Study Abroad - Judaic Studies

University of Cincinnati's Department of Judaic Studies strongly encourages students to incorporate a semester, year or summer abroad as part of their academic experience. In addition to enhancing facility in language, time spent abroad exposes us to the sights and sounds and cultures of the Jewish experience. It makes the texts of the Jewish past and complexities of the Jewish present come alive. It challenges us see the world through different eyes. Through foreign travel, we grow personally, as well as intellectually. There are many programs available for the semester or summer throughout the world. Students planning to travel abroad should consult with UC International Programs and check the U.S. State Department Website for updated travel advisories. The Jewish Agency's website lists a number of year-long, semester, and summer programs. You can study, volunteer or work. For example, the Stagerim Professional Internship Program provides internship placements in leading companies and organizations in the private and public sectors in Israel in every field including law, medicine, media, economics, politics, public relations, education, social work, engineering, computer science, advertising and business and more. Alternatively you can work on kibbutz while learning Hebrew, help Magen David Adom, take college courses, or experience Israel through Marva, a hiking/camping program. In order to receive credit for studying abroad, please consult with the Department of Judaic of Studies.

Faculty-Led Study Abroad

• Archaeology of Israel, excavation in Israel - Led by Shannon E. Schaffer scheduled for summer 2016

• Ancient and Modern Encounters, Jordan & Israel - Led by Matthew Kraus:  Summer 2015

Semester or Yearlong Programs - Israel

• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Rothberg International School)
  Hebrew University offers seven Master of Arts programs in Jewish Education, Community Leadership and Philanthropy Studies, Society and Politics in Israel, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, the Bible and its World, Religious Studies and Jewish Civilization, as well as visiting graduate student options.

• Tel Aviv University
  Tel Aviv University is Israel's largest and top-ranked university. The University provides international students with an excellent foundation to discover the Israeli people through its Overseas Student Programs, which include fully accredited academic courses, insightful field trips, special seminars, internships, and immersion into Israeli culture.

• Tel Aviv University
  International Archaeology Program
  The program is offered during the spring semester in Israel plus an option of participation in summer excavations. The program starts with one month of Intensive Hebrew Language Program (Ulpan), and includes seminars and field trips.

• Arts Program The WUJS Institute in Arad
  The Arad Arts Project is a subsidized residency for talented Jewish visual artists, musicians and writers. Its goals are to offer artists a supportive environment to further their creative work and to encourage a deeper connection to Israel and Judaism through art, study, and community activism.

• Missouri State University
  The archaeological field school provides students the opportunity to learn first hand about archaeological excavation methods, analysis of artifactural remains and the history of ancient Palestinian archaeology.

• Sephardic Educational Center
  The Makor Program is a Judaic Studies program established in cooperation with the Sephardic Educational Center and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This college program is fully accredited and in association with the Rothberg International School.

• Bar Ilan University, Conflict Management Program
  The English-Language One-Semester Program provides an array of academic courses, workshops, seminars and negotiating simulations aimed at deepening the understanding of conflict studies. The Academic courses are fully accredited by the university, and a detailed curriculum will be provided.

• Ben Gurion University of the Negev
  Academic and experiential programs and independent and service learning in Israel for undergraduates, recent high school graduates, as well as graduate students. BGU allows its students to immerse themselves in the culture and society of Israel, while experiencing and enjoying numerous adventures along the way. For example, Science in the Spring/Eilat From the ecology of the coral reef in the Red Sea to that of the extreme desert surrounding the city, Eilat is an ideal location to study environmental studies desert ecology and marine biology. Studies over the past decade show that about 500 million birds cross Israel's narrow airspace twice every year in the course of their migrations, most of which bottleneck over Eilat.

• University of Haifa
  The Haifa Language and Liberal Arts Program offers students a semester in the vibrant and cosmopolitan Mediterranean port of Haifa, Israel. The program combines language study and internship options with course work at the University of Haifa and excursions in and outside of Israel. Students also participate in guided lecture tours of the Jewish and non-Jewish neighborhoods, tours of museums and cultural centers, and archaeological seminars.
• The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies
  The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a non-profit teaching and research center, offers a unique one-year program in Environmental Studies for international students who wish to study in the Middle East. North Americans, Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians as well as other international students learn together through an interdisciplinary approach to the region's environment.

• Living Routes
  Israel: Peace, Justice and the Environment Live and work in Lotan, a green kibbutz, and Naveh Shalom Wahat al Salam, a bi-national Jewish and Palestinian Arab Israeli community. Visit Jewish, Arab and Bedouin towns, meet with government, industry and community leaders and gain a broad perspective of efforts to heal the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Float in the Dead Sea and experience Jerusalem.

• University of Miami. Semester in the Galilee, Israel
  Students will take a total of 5 courses for 15 credits. Topics include: "The Beginning of Christianity", "The Beginning of Rabbinic Judaism", "The Archaeology of the Galilee", "Overview of the Region" and "The Galilee - Land of Many Cultures and Beliefs".

