Jewish-Arab Center

The Jewish-Arab Center (JAC) is a multidisciplinary research institute in the University of Haifa in Haifa, Israel, active since 1972 (the same year that the University began its work as an independent institution).[1] The head of the center since 2013 is Prof. Itzchak Weismann.[2]

Mission

Rabbi David Rosen, Rabbi She'ar Yashuv Cohen and Sheikh Abd al Salam Menasra, at the Religion and the Jewish Arab Conflict conference.[3]

The Center's mission is to promote good relations between Jews and Arabs within Israel and to enhance peace between Israel and the Palestinians. These goals are pursued in three major interconnected spheres. First, as one of the research centers of the university the JAC coordinates between various faculties of the university – the humanities, social sciences, education, and law - interdisciplinary academic research on Jewish-Arab themes. The second sphere concerns campus life, initiating common activity, seminars and various projects between Jewish and Arab students. The third sphere is the public sphere. The JAC maintains contact with various organizations and NGO's in the field and organizes colloquiums, conferences and working groups aimed to support significant, productive discussion between Jewish and Arab politicians and representatives of the civil society in Israel and between Israelis and Palestinians.

Activities

The activities conducted by the JAC focus, among other things, on peace initiatives, human and civil rights, equality of women, education, and political, social, economical, cultural and religious aspects of Israel and the Middle East at large. The JAC works toward bridging gaps and forging meaningful and lasting ties between Jews and Arabs. Community outreach plays a central role in the work of the JAC as well. The JAC is currently involved in a wide range of Jewish-Arab activities in the north part of Israel and the community at large.

During 2011, the main events conducted by JAC were:

Relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel have been deteriorating in the past decade and there are many indications to the growing estrangement between the two communities. But there are still many spaces in which Jews and Arabs continue to interact and intermingle with each other and numerous initiatives, like those of JAC itself, who seek to halt and also reverse the trend. Such initiatives occur on local, regional and national level and concern economic, educational, recreational and other aspects of life. The Jewish-Arab Center convened this conference on June 12, 2011 at the University of Haifa to explore some such shared spaces and to examine the promises as well as the problems involved with them. Conveners of the conference were Prof. Itzchak Weismann, head of JAC, Prof. Rassem Khamaisi of the Geography Department and Dr. Nimrod Luz of the Western Galilee College, as well as the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the Abraham Initiatives Foundation. The conference focused on questions of education, leisure time, food, and urban and rural spaces.

The findings of the Index of Jewish-Arab relations for 2010 show growing opinion gap between Arab and Jewish citizens and further aggravation of the Arab attitudes. The survey, whose findings are being published for the first time, is conducted each year by Prof. Sammy Smooha under the auspices of the Jewish-Arab Center at the University of Haifa. The survey investigates the opinions of the Arabs and Jews toward one another and toward the state and is used as a tool to detect trends of change in the attitudes over time.

Mark Sedgwick is a professor of Arab and Islamic studies. He previously taught for many years at the American University in Cairo, where his courses included one on the History of Zionism. He works on Sufism, Islam and modernity, and inter-cultural transfer.

Israel plays a very special role in Egyptian imagination, sometimes appearing not just as a problematic neighbor but as an existential incarnation of Evil. Mark Sedgwick examines Egyptian understandings of Israel, discussing what they are and how they may be explained. Starting with the role played by the "Other" in Egypt's recent History, this talk moved through xenophobia and anti-Semitism to the various impacts on Egypt of the Camp David peace. It ended with a discussion of possible future scenarios in the post-Mubarak era.

The population growth of Druze, growing needs, and development processes in Mount Carmel take place in the unique ecosystem of this region. One way to maintain balance between the needs of the population along with maintaining ecosystem is Biosphere Reserve, next to ordinary reserves and national parks. According to this approach, human being lies at the heart of biosphere reserve and is a central part of the ecosystem. However, integrating the human factor in the development and preservation sphere requires co-operation and co-planning. While the goals and opportunities inherent in biosphere reserve include strengthening biological system alongside strengthening sustainable community development, it seems that today, many conflicts arise between the Druze population, its representatives, and governmental agencies. The main issue of our workshop (organized by the Carmel Research Center and the Jewish-Arab Center) on May 2011 was to discuss these conflicts and possible solutions.

