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About the Israel Scholar Development FundThe nonprofit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise has created the Israel Scholar Development Fund to address the serious shortage of faculty teaching courses related to Israel at American universities. AICE grants total $50,000 for salary and benefits and also include $10,000 to cover travel expenses ($5,000 for travel to/from Israel and $5,000 for travel in U.S. for scholarly activities). We expect the university to cover any remaining costs, but, ideally, we would like to see the expense shared by the university and the community (through a local donor or institution) to demonstrate support for the project. AICE can assist in securing local support. The grants from the fund are for one year. There is a possibility, but no guarantee of renewal. Our general policy is to support a scholar and institution for no more than two years. AICE awarded its first two grants to establish visiting Israel scholar positions for 2005-06 at American University and UCLA. AU reported that the pool of candidates was the strongest they had ever come across and ultimately hired Barry Rubin, a prominent Israeli scholar, and prolific writer, from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. UCLA hired Tel Aviv University’s Aharon Kleiman, one of Israel’s most respected historians. The UCLA grant already has had the exponential impact we hoped for by stimulating new grants to UCLA that will allow the university to establish a permanent endowed chair in Israel studies. Similarly, AU is building an endowment for a chair. In 2006-2007, AICE supported scholars at Arizona, Florida, Rutgers, Texas, Washington University, Syracuse, UCLA, and Maryland. The scholars included David Tal, Yoav Gelber and Shlomo Aronson. In 2007-8, we will have 21 Schusterman Visiting Professors, 1 Goldman Visiting Professor, and 4 Rosenbloom Visiting Scholars. Starting in 2007-8, AICE is also supporting postdoctoral fellows at George Washington University, Georgetown, Brandeis and Emory, NYU and Harvard. AICE also is encouraging students to pursue graduate degrees in Israel-related fields through the Schusterman Israel Scholar Awards. Also, starting in 2008-9, AICE is soliciting proposal for conferences and publications to promote the field of Israel studies. In 2008-9, the Fund will support up to 20 Schusterman Visiting Professors at universities where we believe they can have the most impact. In addition, AICE will be supporting 4 Goldman Visiting Professors at Bay Area universities, a Berman Visiting Professor and 2 Rosenbloom Visiting Scholars. The ideal candidates from our perspective will have impeccable scholarly credentials. They should be excellent classroom teachers who are fluent in English. They should also be willing to be active on the campus and the community. We would like to see scholars who will, for instance, give public lectures and engage in policy debates in the media. Faculty will be expected to teach two courses per semester, one of which should be related to modern Israel. We will also expect the scholar to attend a conference in the fall and spring that we will be holding for all the visitors that we are supporting. We have now compiled a list of Israeli scholars who meet some or all of these criteria and have been recommended to us by other scholars in the U.S. and Israel. We have also solicited applications from Israeli scholars interested in participating in the program. We understand the academic requirements of the university and will not attach strings to the grant. We hope that by helping universities establish a visiting Israel scholar program momentum may be created for a more long-term Israel studies program at the university, such as an endowed visiting scholar program or a tenure or tenure-track position that could form the nucleus for a program in Israel studies that would ultimately train graduate students as well. The ISDF will do what it can to support institutions with which we have had positive experiences move in this direction. For more information, contact: Mitchell G. Bard, Ph.D. |
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