Thanks to everyone who made the program amazing! Faculty: Lori Lefkovitz and Simon Rabinovitch Tour Guide: Yossi Yeinan Guest Speakers: Mr. Robby Berman, Founder and former Director of HODS Halakhic … Continue reading Summer 2022 Credits

Thanks to everyone who made the program amazing! Faculty: Lori Lefkovitz and Simon Rabinovitch Tour Guide: Yossi Yeinan Guest Speakers: Mr. Robby Berman, Founder and former Director of HODS Halakhic … Continue reading Summer 2022 Credits
By Jared Haime After a tumultuous odyssey through the Holy Land, June 21 marked the near end of our journey (with June 22 reserved for a wrap-up class, followed by … Continue reading Tel Aviv Diary, Yalla Bye
On June 20 students worked on their final digital humanities projects–to be published here soon–and in the afternoon the group visited the ANU Museum of the Jewish People (formerly Beit … Continue reading Tel Aviv Diary
On June 19, our class had the pleasure of meeting Riki Shapira-Rosenberg, Adv., a lecturer at the Academic College of Kiryat Ono and a lawyer at the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC). During her presentation, Riki discussed the actions IRAC has been taking in order to protect the democratic integrity of the State of Israel while preserving rights for all religious communities. For example, we learned about a seven-year period in the early 2000s in which some intercity lines in the Israeli bus system were segregated by gender as the Ultra-Orthodox population in Israel grew. IRAC became involved in the campaign against gender segregation on public buses in 2001, after receiving numerous reports of women who were physically and verbally abused if not in compliance. I thought it was very interesting that many Orthodox women did not even support the segregated bus system despite their belief in modesty and gender separation in other environments, and I admire Riki and the other inspiring workers at IRAC for giving a voice to a minority often overlooked.
By Rachel Umansky-Castro On weekends, I used our free time to get in touch with my Israeli family that lives around Tel Aviv. My grandmother, Ruth, was born in Gerden, … Continue reading Tel Aviv Reunions
By Frank Mastroianni If I had to summarize today’s theme, it would be incorporating new and important perspectives. We spent the day in two Arab-majority cities, Umm al-Fahm in the … Continue reading Umm al-Fahm/Nazareth Dispatch
By Ryan Hinshaw We returned to the holy city wiser, more connected, and perhaps a little tanner as well. Though a week a Tel Aviv certainly roused our spirits, we … Continue reading Jerusalem Redux
By Yarendy Lopez On June 13, we had the opportunity to visit the Druze religious court in Acco, where one of the five judges from the lower and appeal court … Continue reading Akko/Haifa Dispatch
By Sasha Giniger On June 12 we had Dr. Tanya Zion-Waldoks as a guest speaker on the topic of feminism in the Modern Orthodox Jewish movement in Israel. I was … Continue reading Tel Aviv Diary
By Chiara Jurczak This morning, we got to experience a lecture with Prof. Menachem Mautner from Tel Aviv University, where he talked to us about the evolution of the Israeli … Continue reading Tel Aviv Diary
The group had a discussion in the morning about the history and role of Israel’s state rabbinate with Rabbi Elli Fischer. In addition to working through what went into the … Continue reading Tel Aviv Diary
The group arrived in Tel Aviv-Jaffa on Tuesday June 7, and their first stop was the home of Dr. Rachel Korazim in Jaffa, where they read and discussed Israeli and … Continue reading Tel Aviv Diary
Students experienced Shabbat and Shavuot in Jerusalem, learning about the holiday and its customs with Dr. Lenny Gordon (Shavuot this year began on Motzei Shabbat, the close of the sabbath), … Continue reading Jerusalem Diary
Thursday, June 2, after meeting to discuss geopolitics with Yitzhak Sokoloff, students visited the Israel Supreme Court for a docent tour, and met for over an hour with retired Supreme … Continue reading Jerusalem Diary
The group studied S. Y. Agnon’s “A Whole Loaf,” before touring his home in Talpiot and learning his full biography. After informal lunches on Emek Refaim in the German Colony, … Continue reading Jerusalem Diary
Students left Kibbutz Keturah, and on the way to Jerusalem spent the day at the Negev Desert’s canyon, Makhtesh Ramon (the Ramon Crater). They met with a Bedouin activist and … Continue reading Makhtesh Ramon Dispatch
Students spent the day learning about kibbutz life and desert ecology on Kibbutz Keturah with the other Northeastern DOC, led by Prof. Rebeca Rosengaus. Highlight–nighttime scorpion tour!
Students left Jerusalem early to depart for the Dead Sea area. The first stop–after the obligatory camel photo-op–was the cable car up to the fortress of Masada. All had a … Continue reading Dead Sea Dispatch
Friday, or Yom Shishi, in Jerusalem is a day bridging the work week and sabbath. Children go to school in the morning, and some people work in the morning and … Continue reading Yom Shishi Jerusalem
Christian Sites in the Old City After a class discussing key texts in the New Testament (from the Book of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark) and the Qur’an (Al … Continue reading Jerusalem Diary
Students had a guest lecture in the morning by Dr. Elan Ezrachi about the peoples and history of Jerusalem. They visited the Cardo, the site of the Roman marketplace in … Continue reading Jerusalem Diary
The students arrived in Jerusalem on May 23 and gathered for a group dinner. Early on May 24 Prof. Lefkovitz began her class exploring Israeli and Palestinian literature through the … Continue reading Jerusalem Diary