Visitor from Israel By Tracy Sullivan Emek Yezreel president talks of coexistence on her college campus JULY 30, 2004 - WEST HARTFORD - Professor Aliza Shenhar, president of Emek Yezreel College in Afula, stopped by the Jewish Ledger offices last week to talk to community members about life on a college campus in the Galilee where Arab and Jewish students study together. The Emek Yezreel College is located in the region of Afula/Gilboa in northern Israel. Afula/Gilboa is the Partnership 2000 sister region for the Southern New England Consortium (SNEC), which includes the Jewish Federations throughout Connecticut, Southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Afula/Gilboa region includes Israeli Arab villages, and is located about five kilometers from the Palestinian city of Jenin. More than 3,000 students are enrolled at Emek Yezreel College as well as other adults involved in continuing education programs there. Shenhar explained that Israelis students are older than the average American college students. They have served in the Israeli army and many had to work and save money before enrolling in college. Many are the first in their families to attend college, particularly those who are immigrants from the former Soviet Union or Ethiopia. More than 20 percent of the student population at Emek Yezreel are Arab Israeli students who live in Arab villages and cities in the region. A large percentage of Arab students are women, and several faculty members who teach at the college are also Israeli Arabs. Emek Yezreel has been praised as a model of pluralism and coexistence. Despite the peacefulness on campus, the college has not been immune to the intifada. Several students have been killed in terrorist attacks. Shenhar said she along with the faculty and staff at the college try to relieve tensions on campus by talking to the students and to one another regularly. She shared the story of an Israeli Arab student who attends Emek Yezreel but was involved in the riots at Haifa University two years ago, and was arrested. The Arab students were protesting political decisions made by the government, and the demonstration turned violent. "A month later, I met him on campus and asked him, 'How come you went to the University of Haifa to participate in the riots?' He said, 'You know, I didn't want to spoil the good atmosphere on campus.'" Shenhar said that unlike what has happened at other universities, the Arab students at Emek Yezreel are not mobilizing against Israel. She explained that when the college organized a commemoration for the students who were killed in attacks, "the Arab students attended as well. So you can talk with them. Of course they have their own feelings, and some of them are very radical, but you don't see this on campus." She added, "It's important to have a dialogue with them all the time," making it easier to thwart an unpleasant incident on campus before one begins. "I'm very optimistic about the future of the region, about our ability to help, to empower especially women and Arabs, and to deal with the issues of coexistence," Shenhar said. She noted that the college received funding for 15 Jewish students and 15 Arab students in the Department of Communication to spend three weekends in Nazareth and publish a newspaper in both Hebrew and Arabic. "Each article was written by two students together," she said. "Ten thousand families received this newspaper — Jewish families and Arab families — and it worked." She added, "You're not going to hear about it on the radio or read about it in the newspapers or watch it on TV because it's without blood." A new challenge Shenhar came to Emek Yezreel after serving as the Israeli ambassador to the Russian Federation from 1994 to 1997. Prior to that, she served as the first female provost of the University of Haifa. She accepted the position at Emek Yezreel because she wanted to take on new challenges in an area outside of Israel's main cities. New departments have opened at Emek Yezreel, and the college is cooperating with people and businesses in the region. The college developed a bachelor's program for nurses in health administration with HaEmek Medical Centre, a hospital in Afula. Shenhar noted that communications has become a popular field of study, and when she goes to newspapers to be interviewed, she usually meets an Emek Yezreel graduate. In the 1990s, Shenhar was the chairperson of the national Commission on Jewish Education in Israel's public schools. The commission's recommendations became known as the Shenhar Report, which, to her dismay, was not implemented by the Israeli Ministry of Education. Included in the report was the recommendation that each student in Israel learn about Jewish life in the United States. "I think that it's a shame because our students actually don't understand the meaning of Jewish life abroad. They don't, until they come here and see what's going on," she said. Additionally, Shenhar said, Israeli students are not learning enough about their own Jewish roots. "It's not enough to live in Israel. It's not enough to speak Hebrew. It's not enough to celebrate Passover." She added, "Whenever we talked with young people and I asked different questions about Jewish culture, they say, 'Well the Orthodox are dealing with Judaism. They know everything about Bible studies, Jewish history' and so on. So we are going to pay the price for it." Exchange with UofH, CCSU To build bridges between the educational institutions in the Afula/Gilboa region and those in SNEC, Emek Yezreel College entered into a partnership with the University of Hartford and Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) in December 2003 to establish and support cooperative relationships such as research, faculty and student exchanges, internships and jointly sponsored courses. The first student and faculty exchanges will take place this year with students from the University of Hartford attending an archaeology program at Emek Yezreel College. Also, Dr. Matthew Silver, a lecturer at Emek Yezreel, will return to Connecticut to serve as a visiting professor at the University of Hartford in the fall and to CCSU in the spring. Comments? E-mail tracysullivan@jewishledger.com.