Herzog College’s Meitarim Judaic Studies Teacher Training Program organized a Shabbaton for their students and staff and their families in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem.
After two years of planning, and with some trepidation in the current highly-charged political climate, the religious and secular participants enjoyed open and meaningful conversations in a convivial Shabbat atmosphere. They discussed the education system, the political situation in Israel, the relevance of Jerusalem, and the power of the desert. They met with the founders of Israel’s first mixed (religious and secular) primary schools in Israel, and gained new perspectives on the long-term processes of social change that are taking place in the education sector.
The program director, Dr. Tehila Darmon Malka, explained that such conversations as these rarely take place in an Israeli academic setting, and that the Meitarim program creates a unique connection between learning about and living Judaism.
