Western Law Student Wins International Academic Awards

January 18, 2010

TORONTO - Omar Ha-Redeye, a third-year law student at the University of Western Ontario, was presented two CALI Excellence for the Future Awards for the highest overall grade in courses taken this summer during an exchange program in Israel.

The awards were presented by The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, founded by the University of Minnesota's and Harvard's Law Schools to advance computer technology in legal education, promote leadership among lawyers, and promote access to justice.

The two courses, Holocaust, Genocide and the Law and Jewish Christian & Islamic Legal Tradition Seminar, were taught by American and Israeli professors at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. Whittier Law School hosted this program, the largest law exchange in Israel, with participating students selected from multiple schools across the U.S., U.K., Israel, and several other students from Canada.

"Learning about the Shoa (Holocaust) in Israel, where many of the survivors currently live, really added some depth to the subject, said Ha-Redeye. The class included a trip to Yad Vashem, Israels Holocaust memorial, where students viewed original artifacts and testimonies from survivors. More importantly, it helped identify the early signs and trends of xenophobia and hatred, so that I can help guard against it back at home in Canada.

Bar Ilan University is renowned for its kollel, or religious seminary, which focuses on yeshiva studies that include Jewish Law. In addition to reputable rabbis, the instructors included Kenneth Starr of the Clinton-Lewinsky inquiry.

More recently, Prof. Starr was involved in Proposition 8, the California constitutional amendment restricting the definition of marriage to opposite-sex couples, which is currently under appeal. Starr headed a panel with his Israeli colleagues that discussed family law issues in their respective jurisdictions.

Israel has some distinct and sometimes controversial legal traditions, especially as it relates to family law, said Ha-Redeye, And hearing these perspectives which included religious legal traditions while in the Holy Land was just that much more fascinating. By living in Jerusalem while commuting to the university, Ha-Redeye was able to visit many of the sites there.

Ha-Redeye participated in the program out of his interest in these subjects, and did not receive credit for it back at Western. Excelling in these courses without any expectation of recognition is the spirit that Western tries to inculcate in its students.

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For more information:

Whittier Law Abroad: http://www.law.whittier.edu/centers/abroad/israel/sa-israel.html

CALI: http://www.cali.org/

Copies of the Awards:
(Holocaust, Genocide and the Law) http://www2.cali.org/index.php?fuseaction=excellenceawards.ViewOneAward&awardid=19eaf2e0
(Jewish Christian and Islamic Seminar) http://www2.cali.org/index.php?fuseaction=excellenceawards.ViewOneAward&awardid=19eaeb10


For more information contact:
Omar Ha-Redeye
Phone: 226-448-6627
Email: omar@lawiscool.com
Website: omarha-redeye.com

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Omar Ha-Redeye

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