This spring, Brandeis alumnus Elijah Jatovsky (class of 2008) graduated from Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Elijah was very active in his studies of Middle East politics during his four years at Georgetown and will continue this work as a State Department intern this summer in Rwanda. "This internship is part of a two-year State Department program that is intended as a feeder program for the Foreign Service," Elijah explains. "I spent last summer working in Washington, DC, in the Middle East Bureau and this summer I'm in Rwanda before heading to Nicaragua in August to work as a secondary education Peace Corps volunteer."

 

In his final year at Georgetown, Elijah tackled three major research projects: one focusing on the role of Jerusalem in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations (sponsored by the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress); the second examining the current US role in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations (through Georgetown's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy); and the third tracking the attitudes of Israel's security establishment members toward the two-state solution (Elijah's honors thesis through the School of Foreign Service). In addition, he delivered a TedxGeorgetown talk about his time spent studying abroad in Jordan and volunteering in Syrian and Palestinian refugee camps.

 

Elijah can trace his passions back to his days as a Brandeis student: "Brandeis's commitment to Jewish education was central to shaping my interest in Middle East peace issues, which eventually expanded into a broader interest in international relations. I credit the Jewish education in which I was raised to shaping in me values that can be applied on a universal level."