• CET Jewish Studies in Prague (Prague, Czech Republic)
• Central European University (Budapest, Hungary)
• University of London, Department of Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East (London, UK)
• Trinity College, Herzog Center for Jewish and Near Eastern Religion (Dublin, Ireland)
• Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (Oxford, UK)
• University of Cambridge, Jewish Studies in the Faculty of Divinity (Cambridge, UK)
• University of Edinburgh, School of Divinity (Edinburgh, Scotland)
• University of Manchester, Centre for Jewish Studies (Manchester, UK)
• University College London, Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies (London, UK)

• McGill University, Department of Jewish Studies (Montreal, Quebec) University of Toronto, Jewish Studies Program (Toronto, Ontario)

• University of Cape Town, Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies (South Africa)

• University of Melbourne, Centre for Jewish History and Culture
• University of New South Wales, Jewish Studies Program (Sydney)
• University of Sydney, Department of Hebrew, Biblical, and Jewish Studies

1. The International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership
   • The International Partnership for Service-Learning programs offers a fully integrated study abroad experience. By uniting academic study with substantive volunteer service and living in a family home stay or with student's on-campus, you are fully immersed in several levels of the culture at once.
2. Volunteers for Peace
   • VFP offers over 2200 affordable international voluntary service projects worldwide in more than 80 countries. These programs are an affordable way to complete meaningful community service work while living and interacting in an international environment.

Universities in Israel offer intensive summer programs for all levels of Hebrew language study, and courses in Jewish Studies and Middle Eastern Studies

• Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  Summer Ulpan Courses
  An Ulpan is an intensive Hebrew Language Course offered by Hebrew University's Rothberg International School. Special activities, such as performances and lectures in Hebrew, workshops and field trips, complement many of the Hebrew classes.

• The University of Haifa Intensive Hebrew: I, II
  Intensive Language Programs
  Join us at the University of Haifa for an intensive Hebrew language immersion experience. In the summer, we offer two sessions of the Intensive Hebrew Summer Ulpan. In the winter, we offer one session of the Intensive Hebrew Winter Ulpan. All of our programs reward academic credits.

• Amerispan
  Learn Hebrew in Netanya
  Learning Hebrew abroad in Netanya, Israel is one of many language immersion programs offered by AmeriSpan.

• Tel Aviv University
  Intensive Ulpan
  The Ulpan is offered twice each year, in the summer and winter prior to the beginning of each semester. Undergraduate and graduate students alike enroll in this course prior to beginning their overseas programs. The goal of this course is to equip students with the language skills required to enhance their Israel experience.
  Additionally, students may apply only for the Ulpan and earn a total of 6 academic credits upon successful completion. This rigorous course is offered twice a year, before the beginning of each semester.

• The Goldreich Family Institute for Yiddish Language
  Beth Shalom Aleichem Literature, and Culture

• The School for Overseas Students
  The Avraham I. Lerner Fund

• Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Intensive Hebrew Language Program (Immersion Ulpan)
  Intensive 3 or 6-week immersion Hebrew Language course in Israel at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. This course is open to adults from ages 18 and up. Students live in the dormitories with Israeli roommates (in Winter session) and also experience lectures, activities and excursions in the area and around the country. Levels are from beginners to advanced. The 6-week course is academically accredited for 6 college credits and a transcript will be granted to all students successfully completing the 6-week course. A certificate of completion will be granted to those participating and completing the 3-week course.

• Kibbutz Program Center
  Live on a kibbutz, work and study Hebrew for six days a week (possibly for credit).

• Ulpan Akiva
  Ulpan Akiva is a non-profit Educational Center where Modern Hebrew is taught against the natural background of the Bible: the Land of Israel. Founded in 1951 by the late Shulamith Katznelson and directed by her for 47 years, Ulpan Akiva is famous worldwide.

• The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.

• CET Jewish Studies in Prague
• Leo Baeck Summer University, Berlin (LBSU) in Jewish Studies

The following institutions offer excellent intensive summer Hebrew language instruction

1. Brandeis University (Waltham, MA) Brandeis Hebrew Language Summer Institute
2. The Jewish Theological Seminary (NYC) Hebrew Immersion Program
3. Middlebury College Hebrew Summer Language School, Middlebury, VT

Students interested in Yiddish language, literature, and culture are encouraged to attend one of the following programs.

1. Vilnius Yiddish Insitute (Lithuania)
2. Yiddish Summer Program in Tel Aviv (Tel Aviv University and Beit Sholem Aleichem)
3. Yiddish Summer Internship, National Yiddish Book Center
4. Yiddish this summer at Indiana University
   • Yiddish course covers the equivalent of one academic year (8 credits, 160 contact hours) in 8 weeks
   • Daily classes in grammar, reading, writing, speaking, and listening
   • Special Yiddish language table at lunch twice weekly
   • Weekly Yiddish cultural activities outside of class
   • Students are also welcome to participate in other Slavic, East European, and Central Asian cultural events

ALL participants pay IN-STATE TUITION. Foreign Language Area Studies. Awards funding is available. Application available at: http://www.indiana.edu/~swseel. For more information contact:Adam Julian, Ballantine Hall 502, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, 812-855-2608, swseel@indiana.edu

Every summer many digs, especially in Israel, are looking for volunteer. Check Biblical Archaeology Review's website. The list is generally updated in the winter, early spring.

MASA Israel Journey offers information and scholarships for participation in more than 120 long-term programs in Israel.