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Object 12. Arab student program

1967-1968

Description:

In 1967 Raphael worked with his colleague Professor R. J. Zwi Werblowsky based in Jerusalem, to create a Hostel for Arab students living in Jerusalem. Raphael co-ordinated fund-raising in the UK for the project: they predicted, in autumn 1967, that they needed to raise £7000 to fund the project. They aimed to provide a place for Arab students to live together to make them ‘feel more at home’, this was to include Christian and Muslim Arabs; it was also suggested this would then provide the students a place to ‘host’ inter-faith groups on their own terms. The Sisters of St. Joseph’s agreed to let the one of their buildings for this purpose.

Raphael sent a copy of Werblowsky’s initial proposal to his friends and in the Angl0-Jewish community seeking support. Some comments in the circular reflect cultural assumptions of the time, ‘Arab students are coming from a very tightly knit social (family, village) background’, ‘no doubt (knowing the Arab grapevine) more and more Arab students, including Muslims will want to join’, ‘it seems to me to be an ideal project for a joint Jewish-Christian endeavour on behalf of the still ‘undeveloped’ Arabs in the area’.

Raphael also composed a letter to the British press. In the draft Raphael sets out his attitude towards Israel, arguing that it is important for the Jewish community to ‘demonstrate that Diaspora loyalty is likewise available on call’, but that also Arabs in Israel should be supported. He describes the scheme as a ‘small but potentially significant scheme’, and the Arab students as 'not yet psychologically ready to take their due places within the healthy rumbustious cosmopolitanism of the existing halls of residences’. Despite the language which dates this article his humanitarian intentions are clear. He concludes the article: ‘The first step in the direction of Jewish-Arab understanding must be to assure that the two meet on the same level’.

In a letter dated 5th November 1967 Raphael writes to Zwi Werblowsky suggesting that a Muslim PhD student takes on the role of warden, demonstrating his cultural sensitivity.

In his draft letter to the press Raphael stresses that in the first year it would operate as a pilot scheme. His archive contains many letters he received in response to this plea. On 11th November 1967 Raphael wrote again to Werblowsky about the generosity of Jewish students in Oxford towards the project, mentioning a donation from Balliol College. However he also reports the reservations of some members of the Anglo-Jewish community towards the scheme, namely the suggested use of a Christian convent.

Credits: Leopold Muller Memorial Library, Raphael Loewe Archive, shelfmark: pending cataloguing