Shai Feldman, who was appointed as director of the new $30 million Crown Center for Middle East Studies last October, arrived on campus last week. He said he hopes that the center will be a home to students studying issues relating to the Middle East."I think this center should provide first-class, unbiased scholarship on the Middle East," Feldman said.

Feldman formally began working for Brandeis on Feb. 1. He said he is planning to stay with the Crown Center for a significant period of time, and that he does not see the position as temporary.

Feldman's main goal for the next two months is to prepare for the mid-April conference that will formally launch the center, he said. He hopes the conference will feature multiple speakers that will "strike the right balance between scholarship and policy and the various perspectives the center hopes to offer."

Until Jan. 26, Feldman was head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. He has served at the center since its inception in 1977, returning to Israel following a position at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. From 1984 to 1994, he directed two major research projects with focuses on defense and arms control in the Middle East.

Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Chair Marc Brettler said last September that the department needs Feldman in order to grow. Brettler said Feldman is "politically savvy" and spoke of his vast experience and contributions to scholarship on the Middle East.

Prof. S. Ilan Troen, the Crown Center's interim director, said last September that Feldman is more than just a scholar of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict-noting his expertise in issues of nuclear deterrents and other security issues.