With nearly 200,000 Jewish Americans, 100,000 Chaldean Americans and 500,000 Arab Americans, it’s no secret: metro Detroit is home to one of the largest Middle Eastern communities in the country. According to Former WSU President Jay Noren, Wayne State University is “blessed” with a student population of Arabs, Israelis, and Chaldeans that mirrors the population of the Middle East itself.
For this reason, Wayne State’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is involved with programs to strengthen the Middle Eastern communities both here and abroad.
One such program, the Middle Eastern Study Abroad Course, takes Wayne State students to Israeli Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba and the Palestinian Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem. Students can visit Masada, Ein Gedi, Tel-Aviv, Bethlehem, Jericho and Ramallah during their stay, as well as take day trips at their leisure.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Associate Dean Miriam Greenberg, who has been planning the program for over a year and hopes to accompany students during the trip, said that she hopes students will get a well-rounded picture of the issues between Palestinians and Israelis.
“I definitely feel that if people can go to places with an open mind and to learn and interact with others and see that everyone has the same concerns, hopes and dreams, it will lessen the barriers that get in the way of people trying to shake hands,” she said.
Wayne State faculty members Edith Covensky, Saeed Khan and Jodi Nachtwey will present a series of lectures to students including, the History of the Modern Middle East, Political Dynamics of the Middle East and Social and Cultural Pluralistic Perspectives of Israel during the first three weeks of the program, which will take place at Wayne State’s campus. They will then chaperon students to Ben-Gurion and Al-Quds for 20 days.
Greenberg and Study Abroad Director Kelli Dixon interviewed those students who were interested in participating in the program — many of whom have cultural backgrounds that reflect the Middle Eastern region.
“We purposely wanted that to happen,” said College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Robert Thomas, “and it happened because it’s representative of Wayne State.”
Greenberg compared the trip to the February 2008 performance, “One Muslim, One Jew, One Stage,” organized by both Jewish and Muslim students. She described it as a unique opportunity for students to interact comfortably despite the unfortunately tense relations between both Middle Eastern groups.
“There are not enough opportunities where, no matter what your point of view, you’re comfortable to sit down and talk. That is what I hope will come out of this,” she said.
But Greenberg and Thomas continuously faced obstacles while putting the program together.
“Some people kept telling us how crazy we were,” Greenberg said, “but in the end, it was the students themselves who proved the point: They’re open-minded and willing to look at all sides and take that step.”
Now that the step has been taken, Greenberg and Thomas would like to eventually expand the program to other countries like Jordan or Egypt.
“We think that we should be growing the capability to talk to one another diplomatically,” said Thomas.
Yet unique excursions are not an entirely new concept for Wayne State.
Senior Lecturer Dr. Yue Ming took a small group of students to China on a 14-day trip – not only to visit Beijing, but to live with a rural family in the Hebei province. They were given the rare opportunity to see elementary schools, farms and factories first-had, which, “most students don’t get to see,” said Thomas.
“Wayne state is better known in China than it is in Detroit,” Thomas said, jokingly, “and we’d like that to happen in the Middle East, too. We’re doing something that shows that we care.”
Success was outlined in student’s enthusiastic reflections of the trip and the establishment of an Asian Studies Bachelor’s program.
Thomas and Greenberg hope to establish a Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Diplomacy at Wayne State, which both Ben-Gurion and Al-Quds universities currently have on their own campuses. They hope that this will create a strong link between the three universities.
