NASHVILLE, Tenn. ñ Ari Dubin, who won the Ally of the Year award
from the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee for coordinating the
Jewish response to a 2004 Palestinian Solidarity Movement conference at
Duke University, will join Vanderbilt University as executive director
of the Vanderbilt Hillel.
“In my visits to Vanderbilt, I‘ve been amazed at the energy and the
passion of the students and the community in general,” Dubin said.
“Vanderbilt has really put itself on the map in the national Jewish
community. Jews all over the country are looking at Vanderbilt as an
exciting place to go to school. I hope to build on that foundation.”
Dubin will lead efforts to provide a center on the Vanderbilt campus
for Jewish students and others with programming, community outreach and
more. The Vanderbilt Hillel operates out of the Ben Schulman Center for
Jewish Life located in the heart of the Vanderbilt campus. The
10,000-square-foot building was dedicated in 2002.
“Vanderbilt has made such a tangible sign of commitment with
the Schulman Center building,” said David Steine, a Vanderbilt alumnus
who headed the search committee which selected Dubin. “We think Ari
will bring new programming ideas, engage more Jewish and non-Jewish
students at Vanderbilt, and help us become a presence in the larger
Jewish community of Nashville.”
Dubin has been director of the Freeman Center for Jewish Life at
Duke since 2003. There, he recruited prominent speakers including Avram
Burg (former speaker of the Israeli Knesset) and Mitchell Bard (author
of Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict), organized
activities for Jewish Awareness Week, produced and promoted worship
services, administered service programs including fundraisers for the
hungry and nursing home visits, and identified and trained student
leaders.
When Duke agreed to host a controversial Palestinian Solidarity
Movement conference last fall, Dubin worked closely with university
officials to ensure safe counter activities. These included the
Students Against Terror Concert and Vigil, speakers on the Middle East
including Alan Dershowitz and Gary Bauer, and coordination with local,
regional and national Jewish organizations.
The American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israeli
lobbying organization in America, on Sunday presented Dubin with its
Ally of the Year award at its annual policy conference in Washington,
D.C., for his leadership in response to the Palestinian conference at
Duke.
“Ari Dubin will be a very creative and imaginative executive
director, in our judgment,” said Steve Riven, chairman of the board of
Vanderbilt Hillel. “We could not be more pleased to have him coming
here to Nashville, to Vanderbilt and to the Schulman Center. There‘s a
lot of momentum here, and he brings a lot of ideas to the table.”
Dubin begins work at Vanderbilt in July.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
Jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu