More America Jews in College now study culture of Arab world and Middle Eastern mentality, enrolling in undergraduate study-abroad and postgraduate fellowship programs in the Middle East and in Arabic, the NY Times reports.
The students expressed their interest as a desire, even a duty, to understand a region where Israel and the United States are enmeshed in longstanding conflicts, and to act as bridges between cultures — explaining the Arab world to Americans, and America (and sometimes Jews) to Arabs.
“I don’t see it as a contradiction at all,” Miriam Berger, 23, who studied Arabic at Wesleyan University and attended a Jewish day school in Philadelphia, told the Times.. “I grew up hearing so much about the Middle East, how it was this dangerous place we can’t understand, but as I learned more, every day it felt like old ideas were being challenged, and I wanted to contribute to better understanding.”
“I felt I needed to see Palestinians as full, complete, sympathetic human beings,” said Moriel Rothman, 24, who was born in Israel, grew up in Ohio and studied Arabic at Middlebury College. “The part of Judaism that resonates most strongly with me is to love the stranger, remembering when we were strangers.”
“What I hear from students from all backgrounds is they want to make things better, they want to make the world better, even if that sounds trite,” said Osama Abi-Mershed, director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. “There are small us-versus-them factions among Arab and non-Arab students, but the hard-line positions do not lend themselves to this kind of study.”
According to Times, the group of Jewish students tend to be politically liberal; some are religiously observant, but few are religiously conservative. They generally sympathize with Arab points of view, and criticize both Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and American involvement in the Middle East, although they remain committed to Israel’s existence.
Those views, they say, may alienate them from some friends and family members who have hawkisher views towards the Arab world. “Just telling Jewish people that I was studying Arabic, I would get very, very negative reactions without even getting into the politics,” Eliana Fishman, 25, who majored in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Dartmouth and studied in Morocco, told The Times.
(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)
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11 Responses
All way some othe culter is better then yours
There will be no understanding when every ARABIC PROFESSOR is one-sided, with bias and inner hatred.
I have no problem with a person studying Arab culture; but only after a thorough investigation of our culture. Only by somebody who is shommer Torah and Mitzvos. Remember when you study Yiddishkeit it come with strings attach while learning about foreign culture does not mean you have to go after it.
However without a thorough understanding of Yiddishkeit it leads to leftist loonies. A Guten Shabbos Kodesh
No. 1: Isn’t culter the quarterback for the Chicago Bears? And I’m pretty sure he’s not Jewish.
“According to the Times the group of Jewish students tend to be politically liberal.”
Not exactly a grounbreaking chidush here by the NY Slimes. And yet another symptom of the mental disorder called “liberalism.”
It makes a great deal of sense for frum Jews to study Islamic culture since not only do we have a reason to favor peace (let’s be honest, as long as the Arabs want people to wear modest clothes, etc., etc., there is no way the seculars can make peace with them), but to balance the strong and corrupting influence of western Euro-American cultures. In many ways we are very similar to the Muslims, and got along with them pretty well until the hilonim started the Middle East war a century ago – whereas our association with the leading alternative in the west has never been pleasant (bluntly, except for the Americans, the westerners have been consistently a pain).
Note that for frum Jews to look at any goyim, especially the Muslims, it is important to look at it from a Torah perspective. Secular zionists are trying to find a secular Arabic culture they can ally with (not likely, but won’t hurt – they might even start wearing shirts in public).
To the YWN editors: If you want to pass on a report from the New York Times, why not just print it in full, instead of having it excerpted and summarized by someone who thinks “hawkisher” is an English word. Actually, it sounds kind of Yiddish. Use it in a sentence? “He’s a very hawkisher surgeon. At the first sign of an unhealthy growth, he removes it plus the surrounding 6 millimeters of tissue.”
No. 5: Do you realize that the sentence you are quoting is not from the New York Times (or any publication whose name rhymes with it)? And speaking of mental disorders, when will you ourgrow your childish name-calling?
Arabic is an important *Jewish* language; many of our greatest sages wrote sefarim in it. The Orthodox high school in my neighborhood offers Arabbic as an elective.
arabic should be a required course in Israel. Understanding the various middle-eAstern cultures should also be a required course. It’s important to know your enemies and appreciate what you are up against.
I am not referring to those who have committed to learning Torah full time who will most surely receive all that they need from limud hatorah.
No. 8 makes an excellent point. In fact, many important rabbinic texts are in Arabic. The Jewish commentaries written in Arabic may be more important, as a group, than those written in Yiddish or English. (My estimate is not based upon a precise count, but if someone has a precise count, perhaps he/she could post it.)
Religiously conservative Jews are indeed actively involved in Muslim/Jewish dialogue founded on Torah values. You can see an example of this in Ben Abrahamson’s work here:
www facebook com/ben613
His dialogues with Muslims are published in the Jewish Press, which is known for its right-wing views.
I question so-called liberals who besmirch the more right-wing community by implying that only liberals are interested in fostering peace.
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