It is hard to think of a more important moment than this for encouraging students to study in Israel and the Middle East. And yet, confounding admirers of its liberal arts and Jewish studies programs, Drew University in Madison has a policy that prevents its students from spending semesters abroad in Israel.

The university cites the objections of its insurance carriers and State Department travel warnings in upholding this shortsighted policy. But universities throughout the state and the country have overcome such obstacles to allow and even encourage their students to study at Israel's world-renowned institutions.

The State Department warning is a vague and pro-forma document that is careful to differentiate between the Gaza and the West Bank and Israel proper. The nearly 10,000 students from around the world who study each year at Israeli institutions, as well as the 25,000-30,000 who will spend time on programs like Birthright Israel, can attest that Israel is as safe a place to study as any in the first world.

It isn't necessary to list the ways in which American students can benefit from opportunities to study both Arabic and Hebrew, to experience firsthand interactions between Western and Islamic cultures, and to gain an understanding of the political and religious tensions that have come to define current events in America and the world. Denying these opportunities is a message to all students, not just Jews, that Drew is an institution that cannot accommodate their fullest educational needs.

The university has formed a joint committee to reevaluate the policy and has invited leaders of the Jewish community to address its members. Faculty and administrators have made encouraging statements. Any change will be too late for Jeremy Dery, the sophomore who had hoped to study at Tel Aviv University next semester and who drew attention to the issue. And yet changing the policy would be a sign that the university lives up to its own credo as an institution that combines "regard for diversity and protection of personal integrity, global awareness and local effectiveness, intellectual rigor, and vital community life."