by Jordan Daniels
Communications Associate for Leichtag Foundation 

The Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative (MGSDII) is proud to announce the lineup of visiting Israeli professors who will teach 17 classes on modern Israel at San Diego university campuses for the 2019-2020 year. With partnerships at SDSU, USD, UCSD and CSUSM, we're engaging the discourse on Israel and equipping students with knowledge about Israel's success, challenges, and complexities through film, science, climate change and politics.
 
"Our collaboration with these universities is vital to our work," says MGSDII Director Susan Lapidus. "Classroom and immersion experiences are safe spaces for students to ask questions and challenge assumptions."
 
In addition to the Israeli professors teaching in San Diego, students are also invited to visit Israel and extend their knowledge in their courses through practical application. Over 60 San Diego students participated in faculty-led trips to Israel in the 2018-2019 academic year. One trip took exchanged students from SDSU's Aerospace Engineering program with students at Technion - The Israel Institute of Technology, to build drones. Last academic year, Israeli professors taught over 44 courses on San Diego university campuses.
 
To expand our reach in arts & culture, we announced a partnership last year with the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival, awarding San Diego residencies to two Israeli filmmakers for Spring 2020. We also awarded three full-ride scholarships to San Diego students to participate in the prestigious Jerusalem Film workshop this past Summer.  The MGSDII also supports the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture's annual San Diego International Jewish Film Festival.
 
To find more information about the professors for this academic year, visit our academics page here!