About the Center

With an endowment gift from the Y&S Nazarian Family Foundation, the UCLA Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies was established in 2010, becoming the first academic center on the West Coast focused on promoting the study of modern Israel. Since the Center’s founding, it has become one of the preeminent Israel Studies centers in the United States, if not the world.

The mission of the Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies is to promote the study of modern Israel at UCLA and beyond. To that end, the Center sponsors courses about Israel for UCLA students, generates and disseminates academic research in the field of Israel Studies, organizes frequent public programs, and hosts visiting scholars, writers and artists. By providing grants to UCLA faculty and students, the Center also supports individual and collaborative research projects concerning Israel, and the development of new courses about Israel. Through our research, teaching and outreach, the Nazarian Center has become an internationally known source of expertise and education about Israel and an intellectually vibrant home for Israel Studies at UCLA.

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