Elijah Kahlenberg, a junior triple-majoring in authorities, Center Japanese research and Jewish research, is The College of Texas at Austin’s newest Truman scholar.
The federally funded Truman Scholarship gives $30,000 to college students pursuing graduate research in public service fields. The U.S. Congress created the scholarship in 1975 because the official memorial to President Harry S. Truman.
Kahlenberg had an inkling he had received when the top of postgraduate scholarships at UT known as and requested him to indicate up on the Tower in two hours in a go well with. “I believed, both I’m being expelled or I’m getting Truman,” he joked. It was the ultimate step in a rigorous strategy of essay writing, suggestions and interviews. President Jay Hartzell offered him with the award in his workplace. “I used to be on the verge of tears,” Kahlenberg mentioned. “It was a surreal expertise. I’m nonetheless in shock. It looks like a dream.”
Annually, 50 to 60 school juniors are named Truman students. The scholarships historically have been awarded to at least one scholar from every U.S. state. U.S. universities might nominate 4 college students yearly.
The status is price far more than the cash, however Kahlenberg mentioned he plans to make use of each to pursue a joint J.D. and Ph.D. at Columbia College. The J.D. will concentrate on worldwide legislation, and the Ph.D. will concentrate on Center East research and authorities. Columbia has the benefit of being in New York, the hub of most worldwide authorized establishments, however he instructed Hartzell throughout their assembly he would love to show at UT at some point.
A graduate of San Antonio’s Ronald Reagan Excessive Faculty and a die-hard Spurs fan, referring to Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama, he mentioned, “with Wemby and the Truman Scholarship, I’m the luckiest individual on this planet!” He’s the youngest of three sons, all of whom are Longhorns, with older brothers Zach and Sam Kahlenberg each Texas Exes and medical docs.
Kahlenberg has been finding out the Israeli-Palestinian challenge since he was 12. At UT, he’s the president and founding father of Atidna Worldwide, a company devoted to bringing collectively Jews and Arabs to have civil dialogue on “something and every thing” pertaining to Israelis and Palestinians. “It’s my private perception that Jews and Arabs are cousins. If you have a look at our tradition, our id, our aspirations, not solely do they not battle, they’re extra comparable to one another than some other folks,” he mentioned.
“It’s not solely a truth in and of itself, however viewing your self as a part of one household is an effective way to interrupt down a whole lot of animosity and hatred. We do peace occasions round that theme,” he mentioned.
Final semester, they held a joint vigil on Nov. 7, the one-month mark of the beginning of the warfare between Israel and Hamas, to honor all innocents, Israelis and Palestinians, who had been misplaced within the warfare. “An occasion like that may be a strategy to get Jews and Arabs in a typical area. When you may mourn with one another, that’s when you may solidify that we’re one household.” In addition they maintain dialogue classes.
“You’re employed actually onerous, and it’s possible you’ll do all the best issues and this will likely by no means occur. That is nice for everybody. Nice for college students. It’s nice for the College. It’s nice for the world,” Hartzell mentioned to Kahlenberg of the selectivity of the Truman Scholarship Basis and Kahlenberg’s founding of Atidna. “It’s a time when that work is required. After we say what begins right here modifications the world, we take it critically.”
He mentioned his profession aspiration is to grow to be a professor of worldwide legislation, and if he had a magic wand, the end result of his profession can be to win the Nobel Peace Prize whereas working for the U.S. authorities or an impartial group to bridge the hole between the 2 peoples.
He’s additionally on the board of a company known as Roots, which he mentioned is the one group within the West Financial institution to carry collectively Jews and Arabs in a civil and joint area for mutual understanding and reconciliation. “There may be some inherent stress once we first enter the area, however by organizations like Atidna and Roots, we’ve got an opportunity to have conversations that reveal that our tradition and aspirations and id are actually one and the identical.”
As proof, he cites a typical Palestinian garment known as a keffiyeh and the Jewish prayer scarf known as a tallit. “If you have a look at the origin of each of these clothes, you discover they got here from the identical precise supply, a Canaanite costume from round 4,000 years in the past. After we dive into our tradition, our ancestry, our roots, it’s one and the identical.”
Kahlenberg is the twenty sixth UT scholar to be named a Truman scholar because the award was established 49 years in the past. UT’s first recipient, Carmen Marie Serna, who received the scholarship in 1979, additionally was a authorities main.
