New initiatives take on deep-rooted issues

Twenty-five percent of Tufts' student body - approximately 1,200 undergraduates and 500 graduate students, according to TuftsHillel.org -- is Jewish, and 250 to 300 students use the Granoff Family Hillel Center in some capacity each week. The Arab Student Association (ASA), on the other hand, encompasses about 20 members. But there are many more Arab students on campus who are not necessarily involved in the ASA, according to the group's vice president, senior Aline Sara. These demographics change yearly as seniors graduate and freshmen arrive. At the same time, relationships between Arab and Jewish communities at Tufts are redefined in conjunction with the fluctuating political situation in the Middle East. "We have to address the issue of Arab-Jewish relations every single year," said Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, the University's Jewish chaplain and the executive director of Tufts Hillel. Dialogue between different groups on campus has been a priority for Summit over the past five or six years. "My feeling is, if we can't talk to each other on a university campus, are we ever going to be able to talk to one another?" he said. Jewish-Arab dialogues, once independent entities, are now formalized within the New Initiative for Middle East Peace (NIMEP), a project of the Tufts Institute for Global Leadership. "Groups break bounds among their specific communities and reach out to the other side," said junior Alex Zerden, co-chair of NIMEP. "At leadership level and organizational level, it has set the bar and precedent for a genial atmosphere on campus." Zerden estimates that this brand of on-campus dialogue started right around the Oslo Peace Process in 1993 and 1994, when groups of Jewish Tufts students met informally. "It was a way to discuss very important political issues facing the region in a manner that wouldn't hold anyone responsible," Zerden said. "They only wanted dialogue, and there was no political objective other than to bring people together." According to Zerden, these dialogues grew stronger in 2000, around the outbreak of the second Intifada, an uprising in the Gaza Strip and West Bank by Palestinians in protest of Israeli occupation. Senior Amiti Wolt, current vice president of Friends of Israel, said he was involved in the dialogues that occurred shortly afterwards. "There were tensions and debates," said Wolt, who was then a freshman. "But everyone was respectful and we got to know each other well on an individual basis." Current topics of discussion for NIMEP come from events in the Arab world, focusing on politics, current events and the importance of history, according to Sara. The groups recently discussed the riots in France, as well as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's public comments that the Holocaust was a myth and that Israel should be relocated. Zerden said that the group leaders often e-mail a news article the week before a discussion so that all participants have the opportunity to be informed. "We'll discuss in-depth more immediate, ephemeral things, but also broader, more philosophical issues," he said. Sara said that individual questions about culture are also addressed. "For instance, we were discussing traditional cultures in other religions, and I was curious about the background of why Jews ate kosher," she explained. Participants in these discussions said that exposure to new views enhances their own personal views. "Dialogue is an important process for any type of understanding for anything outside my immediate sphere," Zerden said. "We have an increasing opportunity at college, at Tufts specifically, to branch out and really expand our horizons and explore other people's experiences." Because of the nature of the highly controversial issues on which they focus, participants often react passionately. "There are times that I walk away from [the discussions] shaking my head and thinking that everyone is stupid, to put it lightly," said junior Dan McDermott, president of the Arab Student Association. "But it just forces me to get my story together and come back the next week." "I don't have to agree," he added. "I'm allowed to argue; I'm allowed to get upset." McDermott added that communication helps to taper down defenses and personal biases, allowing for moderation. "You come into the group on the defensive, to defend the validity of your 'side," McDermott said. "You are forced to educate yourself in order to know your story, and you have to listen. Once the 'other side' is humanized a little more, most kids moderate their views in some part." On a personal level, dialogue encourages students to stay up-to-date on current events. "These groups are helpful because they make you watch the news, read and constantly think about issues that otherwise may go by unnoticed as you live your life at Tufts," McDermott said. Sophomore Samantha Goldman, president of Friends of Israel, is also involved with the NIMEP dialogues. Goldman said that the personal stories she hears at the discussions allow her to enrich her understanding of Middle East issues. "I often learn things I would never know from just reading newspaper articles about the on-the-ground reality," she said. Dialogues are intentionally kept small. "The size ensures that people's opinions are understood in context and general experience," Sara said. "The publicity is more by word of mouth, which is why we're not on TuftsLife." Though the dialogues often slip under the campus radar, McDermott said that "is not a bad thing. I think you need an intimate, small group setting to really talk." While the group numbers themselves may be small, the results are big. "As a result of these dialogues, the relations on campus have improved," Sara said. "We have a solid group, and we get along very well. We have non-academic social events. This has definitely affected the good relationship between the communities." NIMEP discussions meld many different views - along with the individuals who hold them. "On a professional level, the discussions bring on-campus representatives together that may or may not have reason to get together," Zerden said. "Leaders on campus now share a rapport that adds a lot to discussion and our relationship," he added. "We have had remarkable success in fostering relations on campus to eliminate tensions that might be counterproductive to understanding." According to student leaders, relations between Arab and Jewish students at Tufts are especially good. "Friends of Israel and the Arab Students Association co-sponsored events, a concept unprecedented at other schools," Zerden said. Goldman said that the "exceptional" Arab-Jewish relations at Tufts transcend the interactions of the organizations: "There are friendships among individuals in the organizations," she said. Goldman added that in her experience, the Arab-Jewish relationship at Tufts "is the best it's ever been." Tufts' atmosphere excels in comparison to other universities, according to Zerden. "Tufts is unique among many college campuses, where there is strife, distrust and unproductive discourse," he said. "We have the resources, intelligence, capability and power to really