Thread by @elderofziyon

In 1924, American University of Beirut gave its first degree to a woman.

Her name was Sara Levy and she was from Jerusalem. She went to AUB's pharmacy school.

Three of the first five female graduates from AUB were Jews, two of them from Palestine.

In 1947-8, American University of Beirut advised its Jewish students (there were hundreds) to leave because the university couldn't protect them from Arabs on campus.

Most did; the percentage of Jewish students at AUB went from 12% in 1943 to about 1% in 1950.

Here is the Jewish "Kadimah Society" at AUB at an outing in 1939.

On November 2, 1938, Balfour Day, most Arab students at AUB wore black ribbons. Some Zionists responded by wearing blue and white. One of them, "Dani," was shot at with a gun, a stone thrown through his dorm window and his ribbon torn off.

AUB's head blamed Dani for starting it.

In January 1948, a group of Arab students came to AUB’s Vice President ‘demanding the expulsion of Jewish students, who are nationals of non-Arab States’. The VP had to take ‘measures… to protect the lives of Jewish students and ensure their safety’.
The Jews were forced out.

All from
Caroline Kahlenberg (2019): The star of David in a cedar tree: Jewish students
and Zionism at the American University of Beirut (1908–1948), Middle Eastern Studies, DOI:
10.1080/00263206.2018.1560272