JTS Celebrates Israel at 60

"Building Community: The Power of Sacred Texts."

Join the entire JTS community—our students, our faculty, our supporters—on Yom Ha'atzmaut 5768 (Thursday, May 8). Be part of an exciting day of study and celebration honoring sixty years of Israeli independence.

Tentative Schedule

8 a.m.Our day begins with Shaharit services and a festive Hallel.
9 a.m.Light breakfast and coffee.
10 a.m.Learn with representatives of Bina, a cutting-edge Israeli educational organization. Bina strives to strengthen Israel as a democratic, pluralistic society, stressing humanist aspects of Jewishness. Bina, established ten years ago, designs and implements innovative programs, including a secular yeshiva in Tel Aviv reaching annually 950 adults and young adult ongoing students, and over 13,000 in youth seminars and public events. Bina will engage us with their creative use of sacred texts to transform secular Israeli Jewish identity.
12 p.m.Lunchtime Yom Ha'atzmaut celebration featuring a barbecue, live music, and dancing.
2 p.m.Panel on the Future of Zionism and American Israeli relations, moderated by Chancellor Arnold Eisen. Speakers include Ruth Calderon (founder and director of Alma: Home for Hebrew Culture in Tel Aviv, Haifa and New York) and Yael Zerubavel (professor of Jewish Studies and History and founding director, The Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life).

For more information, please contact Rabbi David Hoffman at (212) 678-8872 or rabbihoffman@jtsa.edu.

Israel Day 2007

Students and faculty relax in the courtyard on a balmy afternoon for Yom Ha'atzma'ut.