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Friday March 8, 2002

Two N. Cal. collegians buck trend and study in Haifa

TOM TUGEND
Bulletin Correspondent

LOS ANGELES -- Two California State University college students spending their junior year on a foreign campus are enthusiastic about their experience.

Ayelet Arbel loves the beautiful campus setting, the nearby beaches, the unique cultural exposure and the vibrant city life.

Adam Ascherin is most impressed by the philosophy and outlook of the local people and their ready acceptance of strangers into their extended national family.

Nothing that unusual, except that the two CSU students chose to enroll at the University of Haifa at a time when many other American students, and tourists, have been scared off by the continuing unrest and violence in Israel.

Not that Arbel and Ascherin are blind to the situation.

"We have been told to avoid public transportation, not to go to Jerusalem without telling our advisor, and we have agreed to stay away from the West Bank and Arab neighborhoods," said Ascherin, 26, whose home campus is Chico.

Arbel, 20, from the San Jose campus, agreed to the same restrictions, but couldn't resist visiting relatives in Jerusalem.

Their resident advisor is education Professor Norma Tarrow of Cal State Long Beach. She is the mother of Jonathan Bernstein, Central Pacific Regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, which is headquartered in San Francisco.

Tarrow was among CSU faculty who, together with the Jewish Public Affairs Committee, persuaded the administration to reinstate its overseas program in Israel after it was canceled following the outbreak of the intifada in September 2000.

The good news, said Tarrow, is that her two charges have quickly integrated into life at Haifa U. and enjoy mingling with students from Europe, Canada and the East Coast states, as well as with local Arab and Druze classmates.

The bad news is that there are only two students from the CSU system. Unless at least eight to 10 students enroll in the Israel program for the next fall semester, the Cal State administration, which pays Tarrow's salary and heavily subsidizes the program, will probably cancel the program for budgetary reasons. Tarrow acknowledges that some applicants may have dropped out because they wanted to study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv University. The two locations were vetoed by Cal State, which deemed Haifa, though it had two attacks with loss of lives in November, the safest major city in Israel.

Nevertheless, Tarrow is disappointed that there was not a single Cal State participant from the populous Jewish community in Los Angeles and Southern California. There is little time left to turn the situation around. "By April, we will have to notify our students whether or not we will have a program in Israel for the coming fall semester," she said.

Ascherin and Arbel, the two students now in Haifa, come from Northern California. Each has an unusual background.

Ascherin is not Jewish. He was raised as a Mormon, though "not diligently," he said. After viewing an exhibit on the 1936 "Nazi Olympics," he started reading about the Holocaust and became intensely involved.

He worked as a personnel manager for Wal-Mart for five years after high school graduation, then enrolled at Chico State, majoring in business administration and Jewish-Israel studies under Professor Sam Edelman.

Ascherin decided to spend his junior year in Israel to learn more about Judaism and to use the Holocaust archives at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. He shares a dormitory with Israeli students, is close to mastering conversational Hebrew, and downplays security concerns.

"After all, there are 6 million people in Israel coping with the situation," he said. "You just got to get over the media hype."

He is now weighing whether to convert to Judaism. "I am still searching, trying to find an amalgamation. But I am discovering that there is much in Judaism that I have always believed."

Arbel has had an easier time fitting in than most American students. Born in Israel, she came to California with her parents when she was 8 years old.

She speaks fluent Hebrew, which allows her to take the regular classes with Israeli students in art and art history. She also shares a dorm with five Israeli girls.

"It's a very warm feeling here," she said. "The whole culture is very open and accepting, and I already feel half an insider."

Arbel plans to return to San Jose State for her senior year, but the rest of her future is up in the air.

"I may return to Israel for a graduate degree," she said, "or just decide to live there."

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