American Section of Jewish Agency Reports on Education Activities

The Jewish Agency’s Department of Education and Culture today reported that it was host this summer to hundreds of teachers, principals, communal workers, Bar and Bas Mitzvah boys and girls in a series of seminars and conferences on the East and West Coast and study tours in Israel.

“This summer marked the third year for the Department’s Bar and Bas Mitzvah Pilgrimage to Israel,” the report said. “One hundred boys and girls took part in this outstanding educational experience. During their seven-week stay in Israel, they toured the country, met educational leaders and prominent personalities, and participated in many events with Israeli youngsters of their own age. The Bar and Bas Mitzvah Pilgrimage has won wide recognition and acclaim among parents and educators.”

Other Israel study tours were:

1. A Seminar for Jewish educators, Jewish social and communal workers. Over 50 persons participated in this project, whose aim was to enable persons engaged in Jewish education and community service to study at first hand the dynamics of Jewish life and Hebrew culture in Israel.

2. Sixty youngsters of promising leadership calibre participated in an intensive study seminar in Israel, which combined formal daily instruction in Judaism with visiting all parts of the country and becoming acquainted with the problems of Israel. This group was sponsored by the Department in cooperation with the National Ramah Seminar of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

3. A selected group of 40 American students, engaged in Hebrew studies at Hebrew and public high schools, participated in a special “Israel Summer Seminar for High School Students,” which was geared to provide an opportunity to improve their Hebrew and to study and tour Israel.

4. Twenty-five graduates from Beth Shalom school of Kansas City, Mo., participated in a special student workshop designed to translate the classroom study of Israel into meaningful personal experience by enabling schools to transfer their classes to Israel in the summer time as a homogeneous unit.

5. Sixty students participated in an educational project for four weeks, geared for graduates of the Yeshiva University. This study seminar and tour for Yeshiva University alumni combined study and appreciation of socioeconomic and political aspects of Israel life with particular emphasis on an examination of methods used in Israel to synthesize the Jewish religious cultural heritage with the modern State.

In the United States, three major projects for Jewish educators took place. At Cornell University, in Ithaca, the Department conducted its 12th Annual Educators Seminar–an intensive three-week study program–for 90 select participants from the Jewish education field. Of special interest in this year’s Cornell University Seminar was its annual “Israeli Night” program, attended by 500 faculty members and students of Cornell, including Asian, African and Arab students. Israel’s Consul General in New York, Katriel Katz, addressed the gathering.