When most people talk about the conflict in the Middle East, it is usually to advocate for their cause or place blame on the other side. But senior Matan Chorev is interested in the conflict for a completely different reason.
"My principle aim is in that I was really not interested in advocacy or advocating or arguing on the side of one party to the conflict," Chorev said. "My interest was actually in using the enormous resources here at the University to foster new thinking about these dilemmas."
Chorev, who was born in Jerusalem but has been living in the Boston area since 1992, is the co-founder of the Middle Eastern Student Society (MESS) and is one of the founding members of the New Initiative for Middle East Peace (NIMEP), a student think tank and cultural advocacy initiative.
NIMEP currently includes 100 students from across the United States, and 17 from Tufts. "Hopefully by next spring we'll have at least 1,000, because technology is so cheap and we can reach so many people now," Chorev said.
Chorev's main focus for the group is communication across cultural barriers. "If Tufts is such an international school and if there is such a diversity of students from the Middle East, then let's not argue about who's right or wrong, let's get together and think in new and progressive ways about the conflict of the region - that's my passion," Chorev said.
According to Chorev, he started NIMEP in order "to spread this kind of thinking within the community and abroad and to keep educating ourselves about issues relating to the conflict."
NIMEP has gone on three excursions to the Middle East, including the West Bank, Egypt, and Iran, where the group was the first U.S. student delegation since 1979. The program currently has students visiting Dubai.
Chorev is also the leader of the Tufts chapter of the Soliya program, which is associated with NIMEP. By using new web-based videoconferencing technology, the program allows "small groups of university students from the United States and predominantly Muslim Countries in the Middle East" to "meet weekly online with the help of skilled facilitators."
As the leader of Soliya at Tufts, Chorev teaches an ExCollege class that uses the program. Through traditional lectures as well as online meetings, the class hopes to "frame the relationship between the Middle East and the United States," Chorev said.
"We meet online - four students from the United States and four students from the Middle East," Chorev said. "And along with facilitators, we are trying to think about what are the challenges between these two regions."
"What we realized was missing after Sept. 11 was communication," he added. "The misunderstandings about these two distinct cultures, on the part of the Middle East and America, come from a lack of communication. This resonates with NIMEP's mission."
Chorev was also named a University College of Citizenship and Public Service Scholar in 2002. While his current project as a scholar is NIMEP, he spent his first two years with the University College doing something completely different.
With the child development department, Chorev "worked on thinking about an educational and professional pathway for people interested in community youth development, and the goal was to turn it into a new academic program," he said. "We launched a long range plan with universities across the country."
Along with Chorev's extensive academic accomplishments, he is also a concert cellist and has performed in North, Central and South America, as well as in Israel, winning numerous awards. As well, the political science major is also pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory, as a student of renowned cellist Paul Katz.
As a five-year student pursuing dual degrees, Chorev will not graduate for another year, although he is finished with all his coursework.
Chorev is currently spending much of his time trying to decide which of his two distinct passions he should pursue post-Tufts.
"I am deliberating what my career path is going to be right now - music or foreign policy," Chorev said. "But I just haven't decided yet."
