Raanan works for peace in Jerusalem. Preparing to be a rabbi at Schecter Rabbinical Seminary, Raanan is probably not your stereotypical rabbinical student. Born in Vancouver and raised in San… Read more

Although life in Israel is not always easy, Israelis address aspects of daily life as best they can. In Jerusalem, everybody is affected by a different weekly schedule. When I… Read more

Tantur has evolved since its opening in 1972. It appears to have shifted from exclusively an ecumenical academic institute to a lay, clergy, and academic ecumenical center which interacts with… Read more

Some Palestinians find work in Palestinian restaurants and banks.  Unfortunately, most Palestinians have difficulty finding work. Some researchers have estimated that 35% of work-age Palestinians are unemployed. I hear it… Read more

Like individuals elsewhere, Palestinians, Jordanians, and Syrians face issues of everyday life. These individuals deal with issues acutely aware both of Israel and the surrounding violence looming like a thunderstorm… Read more

I regretted that we were not able to hear the lecture from the Muslim scholar. Because he had to rush his mother to the emergency room shortly before his Tantur… Read more

Jarod and Kamal were our tour guides in and around Jerusalem for four different days. Like most travelers, I relied upon input from others, such as tour guides, to try… Read more

While pilgrims may be solitary individuals like me, I suspect that most pilgrims come in groups. On the one hand, individuals in such groups may travel with a constant complainer,… Read more

Because I wanted to read about pilgrimages to the Holy Land, I read Harry Emerson Fosdick’s 1927 work A Pilgrimage to Palestine. This work described his 1923 four-month pilgrimage in… Read more

During my sabbatical, I’ve asked various individuals the question. “If you could stand in front of my students, and if you had only three minutes, what would you say to them?”… Read more