FHSU’s International Faculty

FHSU’s International Faculty

“INTERNATIONAL,” according to the Oxford Dictionary, means “existing, occurring, or carried on between two or more nations.” At FHSU, “international” means so much more. Dozens of faculty members from around the world teach FHSU students on campus. Their ranks are joined by 38 cross-border faculty members who teach at FHSU partner institutions in eight countries. Additionally, with FHSU’s everbroadening online presence, professors teach FHSU students from remote locations worldwide.

One faculty member teaching abroad is Dr. Patricia Levy, who lives and teaches in Ashdod, Israel. The challenges of teaching FHSU students via Zoom have been exacerbated during the fall 2023 semester due to the destruction and turmoil of the IsraelGaza conflict.

Teaching Resilience: An FHSU Professor’s Life in Israel

BY DAWNE LEIKER

SHE TELLS HER ONLINE STUDENTS she must leave their Zoom conversation if a siren sounds. “I’ll go to a safe room. That’s just what you have to do.”

Dr. Patricia Levy, FHSU professor of social work, lives in an eight-story apartment building in Ashdod, Israel, a city of 220,000 people less than 40 miles north of Gaza.

“We (Dr. Levy and a friend) went shopping yesterday and got lucky that the siren didn’t happen until after we got home,” she said.

I visited with Dr. Levy over a Zoom call less than two weeks after Hamas’ attacks on Israel. Fortunately, we made it through the entire conversation without hearing a siren.

Dr. Levy grew up in Seattle, Wash., then moved to Israel in 1970. After completing her bachelor’s degree in social work from Bar Ilan University, she lived and worked in Israel for 18 years before moving back to the U.S., where she received her master’s degree in social work at the University of Washington and her Ph.D. in Human Services at Capella University. Although she has been a professor of social work on the campus of FHSU for 23 years, she returns to Israel nearly every summer to be near family and to experience the deep connections she feels for the country and

its people. Because she teaches online and has the flexibility to teach from any location, she decided to teach from Israel in the fall of 2022.

“In Israel, everywhere you go, you have a tie to your own history,” Dr. Levy said. “You can’t step anywhere in Israel without stepping on history.” Dr. Levy’s family traces its Jewish roots back for generations. Family members on her father’s side experienced the devastation of the Holocaust.

Dr. Levy assisted children and families throughout her years as a social worker. She has expertise in medical social work, including front-line, supervisory, and administrative practice, both in Israel and in the U.S. Working with culturally diverse groups has long been a passion for Dr. Levy, who has professional experience working with Native American, African American, and Middle Eastern and European populations.

The war that began Oct. 7, 2023 is the third war that Dr. Levy has faced in Israel. She was a social worker during the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and the Gulf War in 1991. Social workers were called up during each war to serve the civilian population.

Maintaining a routine has helped Dr. Levy cope with the societal disruptions of war. Surprisingly, she has found some respite in watching Korean movies on Netflix during the last few weeks.