Students feel safe at BYU's Jerusalem Center

PROVO — Highland's Bryan Bozung wanted to spend a semester at

Brigham Young University's Jerusalem Center, but when he enrolled at BYU,

the center had been closed due to violence in the region.

When the Jerusalem Center reopened in 2007, Bozung was serving a mission

for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California. He

finally learned last year he had landed a spot at the center this semester,

but then Palestinian rockets began to fly into the Gaza Strip in late

December — about a week before he and 79 other students were

scheduled to leave for Israel.

"We were pretty sure they wouldn't go," said Bill Bozung, Bryan's

father, "but BYU was very confident in sending them. If anything, they're

overcautious of the students there, which he appreciates. My son is very

comfortable over there."

Bryan Bozung and other students who have studied at the center in the

past two years say BYU's security and the location of the center make them

feel completely safe while they learn invaluable lessons about both the

Holy Land and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

BYU students were hardly aware of the Gaza war, he said, though they

once were surprised by a test of air-raid sirens in Jerusalem. Center

officials don't allow students within range of the rockets, which can't

reach the Mount of Olives, where the center is located, some 40 miles from

the Gaza Strip. Even if the rockets had the range, all agree they wouldn't

be aimed toward the center.

"The Jerusalem Center is surrounded by Palestinian neighborhoods," Bill

Bozung said, "and the Dome of the Rock is one of the holiest sites to