The Jewish-Arab Center in collaboration with the Center of the Study of the Carmel tackled these issues in a workshop held on 12 May 2011 at the University of Haifa, following the big fire on the mountain this year. Prof. Itzchak Weismann, head of JAC, emphasized the need to coordinate between efforts to preserve nature and the participation of the local population in such efforts. Prof. Uriel Safriel emphasized that nature protects human and not vice versa. Prof. Yoel Mansfeld demonstrated how ecotourism on Mount Carmel can promote the local population economy. Prof. Rasem Khamaisi and lawyer Amir Kamal presented the conflict between the individual versus the public interests on Mount Carmel land and its legal implications. The history of the establishment of the natural reserve and the biosphere reserve on Mount Carmel was presented by Raya Shurki from The Israel Nature and Parks Authority. The discussion in the end of the meeting with representatives of the Druze community and of governmental agencies was very emotional and exposed many conflicts between the local population and the authorities. The take home message of the discussion was that all parties should look for compromises in order to achieve a much better relationships. This was a first meeting in a series of meetings to help bridging the gap between the local community and the "green" authorities.

In cooperation with the Herzl Institute at the University of Haifa, the JAC initiated a discussion forum that focuses on the historical dimension of relationship since 1920 until the present. The forum is titled "Jews and Arabs in the Land of Israel: Could it be Different?" Six meetings will be held. At each meeting an expert will be invited to present the participants with a thesis and a discussion topic.

The discussion forum will serve as a platform for an unusual and inspiring cooperation between the Herzl Institute for Research and Studies of Zionism and the Jewish-Arab Center, which is meant to create a fruitful debate that offers differing viewpoints and allows competing narratives to be heard. It aims to help the participants to better understand the historical component in present politics and society and presents a connecting line between the past, the present and the future.

Two of the meetings were:

Religion plays a major, and often disturbing, role in defining relations between Jews and Arabs in the state of Israel. This has been demonstrated most recently in the participation of Raid Salah, head of the northern faction of the Islamic movement, in the Turkish flotilla to Gaza, and in the so-called rabbis' letter calling Jews not to sell or rent houses to Arabs. While the first was often regarded among Jews as another act of terror, the latter is seen by many Jews and Arabs alike as sheer racism. Extremism, and particularly religious extremism, is inspired and fed by the failure of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, expressed most lately by the relentless struggle of the mostly religious Jewish settlers against any freezing of construction in the West Bank and in Hamas' overtaking of Gaza. Evangelical Christians too are active in preaching a New Israel that is hardly tolerant toward Muslims. Of course, there are also other, milder, voices among believers of all three religions, calling for shared citizenship and interfaith dialogue, though they seem to be few in number and their voices are less frequently heard.

The Jewish-Arab Center at the University of Haifa believes it is highly important and timely to address the issue of the role of religion in the Jewish-Arab relations in Israel at this critical moment, when religious feelings are heightened and the peace process is almost at standstill. The conference will convene both scholars and leaders of the various religious communities to discuss these and related questions: why and to what extent is religion an impediment to tolerance and peace in our region, how to raise the voices of religious trends that work for conciliation between Jews and Arabs, and how to avoid further drift to manifestations of intolerance and hatred toward the other.

Goals – This conference aims to map out the various religious forces in Israel and analyze their attitudes toward the questions of citizenship and peace. It will also bring together Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious and secular leaders to debate possible ways to allow religion a more constructive role in bridging the gaps among the various faiths and in bringing peace between the two people.

JAC on campus

The Jewish-Arab Center conducts various campus activities, such as:

Scholarships and prizes

The Werner Otto Scholarships are awarded annually by the Association of German Friends of the University of Haifa to outstanding female Arab students engaged in graduate studies, as part of the effort to empower women. The Otto Werner Scholarships were awarded for the first time in 2001. Since then, more than 100 women have received the scholarships. The recipients are outstanding students who are also dedicated to social and educational activities in their communities, and act as advocates for many important issues and as role models for other women. Starting this year, JAC have an alumni network working on community projects, which JAC believe will bear fruit in the coming years.

JAC's alumni have continued on to PhDs, post-doctoral fellowships and academic careers; have risen to managerial positions in the public sector; and have attained professional success in the private sector. JAC is very proud of their accomplishments and believe that their example will inspire other women. Encouraging trends are appearing already: more and more women are applying for the scholarships; their fields of study are varied and not necessarily what some might consider traditionally feminine; and many more Arab women are not content to complete MA degrees, but also continue on to PhD studies.

