The University, after a year-long search, has appointed Dr. Shai Feldman as director of the new $30 million Crown Center for Middle East Studies. Feldman is now head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University and will begin here February 1.Feldman has served at the center since its inception in 1977. From 1984 to 1994, he directed two major research projects there, mainly concerning defense and arms control in the Middle East.

Reinharz said the Crown family donated $20 million to the Center, and that funding for an additional $10 million is near completion.

"The defining goal of the Crown Center is to expand study beyond topics of Arab-Israeli tensions to include economic development, religion, politics, security, ethnic relations and geographic questions in the region," Reinharz wrote in his all campus e-mail to the community today.

Reinharz also wrote in his e-mail that he believes no other institution of higher education provides such a wide variety of study.

Feldman served on the United Nations Secretary General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters from 2001 to 2003.

According to Reinharz's e-mail, Feldman currently serves on the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Interim Director of the Crown Center Prof. Selwyn Troen said Feldman is more than just a scholar of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - he is an expert in nuclear deterrents and other security issues.

Reinharz said in his e-mail that he hopes to create a center that would broaden scholarship of the Arab world, including Israel, Turkey and Iran.

Students focusing in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES) at Brandeis said they hope the new director will rejuvenate the program, which they said has been severely in the courses it has offered.

Cory Julie '07 said that while he did find a few interesting IMES courses to take this semester, his options were very limited.

IMES Chair Prof. Avigdor Levy said that while his department and the Center will share faculty and resources, they will remain independent of each other. He said IMES will continue as a teaching program, while the Center will combine an academic approach with a "think-tank type organization."

Troen said that choosing an Israeli to head a Middle East studies center contradicts the philosophies of most centers around the world. He said many exclude Israel from their studies, only making an exception for the conflict with the Palestinians. He said their views were usually biased and painted Israel only as an "aggressor" and "victimizer."

Troen also said that Israel has a rich history as a center for Middle Eastern studies in a variety of fields.

He attributes this to the early Zionists' belief that the only way to survive in the Middle East was to understand their neighboring countries.

Troen said the strong Arab influence in Israel helps to make its scholarship rich and diverse.

"The question is not why Shai Feldman would be teaching at an American University such a Brandeis, but why should not Shai Feldman and people like him be invited to head Middle East centers as Georgetown, at Columbia, and at a host of other American Universities where people like him would be very much excluded," Troen said. "So the question is not why we would hire Shai Feldman, but why they probably would not."

In an interview with the Justice, Reinharz said his goal in choosing the new director was to make the center one that is unique in the world of Middle East studies.

Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe said one cause of the lack of available IMES courses is attributed to the absence of Prof. Kanan Makiya, who has been working to rebuild his native Iraq, and Prof. Yitzhak Nakash, who is on sabbatical writing a book.

Jaffe said Nakash will return next fall, but that Makiya's return is dependent on developments in Iraq. [See related story, this page].

According to Jaffe, the University has hired others to teach a limited number of IMES courses next fall.

Near Eastern Judaic Studies Chair Prof. Mark Brettler said the department needs Feldman to grow - a person whom he said is "politically savvy" and has had much experience editing books about important Middle East topics.

The search for the Crown center appeared over in March with the selection by an advisory board of Princeton Professor Michael Doran.

According to an article in The Daily Princetonian, Doran, after some consideration and a counter-offer from Princeton, decided to stay there. He was recommended for tenure at Princeton within weeks of his decision.

"Essentially, the decision was his," Reinharz said about Doran. "He wants to finish a book that he is currently working on and he felt that taking on a big administrative position, which this is, would distract him and he would not be able to finish his book.