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War has made Mideast expert popular

Many flocking to hear DU professor's talks

Jeff Kass, News Staff Writer

Published November 27, 2001 at midnight

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Professor Shaul Gabbay was expecting, at most, 40 people to attend his public seminars on the Middle East this year.

Then terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, and up to 150 were attending. Gabbay says he has been on local television as an analyst about 60 times. More seminars have been added to his calendar.

The events raised the profile of Gabbay's institute, which had a full-scale, but quiet launch just before the terrorist attacks.

Gabbay is director of the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East at the University of Denver. The institute has been around for about five years, but never had a full-time director or budget.

That changed this year when Gabbay was at the helm as classes started Sept. 10.

The institute is supported by university staff, and funded by private donors and grant money.

"It was a make or break year," said Robyn Loup, a prominent Denver fund-raiser who sits on the ISIME board of directors. "You can't keep asking people to give money to something where there's nothing happening."

The institute's budget this year is about $125,000, compared with about $65,000 the year before, said board chairman Robert Loup, who is married to Robyn Loup.

Gabbay, 40, has a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University. His research projects range from terrorism to Israeli high-tech companies.

Gabbay is easygoing and talkative. His sparse office includes a Picasso print of a dove holding an olive branch. A drawing of Israel superimposed on a sliver of Colorado territory illustrates just how small the country is, despite its high profile.

"This is the first time a guy wakes up in the morning, and in the middle of the night, and thinks, 'What am I going to do next?' " he says of the director's job.

Gabbay knows that some may see the institute as pro-Israel. For starters, there is the name. Gabbay himself is Israeli and Jewish, and the ISIME board of directors is drawn from the Jewish community.

But Robyn Loup said the board is reaching out to others. And Gabbay stresses that the institute has no agenda, pro-Israeli or otherwise. He says the stress on academics will shut out politics, or at least allow all sides to be heard.

"We're basically insisting we're not going to side with a particular community," he said.

The Muslim community has supported Gabbay, and the institute.

"I like his ideas," said Mohamad Jodeh, past president of the Colorado Muslim Society, who has talked with Gabbay about bringing the Egyptian ambassador to Denver for a speech. "He's very open-minded, and he's very constructive."

Jodeh did suggest that the focus on Israel in the institute's name be changed.

"If the name will be changed to 'for the study of the Middle East,' that will make it broader," he said.