Sophia Aron was on campus July 31, 2002 when a bomb went off in
the cafeteria of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Orly Rabinowiz
witnessed a suicide bombing. And Robbie Hurwitz heard two
schoolgirls get shot and killed less than a mile from his
dormitory.
The students knew of the dangers before they went to Israel to
study, but they went anyway. And even after their firsthand
encounters with terrorism, they stayed.
Despite the attacks and security concerns, many study abroad
programs in Israel continue to run, though they have seen their
numbers depleted.
“Our program has suffered over the past three years, but
this current year, enrollment did go up, and there are early
indications that ’04 and ’05 will grow
substantially,” said Amy Sugin, the director of academic
affairs at Hebrew University, speaking from the university’s
New York office.
“I think students are deciding they may not have another
chance to study in Israel, and they have become more steadfast in
their refusal to be cowed by terrorism,” she added.
But other programs, such as the University of California’s
Education Abroad Program, suspended its Israel program indefinitely
soon after tensions flared up with the Palestinian uprising in
September 2000.
The program was officially suspended April 2, 2002. Students who
were still in Israel at the time were given the option to come
home. Those who remained were no longer under the care of EAP.
“The incidents of things like personal bombings on buses
and in stores was rising to the point where the State Department
warnings for safety were suggesting that people who didn’t
have to be there (should) leave,” said Bruce Hanna, director
of communications at EAP.
Hanna said EAP officials tried to wait as long as possible
before closing the program because students were in the middle of
their terms, but ultimately decided they could no longer guarantee
students’ safety.
The program was only suspended, not cancelled, and it will be
restarted once officials deem the situation safe enough.
Though EAP is not taking students to Israel, there are still
students who search out alternative programs.
“Studying abroad in Israel is not for everybody,”
Sugin said. “We don’t try to convince everybody to go.
It is a very special person who comes to Israel right now, no
matter what.”
The reasons students give for studying abroad in Israel are
varied, but they typically go because they already have some
connection with the country.
Hurwitz, a UCLA alum and current UCLA law student, attended
Hebrew University from April 2001 to June 2002.
“I decided to go there because I had been there a few
times before, and it is the only place to really live in Jewish
culture … and to experience life according to the Jewish
calendar,” Hurwitz said.
Orly Rabinowiz, a UC Santa Cruz student who is currently
attending Hebrew University, had a unique reason for going.
“I came back to Jerusalem because I needed to deal with
the post-traumatic stress from witnessing a suicide bombing while I
lived in Jerusalem two years ago,” Rabinowiz said in an
e-mail from Israel.
Though there are fewer students attending study abroad programs
in Israel, the interest is still there, said Eva Walthers,
international programs counselor at UCLA Internship and Study
Abroad Services.
Because a vast majority of the terrorist attacks occur in Tel
Aviv and Jerusalem, two of the largest cities in Israel, students
search for alternative places to attend school.
“Less people go in part because their parents are more
concerned,” Walthers said. “A lot of people have their
parents ask them not to go, but they are seeking ways to get there,
so they seek out other cities. They can say Ben-Gurion University
or Haifa; there is a difference in their search.”
Aron, a fourth-year international relations student at UC Davis,
said she went to Israel despite her parents’ concerns.
“My dad was very supportive, but my mom was terrified
because she was very worried about terrorist attacks,” Aron
said. “You have to look at it practically. The odds of being
killed in terrorist attacks are smaller than being killed in a car
accident in the U.S.”
To appease her mother, Aron told her she would come home if the
university was bombed. But after the bomb went off in the cafeteria
a month and a half after Aron’s arrival, she decided to
stay.
“It was my choice to make, and it was the best year of
school for me,” Aron said. “Security definitely
tightened … but bombing is not an everyday thing so you have your
ways of dealing with things.
“You still go out, still do everything you do as a normal
student, but you are more aware of things.”
Hurwitz said living with such conditions was as much a part of
the experience as the coursework.
“I learned about the importance of continuing everyday
activities,” he said. “You have to be careful, but you
can’t capitulate to terror. If you stop your daily routine,
terrorism has won. So you have to continue your daily life as much
as possible.”