[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 24, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9112-S9113]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ISRAEL'S HEBREW UNIVERSITY

 Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, the civilized world was shocked and 
outraged when Palestinian militants planted a bomb on July 31, 2002 in 
a cafeteria at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The bomb ultimately 
killed nine young people, including five young Americans, and injured 
an additional 80 people.
  I agree with President George W. Bush, who condemned ``in as strong 
as possible terms the attack that took place in Israel'' and 
characterized those behind the bombings as ``killers who hate the 
thought of peace.''
  What made the attack particularly heinous and unforgivable was the 
Hebrew University is an institution that constitutes an island of 
sanity and hope in a region that often seems to exemplify the opposite 
of those virtues.
  Professor Menachem Magidor, President of Hebrew University, 
articulated these points in a letter published by The New York Times on 
August 9, 2002. He stated that this ``was more than a murderous act. 
Specifically targeted against the heart of an academic campus, it was 
also an attack on what the university symbolizes and aspires to: 
understanding, tolerance and the quest for peace.''
  He went on to state that ``The ethnic composition of the victims 
attests to the diversity and pluralism of our university family. The 
victims includes Jews and Palestinians, as well as citizens of the 
United States, France, Italy, South Korea, Turkey and Japan. Our 
university, where more than 10 percent of the 23,000 students are of 
Arab descent, is one of the very few places in which a meaningful 
dialogue between Jews and Arabs still takes place.''
  Hebrew University is, indeed, a unique and special institution. It is 
the oldest comprehensive institution of higher learning in Israel, and 
considered to be among the world's great universities.
  The laying of the cornerstone for the university on Mt. Scopus in 
July 1918 was attended by Muslims, Jews and Christians. This set the 
tone for a university dedicated from its very beginnings to the pursuit 
of knowledge for the benefit not only of the then fledgling Jewish 
community of the land of Israel and for world Jewry, but also for all 
of the peoples of the region--including Muslims and Christians--and for 
humanity generally.
  Seven years later, on April 1, 1925, the Hebrew University of 
Jerusalem was opened at a gala ceremony attended by leaders of world 
Jewry including the University's founding father, Chaim Weizmann, who 
would become in 1948 the first President of the new nation of Israel. 
Albert Einstein, one of the intellectual giants of the modern work, was 
also among the founding fathers of the institution.
  As Palestine was then part of the British mandate, the British were 
represented by Lord Balfour, Viscount Allenby and Sir Herbert Samuel, 
all pivotal figures in the history of the region.
  The University's first three research institutes were in 
microbiology, chemistry and Jewish studies, and the school began with a 
total of 33 faculty members and 141 students. The University awarded 
its first Master's degrees to 13 graduates in 1931.
  By the time the British announced that they would leave Palestine in 
1947, the University had grown into a well established research and 
teaching institution. As a result of the fighting in Jerusalem during 
the War of Independence in 1948, the University was cut off from the 
main Israei-held sectors in the city. The University was forced to seek 
other quarters and its facilities were scattered throughout Jerusalem.
  Construction began in 1953 on a new campus in the Givat Ram section 
of Jerusalem. Together with Hadassah Medical Organization, a few years 
later, Hebrew University began construction of a medical science campus 
in Ein Kerem in southwest Jerusalem.
  By 1967, enrollment exceeded 12,500 at the two campuses in Jerusalem 
and Rehovot. The reunification of Jerusalem, as a result of the Six Day 
War in June 1967, enabled the university's leaders to restore and 
expand the original campus on Mt. Scopus. The Rothberg International 
School was opened there in 1971 and by 1981, Mt. Scopus was again the 
main campus for the university.
  Thus, since its modest beginning, with its handful of students and 
staff, the university has grown remarkably to include an enrollment of 
some 23,000 students on four campuses, three of them in Jerusalem and 
another in Rehovot.
  But this is a story of more than buildings. The university offers 
basic

[[Page S9113]]

and advanced educational opportunities in virtually all fields of 
higher education, from humanities to the social sciences, chemistry, 
physics, life sciences, law, medicine, agriculture, engineering, social 
work, education and numerous other fields of study too numerous to 
mention. It offers degrees at all levels including B.A., B.S., Master's 
and Ph.D.
  Although it attracts students of the front rank from all over Israel 
and abroad due to its reputation as a leading teaching institution, the 
university is also renowned internationally for the research carried 
out there in all of the sciences.
  These research projects, numbering in the thousands, involve in many 
cases cooperative efforts with leading scientists and scholars, among 
them a substantial number of Americans. To get an idea of the quality 
of the research being pursued, one need only examine the leading 
scientific journals, such as Science or Nature, to see how often the 
names of Hebrew University researchers appear on their pages.

