JEWISH WORLD

30 JEWISH WORLD • JUNE 14-20, 2024 continued from page 5 Campus The beginning of Israel’s academic year was pushed back by more than two months because so many students were fighting. Over 800 staffers at Tel Aviv University attended workshops on the subject of Teaching in a Diverse Classroom During Tense Times, as part of preparation for the 2024 school year. For your FREE digital issue send an email to: lijewworld@aol.com FREE The story of the tough Jews who fought American Nazis in the 1930s Story startsonpage 8 G ngster Heroes Arabs regularly come into close contact, would become a dangerous flashpoint,” said Itzik Shmuli, di- rector general of UJA-Federation’s Israel office. “Emotions were extremely raw, and we envisioned tense scenes be- tween Jewish students,” Shmuli said. “A two-sentence exchange by a soldier triggered by hearing Ara- bic in the dormitory, or a teacher talking about martyrs in the class- room, had the potential to create an explosion on campus. There were fears that our learning environ- ments could easily become unsafe.” T he beginning of Israel’s aca- demic year was pushed back by more than two months in part be- cause so many students had been called away to military reserve duty in the Israel Defense Forces. How- ever, when the semester finally started on December 31, most of those fears didn’t play out. “Before the semester we were very worried,” said Prof. Mona Khoury, vice president for diversity and strategy at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, which has 25,000 stu- dents spread over multiple campus- es. “But we had virtually no con- flicts between students.” Hebrew University received $20,000 from UJA-Federation to develop campus leadership groups composed of Jewish and Arab stu- dents. A disciplinary committee tasked with dealing with problems had to meet on only three cases, each of which ended with people apologizing, according to Khoury. “Throughout the country, there were actually a surprisingly small number of academic incidents that required disciplinary measures,” Shmuli said. “This is in part due to educational frameworks that had been put into place to prepare for these situations.” DEI programming is a relatively new phenomenon on Israeli cam- puses and differs significantly from the American model for DEI. In Is- rael, DEI efforts focus mostly on bridging socioeconomic gaps be- tween minority groups like Arabs, haredi Orthodox Jews, Ethiopian Israelis, LGBTQ+ students, and people with disabilities. Even before the war, Gisha host- ed an online forum where DEI lead- ers from Israeli universities met weekly to share experiences and dis- cuss challenges. “We already knew what was hap- pening at each institution,” said Yo- sepha Tabib-Calif, who as vice pres- ident for strategy and academic programs at Rothschild Partnerships oversees the Gisha program. Projects funded by grants after Oct. 7 were divided into three main categories, according to Tabib-Calif. The first was developing infrastruc- ture on campus — including staffing and departments — to develop, im- plement and enforce strategies for managing tense interactions. The second was the creation of Jewish-Arab leadership programs where students could work together and train student ambassadors to address tensions. The third was training students and faculty through workshops, one-on-one training and ongoing consultation with experts. In the end, 16 academic institu- tions were awarded grants of be- tween $10,000 and $36,000 each. Among them was a $29,000 grant to Tel Aviv University. E ven before the semester started, the university was fielding a tsunami of complaints about stu- dent comments on social media, some of which tested Israeli laws against incitement or violated the school’s code of conduct. Some 70% complained of Arabs express- ing support for Hamas or the Oct. 7 massacre, according to Ziv, and 30% were about Jews inciting vio- lence against Arab students. “One of the first issues that came up was freedom of speech,” Ziv said. “How can we, as a university, make sure everyone can express themselves as freely as possible without threatening others’ feelings of safety?” After dozens of investigations, charges were brought against just three students. Others were sum- moned for meetings where admin- istrators encouraged them to sym- pathize with how someone from the other side might feel — for ex- ample, if a classmate with a sister kidnapped in Gaza read an online student post sympathetic toward Hamas’s attack. “Through dozens of meetings like these, I hope we were able to help them understand that we are all part of a community that is made up Jews and Arabs, right-wingers and left-wingers, and everybody is grieving,” Ziv said. Tel Aviv University conducted hundreds of hours of workshops, consultations and meetings with more than 800 faculty members to prepare them for when issues arose and explain who to call for help. University administrators also met with Arab and Jewish student orga- nizations to hear their concerns and ensure them the university was committed to their safety. “But we explained to them that they also need to take responsibility to make sure their peers stay safe,” Ziv noted. “If they want to feel at home, they need to treat others the same way.” When students arrived back on campus for the beginning of the se- mester, they were personally greet- ed by faculty members with choco- lates and a welcome packet including information about safe speech and rules for campus coex- istence. There was also a refresher on rules about carrying weapons on campus, and students were told that political assemblies would not be allowed during the first three weeks of the semester to set a more peace- ful tone. Signs were placed around university buildings in Hebrew and Arabic reminding students to act responsibly. Throughout the semester that apped up in mid-March, Tel Aviv University experienced very few incidents. Ultimately, Ziv said, most students just want to study in peace and quiet. Zev Stub is an author at The Jew- ish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).