Practice makes permanent
Government and law professor Ilan Peleg reflects on his 50-plus years at Lafayette.
Photograph By Rick Smith
Everything about Ilan Peleg is so very familiar. A flash of his infectious smile when he grasps the silver mace, leading the academic procession at Lafayette’s Commencement and Convocation. His spontaneous discussions on campus with students about geopolitics. Even his unwavering presence at concerts inside Williams Center for the Arts.
Peleg, Charles A. Dana Professor of Government and Law, has embraced the riches of academic life at Lafayette College since the day he arrived on campus in 1974.
As a Middle East expert, Peleg is in demand to give talks and media interviews. He’s also a prolific author, co-author, and editor of papers and books on international topics.
Recognition from Lafayette has included numerous prizes and awards, including one named in his honor, the annual Ilan Peleg Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award, endowed in 2023 by Chip ’79, H’22 and Juliet Bergh to recognize a faculty member who has done exceptional work mentoring and supporting students. The College, in 2021, also established the Robert Weiner and Ilan Peleg Chair in Jewish Studies, which has received widespread support from alumni.
Born in Tel Aviv, Peleg was raised in a kibbutz, which taught him commitment to the needs of the community, a value system that has guided his entire life.
Here, Lafayette’s longest-serving full professor among the current faculty body reflects on his interests, career, and observations at Lafayette.
By your expression, you clearly relish the role of mace bearer. What goes through your mind as you lead the academic procession?
It’s very honorific to know that I’m representing the institution as a whole, which is very, very important. When the students come through, you have a tremendous amount of feelings. You remember them when they were 17 or 18 years old and think about how much so many of them have changed. They arrived on campus almost as children, and they’re coming out as men and women.
What originally attracted you to Lafayette?
I completed my Ph.D. at Northwestern University in 1974. It was a difficult job market because this was immediately after the 1973 war in the Middle East and an oil embargo. I asked my adviser, who grew up in Roseto, a community with a strong Italian heritage north of Easton, what he knew about Lafayette. He described it as a phenomenal place and told me it was a dream of every Italian woman in Roseto to send her son to Lafayette. I applied, gave two presentations, and, as I got back home to Chicago, received a phone call from the department head, offering me a position and two weeks to make a decision. I said, ‘I don’t need two weeks.’ I knew this would be a great match. And I never changed my mind.
What are some qualities of Lafayette students that you most admire?
Our students are balanced in their way of life. They work hard, they study hard, and they have career goals. They’re very sociable. We get a very good group of youngsters at this institution, and many of them develop a very deep commitment to Lafayette.
You are a fixture at classical music concerts at Williams Center for the Arts and known for your seating rituals. When did you acquire your interest in classical music?
I have all sorts of idiosyncratic, even eccentric, forms of behavior. Since the age of 13 or 14, I have been a self-defined classical music fanatic, studying violin and viola. I love the period between Beethoven and Mahler. At the Williams Center, I usually sit in Row B on the left. From this position, I can see the pianist’s hands [when there is a pianist]. Moreover, in Row B there is enough light from the stage, so that I can read my scores.
One of my habits is to go to a concert in every city I visit. On Sept. 13, for example, I was in Berlin for a conference, so in the evening I attended a performance of the legendary Berlin Philharmonic, with the score of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” on my lap, of course. My other hobby is travel, a good one to have as a professor of international politics. And soccer.
Representing more than a quarter of Lafayette’s 200 years, what do you think about the Bicentennial?
I hope we take this time to get to know our namesake even better. The Marquis de Lafayette was really a very interesting man. He had a very strong sense of what was right and what was not, notably his position on enslaved Africans in America. He was the only man who looked George Washington in the eye and said, ‘What you Americans are doing is wrong.’ And as we know, George Washington was very authoritative, a tall man for his period. People did not challenge him. But he and Lafayette had a special relationship that allowed for frank exchanges.
What has most inspired you over the decades?
The close relationships between Lafayette professors and students stand out. When students first arrive here, the role of a professor in their life, and mentorships, become very meaningful for them. Through the years, I’ve developed many special relationships with students. The best of all is when they come knocking on my door after 30 years. I’ve not seen them in so long, and they bring their sons or daughters to campus to meet me. This is really gratifying.