  It is significant that scholars and researchers based at Hebrew 
University have competed for and received many grants from numerous 
American agencies and departments including NIH, NIST, DARPA, and 
USAID. Those in charge of reviewing such grant proposals have come to 
respect the substantive quality of the work done at Hebrew University. 
It is worth noting that many of these proposals are made in cooperation 
with American institutions, which has served to enhance the close 
relations between our people and especially our scientists. The results 
of these projects have benefitted Americans, Israelis and all mankind.
  But it is more than the quality of its teaching and research that I 
wish to emphasize today in speaking about the special nature of the 
Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
  Indeed, there are many outstanding universities in our own country 
and elsewhere that are making significant contributions to our 
knowledge and to the progress of our world.
  What I really want to stress is the singularity of this university in 
its vigorous efforts towards meeting the desperate need for the 
furtherance of those human values which we so treasure in our own 
country and which we consider to be the foundation stones of decent 
societies everywhere.
  Specifically, I am speaking of elements that to us seem basic and 
which we probably take for granted: the free and unfettered pursuit of 
information, freedom of expression, tolerance for people of different 
religious, races and ethnic origins and for those whose world views may 
be different from our own. In brief, I am speaking of an openness 
that--all too sadly--does not exist in many societies and in many parts 
of the world.
  It is precisely this pluralistic and tolerant spirit which has 
characterized the Hebrew University since its earliest days and which 
has through the years attracted students and scholars from the four 
corners of the world.
  The student body today is a diverse and pluralistic one, made up of 
Israelis--Jews and Arabs--as well as foreign students of all religions, 
races and ethnic origins.
  These students study and live together within the university 
community, contributing in no small measure--perhaps unconsciously--to 
the development of a world based on informed coexistence and peace, 
rather than one grounded in ignorance and hatred, doomed to eternal 
conflict and purposeless death and suffering.
  Long before anyone dreamed of dialogue between Israelis and 
Palestinians, the Hebrew University, through one of its institutes 
named for one of our great Presidents of the last century--the Harry S. 
Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace--initiated and 
developed substantial cooperative academic and research projects 
involving scholars from Israel and from its Arab neighbors Egypt, 
Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza.
  Nowhere were there so many Arab and Israeli researchers involved in 
cooperative ventures aimed at achieving a better and mutually 
beneficial future than at the Hebrew University. These projects 
involved numerous academic disciplines: the social and exact sciences, 
agriculture, medicine, dental medicine and others.
  Scores of practically oriented plans and reports were drawn up by 
these teams as to how to proceed regarding the resolution of such 
difficult issues as the sharing of water resources, the delineation of 
borders, and the protection of the environment. In addition, the 
university has conducted numerous in-service training courses for Arab 
professionals.
  It is precisely the yearning and searching for the solving of age-old 
conflicts, for peaceful resolution that the savage advocates of hate 
and murder sought to strike down in their despicable bombing attack at 
the Hebrew University. But the human spirit is not so easily 
discouraged or defeated.
  In condemning the bombing attack on the Hebrew University, the 
president of the American Council on Education, David Ward, took note 
of this significant aspect of the university. He wrote that: ``The 
Hebrew University of Jerusalem has played a critical role in promoting 
co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians--as well as among people 
of all nationalities, religions and cultures. The terrible act at the 
Mount Scopus campus was intended to prevent the type of human 
interaction and discourse that can facilitate peaceful change in a more 
complex and challenging world.''
  It is this kind of hopeful spirit that was so brutally and viciously 
assaulted in the murderous bombing attack that took place at the Hebrew 
University's Frank Sinatra Student Center cafeteria on July 31, 2002.
  This was more than another senseless terror attack, aimed at killing 
and maiming innocent people. It was an attack--knowingly or 
unknowingly--against everything that not just the Hebrew University but 
all of the free world holds dear.
  Just as the American people are firm in their resolve not to allow 
the perpetrators of September 11th to destroy our society or our 
commitment to decency and peace, so too the people of Israel, including 
the Hebrew University community, are determined not to lose heart 
because of those who would seek to destroy that spirit of humanity 
which has been so devotedly cultivated there over the years.
  Hebrew University's President Magidor stated that this was ``an 
attack on understanding, tolerance and the quest for peace. [It] is a 
crime not only against Israel or the Jewish people, it is a crime 
against the free and enlightened world.''
  In the wake of this tragedy, President Magidor then asked himself 
``whether it still makes sense to strive for a peaceful society based 
on reason and understanding.'' Given the circumstances, his conclusion 
is both remarkable and also a perfect summation for the ethos of this 
institution. He concluded his letter to The New York Times by stating 
that ``the answer came to me clearly, and it is summarized by the 
Hebrew word `davka'--`despite everything'. We must not let them kill 
our drive of peace.''
  A bridge of co-existence in the strife-torn Middle East, the Hebrew 
University of Jerusalem, has been damaged. But it has not been 
destroyed, neither physically nor spiritually. That bridge will be 
repaired. It will be stronger even than it was in the past. And it will 
continue to serve as a source of pride and inspiration to the people of 
Israel, the United States, and all people everywhere who treasure life 
and liberty as the supreme human values.

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