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11

BACK 10 SCHOOL

Elderhostel
in Israel

Elderhostel takes its winning idea of
combining youth hostels and adult
education to Israel.

BY ARTHUR J. MAGIDA

Special to The Jewish News

A trip to Israel can be as
much of an education as a
pilgrimage. But the educa-
tional part of the journey is
often forgotten amid the
splendor of the land, the
powerful emotions it gener-
ates and the excitement of
just being away from home.
Now, a group based in
Boston has organized a
series of courses at five Is-
raeli universities for travel-
ers from abroad. This is not
particularly unusual:
American students have
been flocking to the Hebrew
and Tel Aviv Universities
for years. But the Elderhos-
tel courses are for students

over 60 years old. They will
be taught in English by col-
lege professors to students
who, despite their age, will
not be staying in luxury
hotels with saunas, steam
baths and room service.
Like any other group of
students, the senior citizens
enrolled in Elderhostel will
be staying: in college dor-
mitories and eating in col-
lege cafeterias. A few will be
housed in faculty apart-
ments.
Elderhostel was founded
in 1975 by Martin
Knowlton, a professor in the
Division of Continuing
Education at the University

of New Hampshire. On one
of several back-packing
trips through Europe,
Knowlton became intrigued
with the numerous youth
hostels. He came back to the
United States determined
to eliminate, he said, "a lot
of negatives associated with
retirement."

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A Children's Boutique

Combining the concepts
behind youth hostels and
adult education, Knowlton
devised Elderhostel: inex-
pensive, sophisticated
courses for the elderly
whose learning experience
would be enhanced by the
camaraderie of living to-
gether.
In 1975, five New Hamp-
shire educational institu-
tions offered programs to
200 Elderhostelers. By
1980, more than 319 in-
stitutions in 50 states
served over 20,000 hostel-
ers. This year, 81,000 people
have enrolled in courses in
730 institutions in the
United States, Great Brit-
ain, Canada, Denmark, Fin-
land, France, India, Israel,
Italy, The Netherlands,
Norway, Sweden and West
Germany.
The average age of the
Elderhostel student is 68.
Said one Elderhostel coor-
dinator, "You get a special
hearty breed at Elderhostel.
They have gumption and
rarely complain. If it rains,
they don't care. Remember,
they were born before 1924

and they've lived through a
lot."
The Elderhostel organ-
ization places limits on the
fees charged by colleges and
universities for tuition and
room and board per course.
In the contiguous 48 states,
the upper limit is $190.
Many charge less. In
Hawaii, the maximum is
$200; in Alaska, it is $215.
The fee for the courses in
Israel is $1,535 for a two-
week program and $1,925
for a three-week program.
Cost includes air fare from
Kennedy Airport in New
York.
Courses will be taught at
Beit Berl College, a short
ride from Tel Aviv in the
Sharon Plain; Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev in
Beersheva and Sde Boker;
Hebrew University of
Jerusalem (where students
will live on the Mount
Scopus campus); Every-
man's University, the Open
University of Israel, in
Ramat Gan; and the Univr-
sity of Haifa, where stu-
' dents will be housed in
dormitory-apartments on

Mount Carmel
Among the 30 different
courses to be offered in this
fall's. term, September 3 to
December 30, are "Photo-
graphing the Negev,"
"Zionism: The Building of a
Nation," "Jews and Rome,"
"Man in the Dessert," and
"Israel and the Contempor-
ary Middle East."
Of course, Elderhostel
courses will also be offered
much closer to home this
fall and winter. At least one
college or educational in-
stitution in each of the 50
states is sponsoring a
course. Between November
4 and January 26, for in-
stance, the. University of
Maryland's Eastern shore
campus will be offering 30
courses. Included are
"Slimnastics: Here's To
Your Health," "Two New
England Poets: Frost and
Robinson," "Computers and
Intelligence" and"Basic
Drawing." .
For information on all
programs, write to El-
derhostel, 100 Boylston
Street, Boston, Mass.
02116. , .•

Day care under Jewish auspices
available at local agencies

BY JEFFREY GUYER

Staff Writer

In a day and age when
both parents have entered
the work force, it has be-
come necessary to find via-
ble alternatives to the baby
sitter.
Day care centers have
begun sprouting up all over,
but until very recently,
there has been no
Jewishly-oriented day care
service offered in the Met-
ropolitan Detroit area.
In the strict definition,
there still' is no Jewishly-
oriented day care service,
but instead, Jewish nursery
schools have started offer-
ing "extended hours" for
their students.
To accommodate working
parents, or parents who
have gone back to school,
many nursery schools have
instituted programs in
which parents may drop
their children off before

regular school hours and
pick them up after hours.
Cong. Shaarey Zedek,
whose program is new this
year, will offer its "extended
days" for children either
enrolled or enrolling in -the
Shaarey Zedek nursery
school in the fall. -
Instead of only offering a
morning and an afternoon
program, parents may sign
their children up for the ex-
tended hours from 7:45 a.m.
to 4:30 p.m. Information is
available from Rosaline
Gilson, 357-5544.
Temple Beth El, also join-
ing the ranks of nurseries
tailoring themselves to the
needs and schedules of
parents, offers a
program featuring ex-
tended hours for children
between the ages of 21/2 and
5.
Children are placed in a

-

class appropriate to their
age and educational levels,
and then the flexible hours
may be worked around their
class schedule. Operating
from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 pin.,
parents may choose any
number of days of the week
.during which they may send
their children. Many day
care centers have a set
schedule for everyday
attendance, accompanied
with a flat rate payment.
According to Joy Kaplan,
coordinator of the program,
there is a unique flexibility
involved in the Beth El pro-
gram in that parents pay
only for the hours attended
and they may pick the hours ,
they want.
For information regard- •
ing the Beth El program,
contact Kaplan, 851-1100.
Perhaps the more exten-
sive of these programs may