Bar-Ilan University’s Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology (LISA) and International School partnered with Concordia University’s Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies and Department of Political Science to create an inspiring and unique faculty-directed program in Israel, which took place in July and August 2023.
This Israel-Canada collaboration, the first since Bar-Ilan University (BIU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Concordia University last year, resulted in a joint three-week trip around the country with 11 undergraduate students from Canada, who had registered for the summer elective course, “Special Topics in Comparative Politics,” and was led by Prof. Csaba Nikolenyi, director of the Azrieli Institute, and a professor in the Political Science Department.
Prof. Shawn Zelig Aster, an associate professor from BIU’s LISA Department, organized and facilitated the program, and Prof. Kobi Cohen-Hattab, the department’s chair, helped with the planning. The 12 Israeli students – undergraduate and graduate – played a major role in developing the itinerary.
Although this wasn’t the first program run by Concordia in Israel, it was the first of its kind for the two universities and the two professors. The long-time colleagues and friends, who have lectured at each other’s respective universities many times over the years, decided to develop a program that would inspire, interest, and entertain through personal connections.
“Csaba and I have often spoken about running a program together and I suggested that such a program could benefit from the participation of our LISA students,” said Prof. Aster, who is originally from Montreal. “Our students come from various sectors of Israeli society – religious and secular Jews as well as Christians and Muslim Arabs – and some are also licensed tour guides, and I believed they would be able to convey their unique interests and passion from a more personal outlook.
“We harnessed the special abilities of the LISA students to convey their love and excitement of the land of Israel. Much of the planning and most of the guiding was done by our students and we believe that the key to the program’s success was the student-to-student interaction,” he said.
“We didn’t want our students to only read about Israeli identities during classes in Canada,” said Prof. Nikolenyi. “We wanted them to benefit from practical experience and connection to the people. Partnering with Bar-Ilan University and specifically, the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, was an excellent way to do this.
“Israel is a country of many different and conflicting identities and our aim was to have the Bar-Ilan students, especially the tour guides, share with Concordia students how and why the history of the land excites them and shapes their lives. So every field trip was not only an opportunity for us to learn about the places and the sites, it was also a way to get to know the people themselves,” he said.
The Israel Experience
Encounters with different communities all over Israel included Palestinian Arabs, Bedouin, Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia and Morocco, Druze, Christians, Muslims, and others, as well as the physical sites that have shaped these identities.
Study tours had a variety of themes attached to the areas and places visited. These included: Memory in Israeli Identities, Immigration and Development in Israel’s South, Israel’s Governing Institutions, Preserving the Past, Agriculture and Horticulture as Identity Elements, Education and Development in Israel’s North, Israel’s Northern Border, Then and Now, among others.
Places visited included the usual landmark sites, museums, and memorials, but also comprised visits to Arab and Jewish communities in Jaffa and the mixed city of Lod; The Knesset (Israeli Parliament) and the President’s Residence; trips to the Kiryat Gat Ethiopian Jewish community and the Bedouin settlement of Rahmeh in the Negev; a get-together with BIU archaeology students at Tell Abu Shusha in the Jezreel Valley; meetings with BIU doctoral candidate, Wafi Ghanem, an expert on informal education in the Palestinian Arab community, and Nabil Naser-el-din, a lecturer on Druze heritage.
BIU faculty members who participated in the program included: Dr. Amit Dagan, a biblical archaeologist, who introduced the students to the LISA department’s archaeology display; Dr. Avi Picard, an expert in the early years of the state of Israel, who guided the students around development towns in the south; and Dr. Naama Arum, an expert in medieval history, who guided the students at Israel’s best-preserved medieval castle at Nimrud’s fortress.
Feedback and Possibilities
“This was the inaugural ‘Constructing Israeli Identities” program and the excellent feedback we have received from the participants will enable us to improve the scope of the program and the itinerary in terms of length, depth, diversity of topics, field trips, and so forth,” said Prof. Nikolenyi.
“It has also set in motion the option for these students to return for regular semester-long courses at our respective institutions through student exchange. Both universities offer a range of courses from which our students will benefit greatly,” he said.
According to Prof. Aster, the classes were important, but the key highlights were the study tours around the country in which students got to understand Israeli identities from the inside, enabling them to experience an Israel they couldn’t experience or understand in any other way.
“Faculty-led programs such as this are both an opportunity to contribute to a better understanding of Israel in the world and an opportunity for our students to understand how those abroad view Israel. It provides our students with exposure to the wider international scene and allows them to contribute to Israel’s portrayal in the world,” he concluded.
The success of the first Concordia-BIU program has ensured that Bar-Ilan University will continue to run it annually with Concordia University and, hopefully, with many other partner universities.
Student Impressions
Some of the students provided some valuable feedback on the program. You can read their stories in the links. The Canadian students included Sofia Lazcano-Fafard and Abdel Lazreg. The Israeli students included Shimon Hirsch and Atara Cohen.
BIU-CU Memorandum of Understanding
Bar-Ilan University (BIU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Concordia University (CU) in August 2022. This MOU, which was initiated by professors Zelig Aster and Nikolenyi, has already set in motion various interesting initiatives in research, faculty and student exchange, joint publications, and more.
The “Constructing Israeli Identities” summer program, which was one of two specific programs written into the MOU, was the first collaboration of this nature implemented between the two universities.
Connect with us
If you’re interested in finding out more about Bar-Ilan University’s faculty-directed programs or would like to arrange one for your university, please get in touch with us.
North America: [email protected]
Rest of the world: [email protected]
If you’re interested in our Student Exchange or Study Abroad programs, please reach out to our Student Exchange department: [email protected].