effect change and to contribute positives to educational experiences." Summit is proud of the way Tufts students confront the questions of the Middle East while maintaining civil relations. "We are able to find ways to build relations within communities and discuss the issues," he said. "Sometimes, we just need to agree to disagree on some of the issues, but this doesn't mean we can't be productive on the way we approach them together." But according to Wolt, last semester was a challenge: Students seemed less interested in the dialogues. "Back in 2002, people were angrier and were looking for a place to vent - it wasn't hard to find students that wanted to sound off," he said. "But [last] semester, there was a problem getting people to care enough to get involved." Student leaders said that the structure of on-campus dialogues shifted, especially in recent years, as the political situation in the region calmed and the tensions in the U.S. and the media dissipated somewhat. "The continuity of the group discussions depends on the political climate," Zerden said. "With the ebbs and flows of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there are times when people are more passionate and times when people are less so about the issue," Wolt agreed. "I hope that [this] semester people will realize the importance of dialogue and engaging people with different experiences and perspectives." Goldman agrees that apathy is a huge problem. "There isn't as much anger or frustration as there has been in the past, and this has led to apathy," she said. Discussion can only be successful if its participants are willing. "There are always going to be people who decide to hold on to the stereotypes and negative issues they are used to," McDermott said. "Personally, it took a lot of pushing to get me to attend these groups - but I think that my own politics are much stronger now because of the exposure." Sara, who is Lebanese-American and attended French school in New York City, shared similar sentiments. "I had no Jewish friends before I came here, and I never heard how Jewish people feel about Israel," she said. "I had resistance towards Israel's policy. I was extremely pro-Palestinian, pro-Arab side." Her general political views are the same, Sara said, as she is against "Israel's foreign and general policy, and [prime minister Ariel] Sharon." Still, she said dialogue groups have been "a very enriching experience" for her. "We need to communicate to progress, and the dialogues are great opportunities for me to talk to the other side," she said. "It is in the rather moderate opinions that we can find some sort of path to peace." Zerden said that the "perennial problem" is engaging the most opinionated people who are the most resistant to the views of the other side. "We want to try to bring these people, who are so entrenched in their beliefs, to the forefront," he said. "I'm not saying everything has to be open to everyone, and every one of us should hold hands," McDermott said. "But at least knowing that everyone in the group is intelligent and diplomatic adds a lot to the atmosphere of talking, not propagandizing and screaming." The groups aim to build on already positive relationships. "We do not want to create problems just so we can sit down together and talk them through," Goldman said. Student and religious leaders agree that through peaceful discussion, a fruitful relationship on-campus can be maintained. "Dialogue promotes understanding, and understanding leads to cooperation and conflict resolution," Goldman said. Student leaders said that a major problem with Arab-Jewish relations is a lack of education. What often replaces "real" education "on both sides," McDermott said, is "ultra-biased crap, and a refusal to acknowledge that Arabs and Jews are more than one uniform body with one belief and one message." "Dialogue groups are the best way to address this," he added. Summit agreed that the lack of unbiased education on Middle East issues is problematic. "But obviously, education comes from within specific political contexts," he said. "Becoming aware of how people with different political beliefs conceptualize these issues is essential." Another problem, according Summit, is that many students feel that they are not knowledgeable enough about the issues. "Because of that, they don't want to engage in discussion," Summit said, adding that this can be rectified through learning. "Education is important so people feel like they have enough voice to enter the dialogue." While agreeing that the campus has "less of the aggressive attitude" he felt at other universities and university groups, McDermott said that the campus retains some problems in terms of Arab-Jewish interactions. "My freshman year here was a shock," he said. McDermott, a Syrian-American currently living in Jordan, said that as a freshman he was "barred from two events based on [his] ethnicity." One event, in which a controversial member of the Israeli government, Natan Sharansky, spoke, was only open to members of Hillel, according to McDermott. "[Sharansky] is a major figure in the politics of the region, and it is insulting to think that a group can bar the rest of campus from attending for fear of inciting anger and violence from other members of the community," McDermott said. "The ASA will never be able to bring as controversial a speaker - but imagine us trying to say, 'Sorry, you're only allowed to hear this huge figure speak if you're a member of X group.'" For McDermott, the incident was a "real push to become active on campus." As McDermott's experiences demonstrate, there are always disagreements on political issues - and Summit said that these are exacerbated because of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. "The question in my mind is: how can we take these differences and model different ways to approach them together?" Summit said. Summit believes that the answer lies in the students themselves. Tufts students graduate and take on important positions in government, Boston and local communities. These students will carry with them their college experiences. "If we could present models of how to deal with this conflict," Summit said, "we'll be making a tremendous contribution." Unity among religions helps overcome obstacles in Middle Eastern conflict, and achieving such unity is a goal within religious communities at Tufts. "We're really deeply committed to build productive relations between Jewish-Muslim-Christian communities," Summit said. "To me, this is one of the key roles that religion could play on campus, not to separate people, but to help people understand that on some level we're all deeply connected," he added. Sara described the Arab-Jewish dialogues as microcosms of the world that seek solutions to international and interpersonal conflicts. "If we can be responsible in foundations such as these," she said, "then we are going to get somewhere." While there are some who are apathetic, Sara has faith that Tufts can still make a difference through the resolve of those who choose to get involved. "People here do care," she said. "This is where you can find other people who don't want to give up. I don't believe in giving up."