit and Ann Arbor Jewish communities to
encourage and support this important challenge. I
urge the U-M Hillel to use its unique position of influ-
ence to bolster the challenge as well. Jewish enroll-
ment at MSU has climbed to nearly 3,000, 43 percent
of the nearly 7,000 Jewish students at the U-M.
To bar Israel travel yields to what the terrorists
want, namely hurting study in and travel to the Jewish
state. The U-M ban ignores a Jerusalem-based call
from the Jewish-led Hebrew University and the Arab-
led Al Quds University for international collaboration
with Israeli universities. Such cooperation is seen as
essential to Middle East peace. The American Israel
Public Affairs Committee could provide important
counsel if the University of Michigan sought it.
The prevailing mood among college students I have
spoken with over the years echoes loud and clear:
Study abroad in Israel is a significant academic expe-
rience that doesn't have to compromise the safety or
security of participants. ❑

Should the U-M follow MSU's lead
and allow study abroad in Israel with
safety restrictions?

Is American Jewish support for Israel
dangerously waning as Palestinian
terror decreases?

E-mail letters to:
letters@thejewishnews.com

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