Search results for: Israel education

Last summer, our routine evaluation of Taglit-Birthright Israel became a serendipitous natural experiment allowing us to assess the feelings and beliefs of 18 to 26-year-old American Jews about Israel before and after the Israel-Hamas war. The research gives us an unparalleled chance to assess whether or not Israel’s conduct in the war alienated or promoted support for Israel. Applicants to Birthright are a large and fairly representative group of young adult Jews.

This research explores the impact of a year studying in Israel on Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) rabbinical students’ emotional connection toward and knowledge about the State of Israel and the Jewish People. We want to better understand the students’ beliefs, ideas, and behaviors that emerge from their experience including “ideological dilemmas” that they confront and negotiate.

The JCPA Leadership Program in Arab-Israel Studies is a high level, advanced academic program designed for the elite college bound student interested in the various issues surrounding the Israel-Arab conflict. It provides an intensive, demanding and often emotional immersion into the historical, cultural and political aspects of the Middle East from a variety of experts. Throughout the year, students visit important sites in the area and meet with individuals and groups that are active in Israel-Arab affairs. Our goal is to educate young men and women in the Jewish community who will work as informed activists and campus leaders to provide programming directed at specific groups and consistent with the goals of the program.

Jewish educators and community leaders, this summer you are hereby invited to embark on a fascinating and challenging journey into the realm of Jewish memory in Eretz Israel. This journey is a personal as well as a professional (pedagogical and educational) experience that enhances the sense of belonging and commitment to the Jewish Peoplehood. During this journey, we will read texts and deal with dialogs of present, past, and future. We will tackle the question of the desire to be an inseparable part of the chain of Jewish generations (the dialog between past and present) on the one hand, and the desire to exert an influence on the education - and value-based moral thinking of the future generation on the other.