Editor's Letter
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Significant Campus Partners
T
he grand idea of partnerships kept echoing as the new
president of Michigan State University recapped the
18-year history of the campus Jewish Studies pro-
gram, which has real potential to be a national model. Jewish .
Studies is a courseload as well as a specialty, but not a major.
Maintaining the tradition of her predecessor, M. Peter
McPherson, Lou Anna Simon visited the
Southfield offices of the Detroit Jewish
News on what she assures will be an
annual stop. Simon, then associate
provost, was part of the Jewish Studies
planning team back in 1988. Our Jan. 19
conversation reaffirmed why administra-
tive leadership and understanding on
campus is so important to sustaining not
Robert A. Sklar only Jewish Studies, but also making
Jewish students welcome. MSU has about
Editor
3,000 Jewish students; most are from our
state.
MSU's 2005 reinstatement of faculty-led student study
abroad in Israel fits well with the new
Michael and Elaine Serling and
Friends Endowed Chair in Israel
Studies, the sixth such chair in the
U.S. Michael Serling is a Birmingham
lawyer who leads the MSU Jewish
Studies lay advisory board. Jewish
Studies enrollment is expected to hit
1,000 by fall with the addition of the
Serling chair and a contract professor
in Jewish Religious and Philosophical
Thought.
Simon laid out the six partnerships
that give form and texture to Jewish
Studies on the East Lansing campus:,
• Curriculum. The program hinges study of the two centers
of contemporary Jewish life — Israel and America. It doesn't
just focus on one or the other.
• Approach. The 25 courses tap into the resources of eight
departments to create cross-pollinated thought and a less-
insular direction.
• Teamwork. MSU Hillel, under Executive Director Cindy
Hughey, helps add religious, social and political opportunities
for Jewish Studies students who want to strengthen their
Jewish identity. The JStudies program also teams with Hillel
on programming sponsorships.
• Diversity. Program participants are Jewish and non-Jewish.
Some take individual classes. Others specialize in the pro-
gram. But all are drawn by the attraction of studying Jewish
history and culture.
• Alumni. Without a strong lay advisory board, MSU never
could have funded four Jewish Studies chairs to create a facul-
ty core, interdisciplinary courses and enrollment growth.
• Interfaith. Jewish Studies partners with Muslim Studies for
discussions, speakers and other engaging experiences. The
goal is to spur real conversation, not just polemics.
In sizing up the Jewish Studies-Muslim Studies ties under
program heads Kenneth Waltzer and Mohammed Ayoob, I
especially liked how Simon didn't dodge the question of
Palestinian terror waged against Israel. "We don't avoid the
Middle East conflict question:' said Simon, a Christian. "But it's
not enough. It's not sufficient to define what we want to do."
Jewish and Muslim students debate and argue — and share
committee work. Their instructors interact. Together, they
raise questions like, "How does a nation develop?" and "How
does a nation build an identity?" Together, they overlay the
impact of a global economy on the Middle East. Tensions cer-
tainly can rise; there's both pro-Palestinian support and Israel
advocacy. But the relatively small number of Jewish and
Muslim students helps maintain calm on the 34,000-student
campus.
"If we can figure out a way to have a conversation using cul-
tural identities that aren't bound by the geography of the
region," Simon said, "we can find maybe some threads that will
be academically interesting if not a potential for impact."
No Jewish Studies program can be a model without strong
international ties. So I was glad to hear Simon, a 1974 doctoral
graduate of MSU, share her vision for having international
scholars visit MSU to help make the world a better place —
certainly a Jewish ideal.
"We would be able to have a program where we could invite
leaders and aspiring leaders from others countries and have
them participate in the kind of Jewish Studies that we have
"We don't avoid the Middle
East conflict question. But it's
not enough. It's not sufficient to
dune what we want to do."
-Lou Anna Simon, MSU president
available, thus extending understanding in a different way',' she
said.
But that wasn't all.
"If I had my grand vision," she continued, "we would have
this sort of similar comparative contemporary perspective
where you could have the two programs sponsor something at
this international outreach, and you could have some of the
debate and discussion beyond the political peace process,
looking at the economy and a whole range of other things."
We all know there's so much more to how university stu-
dents shape their worldview of Jews and Zionism than course
content and its presentation. Still, that aspect is a crucial com-
ponent of student enlightenment on campuses ever embold-
ened toward not only Judaism, but also the ancestral home-
land of the Jewish people.
Yes, President Simon is on to something that matters. El
Why is religious diversity and acceptance on
campus so essential?
1"-
Do you concur with President Simon's view of
Jewish Studies?
E-mail letters to: letters@thejewishnews.com
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February 16 • 2006 5