Jerusalem

Workshop 62 spent Wednesday and Thursday of this past week exploring Jerusalem. The theme of the mini-seminar was Religion and the State, beginning with a tour of the Old City on Wednesday morning and continuing with guest speakers. The tour focused on giving the historical background of Jerusalem, as much as one can fit 3000 years of history into a two hour tour, and finished at the Western Wall. On Wednesday afternoon, they visited Mea Sharim, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem to meet with Yehoshua Weinberg. An ultra-Orthodox educator, he spoke to the chanichim about the orthodox way of life and had a question and answer session. In the evening, the chanichim met with Itamar Landua, a former member of HDNA and current PhD student at Hebrew University. Itamar discussed his personal religious journey and answered questions about his Jewish experiences in HDNA. Thursday morning, Rabbi Dov Lipman of Beit Shemesh spoke about his involvement fighting extremism within the Orthodox community, secular and religious cooperation, and his vision for the Jewish state. Thursday lunch took place in Machaneh Yehuda, an open-air market in central Jerusalem with plenty of Israeli specialties such as rogelach, knaffe, shwarma, falafel and fresh fruits and vegetables (avocado season has started here!). After lunch the chanichim met with Anat Hoffman, an activist with Women of the Wall, about being a Reform Jew and a woman in the Israeli religious state. We ended with a processing session, and a lot of questions about what it means to have a Jewish state.

For more information about Rabbi Lipman, visit his website http://www.rabbilipman.com/.
For more information on Anat Hoffman, visit Women of the Wall or read her editorial about her arrest at the Western Wall.

 In the room of the Last Supper.

At the entrance to the Old City. 

Discussing the War of Independence in the Old City. 

In Independence Park, discussing the Ultra-Orthodox community. 

Processing the day's events.