Unique Educational Program Planned

A unique educational program involving American adults as students and Israeli scholars as teachers will start in New York City on Oct. 6. It will subsequently spread to seven other cities across the United States, and conclude two years from now in Israel. Titled the America-Israel Education Program in Contemporary Jewish Civilization, it is co-sponsored by the American Jewish Committee and the Institute of Contemporary Jewry of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Participating groups are being organized by AJCommittee chapters in Hartford. Cleveland, Chicago. Detroit, Dallas, Los Angeles, Essex County (New Jersey), and in New York.

The two-year course consists of a series of lectures and seminars based on four books that cover the development of the Jewish people and Jewish philosophical thought from the post-Holocaust period of the 1940’s to the present day. The books are: “Flight and Rescue: Brichah” by Yehuda Bauer; “Israelis and Jews: The Continuity of an Identity” by Simon Herman; “An Introduction to Contemporary Jewish Thought” by Nathan Rotenstreich; and “Metamorphosis of the Jewish People” by Moshe Davis.

Each of the authors, all of them members of the faculty of Hebrew University, will visit the United States at some time during the next two years to launch discussions of his book in each of the communities participating in the program. Each group will then spend four to six sessions discussing the book with the help of a trained group leader. The four scholars will also hold seminars and study tours in Israel during the summers of 1972 and 1973 for members of the participating groups throughout the United States who wish to pursue the study of Judaism, historical and contemporary, in the Jewish state.

The America-Israel Education Program in Contemporary Jewish Civilization was developed by AJCommittee’s department of Jewish Communal Affairs under the direction of Yehuda Rosenman. “This program represents in concrete terms an integration of several areas of AJC interest,” Rosenman explained. “It provides opportunities for meaningful education of our members on the subject of contemporary Jewish thought and Jewish life. It is an expression of our general interest in Israel. And finally, it is in line with our belief that specific cultural exchange between American Jews and Israeli Jews will benefit both groups.”