Educational Experiences in Israel
Israel may be a small country, but there are so many sites to see and issues about which to learn. You could spend months touring the country and still feel like you need more time. If you’re visiting for only a week or two, consider adding some of these 18 cultural, religious, historical, and natural sites to your itinerary. The Western Wall (the Kotel) is considered by many to be the most sacred place in Jewish tradition. People from around the world come to pray at this holy site, often placing handwritten notes in crevices in the ancient stones. Recently, the Western Wall has... Read More
And Israel encamped [at Sinai] as one person with one mind. -- Rashi on Exodus 19:3 Remarkable unity characterized the Jewish people in the days before receiving Torah at Sinai, an event we commemorate on Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. As a student in Jerusalem one year, I experienced that unity powerfully on Shavuot. At the end of the traditional all-night learning session, I joined thousands of others streaming toward the Old City. We poured into the Western Wall plaza and I nestled myself in with one prayer group among the hundreds. Tens of thousands of people packed the plaza, a sea... Read More
The approach of Lag BaOmer, which begins tonight at sundown, always takes me back to 1998 when our family spent a sabbatical semester in Israel. We were firmly integrated into Reform Jewish life in Madison, WI. Our children attended religious school – our oldest son had recently become bar mitzvah – at Temple Beth El and were regular summer campers at URJ Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute (OSRUI) in Oconomowoc, WI. We were excited to give our children the experience of living in Israel, albeit only for a few months, and were hopeful they would learn Hebrew, make Israeli friends,... Read More
“Mi rotzeh la’asot Kiddush (Who wants to make Kiddush)?” Even after two months of Basic Training as a volunteer in the Israel Defense Forces, I still tried to shrink behind someone else whenever the Mempay (Company Commander) asked us a question. Basic Training was not an environment in which volunteering for anything beyond showing up was advisable. Six days of every week were packed with stressful discipline, demoralizing surprises, and chaotic uncertainty, and even with the support of my fellow volunteers, Hebrew comprehension and homesickness were a daily struggle. But this evening... Read More
On my most recent visit to Israel – in preparation for this summer’s URJ Sci-Tech Israel program – I noticed the presence of U.S. companies. Throughout Israel’s “Silicon Wadi,” the counterpart to our Silicon Valley, are research and development facilities for Google, Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and others, intermixed with a vast array of Israeli start-ups, including Mobile-Eye, Orcam, StoreDot, and others. The foundations for many of these research collaborations were establish during Israel’s third decade from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. Motorola, the first U.S.... Read More
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