Metro

More Than Academic

Oakland U. leaders sign agreement with Israeli college.

Diana Lieberman

Special to the Jewish News

S

tudents at Oakland University,

one of 16 state public universities,
don't have to spend all four years
in suburban Rochester Hills. Want to study
at a university in Argentina, Ghana, Japan,
China, Malta, Germany, France or more than
a dozen other sites around the globe? No
problem.
Soon OU students will be able to add the
State of Israel to that list.
Five representatives of the univer-
sity traveled to Israel in early April, with
sponsorship of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit's Israel and Overseas
Department. While in Israel, Dr. Gary Russi,
OU president, signed a memorandum of
understanding with Dr. Aliza Shenhar,
president of Max Stern Academic College
of Emek Yezreel (Jezreel Valley). In addition
to student exchanges, the memorandum
includes agreements on faculty and research
exchanges and cooperative projects.
By going to Israel instead of conclud-
ing negotiations via the Internet, the OU
administrators had the opportunity to meet
face-to-face with colleagues at Max Stern
College. They also had detailed discussions

Robert Schostak, Virinder Moudgil, Susan Davies Goepp, Michelle Piskulich, Beckie
Francis Russi, Gary Russi and Nancy Schostak visit Zippori.

with administrators, faculty and students
at two other Israeli institutions of higher
learning, Kiryat Ono Academic College and
the Weizmann Institute. "We look forward to
further dialogue with both institutions and
to establishing future partnerships;' Russi
said.
Located in the Central Galilee,
Federation's Partnership 2000 region, Max

Stern College is a school of more than 4,000
students, including many commuters.
Hundreds of others are involved in non-
degree programs. About 20 percent of the
students are Israeli Arabs, mainly Muslim.
In comparison, OU's students numbered
18,082 at the start of fall semester 2007,
made up of 14,090 undergraduates and
3,992 graduate students.

"In some ways, [Max Stern College's]
history mirrors Oakland University's his-
tory:' Russi said. "It was a branch of Haifa
University until about 10 years ago, just
as we were a branch of Michigan State
University for the first several years of our
existence. Moreover, they have demonstrated
a strong commitment to providing students
with an outstanding experience that will
include significant research opportunities.
"And both institutions are experiencing
growth in student population, programs and
facilities, so it's a good fit:"
"Now that they know we are really inter-
ested, it should be easier to do some match-
ing with folks back at OU," said Dr. Virinder
Moudgil, OU provost and vice president for
academic affairs.
"They are interested in a variety of things
we already do. They just started a nursing
program. We have one of the best nursing
programs in the country here
The two universities have research inter-
ests in common, including animal research
and psychobiology, he said.

The Israel Experience

In all, the OU delegation spent six days in
Israel. They did much more than talk with

Academic on page A15

Defending The Truth

Tenacious Holocaust historian praises Oakland U.'s addition of Judaic Studies.

stressed that Oneg Shabbos members
felt it was important that history be
recorded accurately, without exaggera-
tion or aggrandizement.
peaking a week before
"It was important to them to save
Yom HaShoah, Holocaust
documents and history because they
Remembrance Day, Deborah
knew they would be destroyed, and it
Lipstadt focused her talk at the Jewish
was so important to let the world know
Community Center in West Bloomfield
what happened," she told the crowd of
on the hidden records of Warsaw
about 250 attending the event spon-
Ghetto life kept by a group known
sored by Oakland University.
as Oneg Shabbos, — accounts of the
"I spend so much of my career with
Jews' day-to-day struggles, the valiant
those who lie and distort. It's so impor-
Jewish uprising and the horrible Nazi
tant to get history right."
atrocities.
Lipstadt, director of the Institute
Buried in sealed milk canisters under- for Jewish Studies and professor of
ground in highly secretive ways, the
modern Jewish and Holocaust studies
records were hidden from the Germans
at Emory University in Atlanta, then
who didn't want the evidence out.
praised OU for establishing its Jewish
Lipstadt, best known for her suc-
Studies department and its efforts to
cessful defense in a libel suit brought
"get it right."
by Holocaust refuter David Irving and
Robert Schostak of Bloomfield Hills
her subsequent book History on Trial,
is a driving force in that effort. He

Keri Guten Cohen

Story Development Editor

S

A14

May 15 2008

said the university
is "building the cur-
riculum piece by
piece and building on
the vision of Henry
Baskin." Both are OU
graduates. Schostak
recently returned from
a trip to Israel with OU Deborah
Lipstadt
officials, where they
signed an agreement
to work with Jezreel Valley College in
Detroit's Partnership 2000 region (see
above story).
Lipstadt went on to talk about her
five-year ordeal in defense of her state-
ments that Irving was a falsifier of his-
tory and a right-wing extremist, saying
a movie producer wants to do a feature
film on the trial.
In the aftermath of that trial, what
she finds most troubling is that both
"hard-core and soft-core denial exists

in the Arab Muslim world — it's a growth
industry," she says. "It's not just com-
ing from Ahmadinejad, but from jour-
nalists and intellectuals. And it's trou-
bling that there is nothing about the
Holocaust in Arabic or Farsi to counter
these claims."
She is beginning to translate her
extensive Web site into Arabic and
Farsi, and plans call for Turkish and
Russian next.
She's now working on her next book
about anti-Semitism and Holocaust
denial in the 21st century, which
focuses on the Arab and Muslim
world.
Bernard Kent of Franklin said, "She
was a fascinating speaker. I could listen
to her for hours."
The event was co-sponsored by the
JCC's SAJE for All Seasons program
and the Jewish Women's Foundation of
Metro Detroit. _±