Research

The current research projects at the JAC are:

Following the model of the pious ancestors (al-salaf al-salih) is the linchpin of modern Islamic discourse. The idea has been known in Islam from earliest times, and was cherished particularly within the Hanbali school. Toward the end of the 19th century it was transformed by groups of reformist Arab 'ulama-cum-intellectuals, who became known as Salafis, into a modern ideology. This called to return to (a mythic) original Islam in order to free it from the shackles of tradition and set it on the path of modernization. While the Salafi trend seemed to subside in the course of the 20th century, its basic ideology permeated most Islamic movements in the Arab world, not least the society of the Muslim Brothers and its offshoots. At the same time, the widely different interpretations of the ancestors' legacy revealed its inherent ambiguities and tensions. In recent decades, and particularly in the wake of the terror attacks of 9/11, the Salafi trend reemerged into the open, usually in association with Wahhabi Islam and global Jihadism.

The proposed research aims at tracing, documenting, and analyzing the rise and evolution of the Salafiyya in the Arab lands from the late 19th century to the present. It will deal with the various Salafi thinkers and movements during this period, and with the inner connections as well as differences between them. Prof. Weismann intends to examine the writings, speeches and official documents of Islamic leaders and organizations in the course of the 20th century, and the fast-growing polemics that rages around them in the literature and on the Internet in the later part of the century and the first decade of the 21st centuries. This examination will be carried out against the backdrop of the political, social and cultural developments in the Middle East from the 1880s to the present, and result in a comprehensive history of the modern Salafiyya.

By highlighting the central role that the Salafi ideology has filled in modern Islam, Prof. Weismann seeks to shed new, inner, light on the trajectory and consequences of the fateful encounter between Islam and modernity on the one hand, and – no less importantly – to enhance our understanding of the roots and nature of the contemporary wave of Islamic militancy on the other.

Publications

The JAC has been for many years, the publisher of Al-Karmil, the only refereed academic journal on the subject of Arabic Language and Literature studies. The studies appearing in the journal cover medieval to modern times.

Pasch, Paul, 1957.
Haifa University, the Jewish-Arab Center, 1992.

Ben-Artsi, Yosi.
Haifa University, the Jewish-Arab Center, 1986.

Grossman, David, 1934.
Haifa University, the Jewish-Arab Center, 1986.

Sofer, Arnon.
Haifa University, the Jewish-Arab Center, 1986.

Yazbak, Mahmud.
Haifa University, the Jewish-Arab Center, 1986.

Tsimhoni, Daphne.
Haifa University, the Jewish-Arab Center, 1986.

Philipp, Thomas, 1941.
Haifa University, the Jewish-Arab Center, 1986.

Waschitz, J. (Joseph), 1910.
Haifa University, the Jewish-Arab Center, 1986.

Kressel, Gideon M., 1936.
Haifa University, the Jewish-Arab Center, 1986.

Gilbar, Gad G.
Haifa University, the Jewish-Arab Center, 1986.

Ben-Arieh, Yehoshua.
Haifa University, the Jewish-Arab Center, 1986.

Ben-Dak, Joseph D.
Haifa University, the Jewish-Arab Center, 1978.

The Druze section

In the early 1970s, the Druze section, including the Druze Archive, was integrated into the JAC. The Druze section is headed by Prof. Kais Firro of the department of Middle East History.

A major task of the Druze section is to study, preserve and present Druze history, tradition and culture. Since its establishment, the archive has become an international source of information on Druze culture and tradition. It contains one of the finest collections of its kind in the Middle East, including books, periodicals and chronicles acquired from archives all over the world. Another key goal is education for the Druze and the advancement of young leadership. Meetings are organized between the Druze public and academic and military figures, in order to engender ideas for shared projects and to resolve conflicts and problems. In 2005, several meetings of Druze ex-army officers were held, in which critical issues among the Druze population were discussed, and solutions such as taking responsibility and creating a climate for change within the public and in the government's attitude were offered. One decision was to establish a task force from different sectors that would focus on specific issues.

Staff

The Head of the JAC is Professor Itzchak Weismann.[2] Prof. Weismann is associate professor at the University of Haifa's Department of Middle Eastern History and specializes in Islamic movements, Sufism, and Islam in India.

The Chairwoman of board is Advocate Basha'er Fahoum-Jayoussi who is a member of the University of Haifa Executive Board.

Former heads

The following have headed the Centre:

References

  1. ↑ "About Us". Israel: Jewish-Arab Center. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Prof. Itzchak Weismann". Faculty of Humanities. Israel: University of Haifa. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  3. ↑ "האמונה הדתית והסכסוך היהודי-ערבי - דף הבית". Israel: University of Haifa. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
  4. ↑ For more information, see JAC's official site
  5. ↑ Prof. Smooha's page at Haifa University
  6. ↑ JAC research Projects page
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