The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo seeks common ground, support in L.A.

(The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo. Credit: Courtesy)

Barely seven months have passed since Israel witnessed unprecedented violence in its mixed Arab-Israeli cities in Ramle, Lod, Haifa, Acre and Yaffo, which up until that point had been considered models of coexistence.

Last month, one man who works in one of these cities made a trip to Los Angeles to talk to some of the biggest movers and shakers in the Jewish community about how to work together for the benefit of all mixed communities.

The man is Yariv Sultan. Born into a mixed city himself in Haifa, he is now the vice president of development and external relations at The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo. Sultan is proud of the fact that the college — established in 1994 — today boasts close to 5,000 students in six schools (Behavioral Science, Computer Science, Management and Economics, Government and Society, Nursing Science and Information Systems) and brings together Jews and Arabs. And in light of the recent unrest, he believes now, more than ever, it’s crucial to work with the international community. Situated in a decidedly poor area, where many students do not go on to higher education, the college has been working within the community to provide opportunities to those who may never have even thought of going to college.

To that end, the college works directly with high schools in Yaffo. “When you look at the numbers of the Arab community in Yaffo, a graduating class from high school on an annual basis is about 400 kids,” Sultan said.

He cites one of the college’s programs, where parents are invited to take free academic classes at the college, giving them a taste of a life they never had and the opportunity to contemplate the idea that maybe they should send their kids to college.
“We have to combine academic excellence with social activism and involvement,” Sultan said. “We want to establish a research Institute of Yaffo and its residents. The Tel Aviv-Yaffo community is so unique.”

He added, “We have to remember that we [in Tel Aviv-Yaffo] are not a segregated bubble. We are part and parcel of the community that surrounds us, be it Jewish, be it Arab, be it the conflict we witnessed just a few months ago.”
With a diverse student body and faculty comprising Jews and Arabs, Sultan said the college really is “the face of the new Israel — between new immigrants and veterans, Israelis and Arabs and Charedi men studying nursing of all things.”

There is a specific nursing track designed for Charedi participants, “which is heavily sponsored by the government and by private donors because the Charedi population need their own caretakers. That program is also gender oriented,” Sultan said.
Sharing the mission and vision of the college in Los Angeles made sense to Sultan for a number of reasons, including the fact that L.A. is in fact Tel Aviv’s sister city, and Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai is a member of the college’s board.
The college also saw an opportunity after the riots in May to expand its vision and reach. “People told us we were crazy but barely four weeks after the riots, we held an open-mic night evening on the campus and invited the community to come and speak and share their feelings,” Sultan said.

“If you want to challenge the social issues at hand, you have to give fisheries — and not fish — to the hungry.”

That event featured a panel with seven dignitaries, Jews and Arabs from the area, and was streamed live on the internet. “Obviously it was very tense,” Sultan said, “but the general response was that we were brave to hold the event. It didn’t matter what was said; it was the fact that we were willing to look at the issues head on and not look the other way.”

He added that although it’s easy for academics to say, “ ‘this is not an academic problem,’ we want to launch an annual summit about mixed cities. It’s an international issue right now, not just an Israeli one. You have more and more global cities where the identity or the historical identity of that city has changed over the years due to migration, due to wars, etc.”

That’s why, he said, people in Los Angeles have been very receptive to hearing about the work being done at the college, adding that some of the conversations he’s had here have included locals saying, “the greater Los Angeles area is dealing with similar issues to us [in Israel].”

Some of those issues, he said, come down to things like segregating Jews from the greater community if, for example, they attend only Jewish schools. “If they then go to public schools, all of a sudden they meet kids from different backgrounds and that poses a whole slew of challenges,” Sultan said, adding he’s spoken with donors who have made it a priority to provide multicultural grants that allow for leaning into and understanding diversity.

Vice President Development & External Relations Yariv Sultan visiting Los Angeles. Credit: Kelly Hartog

At The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, it’s that challenge that’s dealt with every day, Sultan said. “We have students and faculty who are Jewish, Arab, Charedi, Arab women coming in with hijabs. It’s not something you see every day.”
He shares one success story from the college: a female Arab graduate who runs a coexistence nongovernmental organization with a Jewish woman. “They’re co-CEOS and the Arab girl was chosen by a financial magazine in Israel as one of the top-40 under-40 leaders. That’s the gold standard for us. These two women now work in the community for us.”
And although providing high quality academic education is extremely important, another of the college’s main purposes, Sultan said, is to encourage and allow social mobility. “If you want to challenge the social issues at hand, you have to give fisheries — and not fish — to the hungry. And you have to have the teaching and learning and the highest academic level possible to be engaged with the job market.”