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Alternatives to Tourism<br />
Seminars<br />
It is hard to become an expert on the Middle East. However, with the series of seminars planned<br />
throughout the year, OYP students were given the chance to really broaden their insights.<br />
The series began during Summer Ulpan with the Arab-Israeli Conflict Seminar which explored<br />
the roots of the conflict, the territories, the role of the Superpowers, and terrorism. For those<br />
who wanted to experience Israeli life close up, there was September’s Israeli Society Seminar,<br />
where students spent a Shabbat with families in a settlement town, moshav or kibbutz in the<br />
Gaza Strip. Having taken place in the summer, long before the Intifada began, OYPers got the<br />
chance to experience a side of Israeli life seldom portrayed in media coverage of the region.<br />
The highlight of fall semester was November’s Media in Israel Seminar, which allowed students<br />
to actually experience how a news event is covered in Israel, as well as learn about problems<br />
faced by reporters and editors by prominent Western correspondents currently serving in<br />
Israel. Again, taking place several weeks before the uprisings in the territories, students were<br />
given valuable tools to analyze the Western press’ coverage of events as they developed.<br />
During the spring, there were two very timely seminars plus a historical one. The Israel Is-<br />
Real?! Seminar in March brought experts in Israel’s economy, politics, and army to OYPers in<br />
lively question-and-answer sessions. In April, in conjunction with Yom HaShoah, Beit Hillel<br />
sponsored a three-day seminar complete with movies and lecturers, culminating in a national<br />
service at Yad Vashem with President Chaim Herzog and Prime Minister Itzak Shamir. In<br />
partial response to the battering Israel’s image has received back home by the press, May’s<br />
Activism Seminar, held in the Jerusalem Pine Forest, dealt with the difficult question, “what<br />
are we going to tell them when we get back?” The highlight of the program was a West Bank<br />
university lecturer who proved to OYPers just how difficult it is to confront an anti-Israel<br />
speaker. Clearly, all these seminars helped the overseas students better understand and<br />
appreciate their year in Israel.<br />
Michael Bea|s<br />
I<br />
Classes<br />
Academia. I eat my cheesetoast, I sip my cappucino and reflect . . .<br />
Class Cancelled —Professor in Milu'im ... learning about the historical geography of Jerusalem<br />
from the middle of the King’s Gardens in the Kidron Valley, looking up at the Temple Mount...<br />
professors using the mandatory Hebrew word in the middle of a lecture given entirely in English .<br />
.. falling asleep in class ... 8:15 AM Hebrew ... sitting on floors, tables, everywhere but chairs ..<br />
. classrooms—too hot in summer, too cold in winter . . . does she have to go to the bathroom<br />
again .. . midterm panic .. . going to class or to Tel Aviv? ... all day social hour at the Goldsmith<br />
Library . . . I’m sorry, you can’t reserve that book until 8:00 PM . . . teachers with kippot . . .<br />
SONIC BOOM!<br />
I spill my cappucino. Time for lunch.<br />
Michael Beals
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