Kibbutz Moves Up a Degree

At Kibbutz Ketura, Jewish, Christian and Muslim students from the region are learning how to protect their corner of the world in a unique environmental studies program offered by TAU's Lowy School for Overseas Students

The Institute offers a one-year program in environmental studies that brings together Jewish, Christian and Muslim Middle Eastern students with their English-speaking Western counterparts. The goal is to develop a regional perspective on environmental problems by developing a cadre of young scientists and policy-makers on both sides of the border who can work together.

Thirty-three students, including Palestinians, Jordanians and Egyptians, attended a wide range of courses last year related to environmental policy, science and ethics. The courses focus on an interdisciplinary approach to environmental issues impacting the Arava desert and the Red Sea around Eilat, a half-hour drive south of Ketura. Some of the issues explored in the Program are: wildlife captive breeding and repatriation, coral preservation, sustainable agriculture, and desertification. Students are registered at TAU's Lowy School for Overseas Students.

Those are the facts. But they do not convey the Program's casual kibbutz atmosphere, radically different from the usual university experience.

The Program's administration is housed in a trailer. The door is open, and students and teachers come and go as they please. Notices are written on a blackboard outside, and may include sign-up for compost collection, or notice of a kibbutz harvest, in addition to the expected class changes or homework additions. Their computer center is in a bomb shelter.

Students live in kibbutz housing, eat in the communal dining hall, and are integrated into the settlement's daily social life. That has proved an eye-opener for Palestinian student Hashem Shahin, a research assistant in the biology laboratory at Bethlehem University. "When I came here in February, I thought it would be a settlement filled with people carrying guns," he says. "I had no idea what a kibbutz was. It was a nice surprise."

Shahin and three other Palestinians were meant to begin their studies at Ketura last September, but their entry permits were canceled in the violent aftermath of the opening of the Western Wall tunnel exit in Jerusalem.

"The objective barriers to bringing in Palestinian students are formidable, especially from Gaza," notes Program Director Dr. Alon Tal, a founder and Chair of the Israeli Union for Environmental Protection, who also teaches environmental law and policy at TAU. "The Foreign Ministry was very helpful, and we turned to some top generals we know."

Last year there were three Palestinian, four Jordanian and two Egyptian students. Dr. Tal notes that there were a large number of Jordanian applicants, although fewer Egyptians. "I take my hat off to them all," he remarks. "These are people not only concerned about the environment, but willing to brave the stigma of studying in Israel. They are putting themselves at personal and professional risk when they cross the border. The Program makes a contribution to the peace process."

Dr. Tal adds that "it was very refreshing to find a university administration that was both flexible and willing to take chances for such an unusual kind of program, in particular Prof. Arieh Shmulevitch, Chairperson of the University's Special Programs Division, and Mrs. Rachel Bar-El, Head of the Lowy School for Overseas Students, who provided outstanding support from the Institute's inception, without which it is doubtful that the Program would have succeeded. Rector Prof. Nili Cohen provided essential help in shepherding the Program through the various administrative channels of the University.

"The Program's academic curriculum is very rigorous, and requires students to take courses in environmental policy, science policy and ethics. This interdisciplinary approach is essential for dealing with today's complex environmental problems," says Dr. Tal.

Shahin's field work is in microbiology. He is participating in a project at the Yotvata research station on using treated sewage water for crop irrigation, testing the water and produce grown for fecal residue and other contaminants. He hopes the results can be used to help Palestinians farm more effectively. Shahin has become very popular in his few months on the kibbutz, and has recently begun offering free Arabic classes to kibbutz members.

Yan Shao-Qian ordinarily works as a chemist in the development division of the China Rural Development Technology Center in his native Beijing. Now he helps grow desert-resistant plants at the Program's experimental farm, hoping to learn lessons he can take back to China. "We know nothing about the kibbutz in China," he says. "There are many new drought and saline-resistant plants being developed here, some of which could do well in China."

Practical environmental work is a big part of the curriculum, Dr. Tal notes. "This is a program for training environmental activists and policy-makers." The work is hands-on, and aimed at improving quality of life for local residents, including the kibbutz community. Students recently started a composting project at Ketura. They handle all the logistics, from collecting garbage door-to-door, to storing and utilizing the finished product.

Despite its emphasis on practical ecological work, the Institute does not operate in an ideological void. Kibbutz Ketura has been involved in alternative approaches to Judaism since its founding in 1973. Not surprisingly, the kibbutz's openness to Jewish tradition has carried over into the Program's curriculum. Jewish text and traditions relating to the environment form a key part of the academic curriculum, particularly those that stress human responsibility for protecting the natural world.

One recent morning, Rabbi Michael Cohen was leading his "Judaism and the Environment" class. Cohen, who is taking a year-long sabbatical from his Reconstructionist congregation in Manchester, Vermont, was leading six students through a discussion of the environmental imperative contained in the first six psalms of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service.

"There is a notion here that a cosmic order exists, that God can be discovered through nature," he urges. "It's not humanity versus nature, but one interconnected universe that works together."

Adapted from an article by Sue Fishkoff with permission of The Jerusalem Post