14. Friday, March 28, 1986

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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An intrepid (?) news editor rappels the Judean desert.

ADVENTURE
IN ISRAEL

Youth planning on spending
their summer vacation in Israel
can look forward to an
experience and challenges
of a life-time.

BY ALAN HITSKY

News Editor

erusalem — Not the polite, ef-
ficient, bi-lingual personnel at John
F. Kennedy Airport, nor the
Hebrew-and-English announcements
aboard the huge El Al 747, nor even
landing at Florida-like, palm treed
Ben-Gurion Airport put me in the
mood for Israel. But watching 40-50
men crowd the sleep-laden aisles of
the El Al jumbo jet to form a morn-
ing minyan before landing — that
created the mood, as did the hour-
long bus journey through the Judean
Hills on our way to Jerusalem.
It is a trip destined to be re-
peated by thousands of travelers this
year — tourists, families,
businesspeople and students — espe-
cially if they are of high school and
college age attending summer pro-
grams in Israel. From tennis-and-
travel programs sponsored by the Is-
rael Tennis Centers, to study-and-
tour programs at Israel's universities
or archeological digs, the hundreds
of programs sponsored by Jewish
organizations in the United States
often have the common denominator
of starting out in the Holy City of
Jerusalem.
"It sets the proper mood for
everyone," said a representative of
Israel's Youth and Hechalutz Dert-
ment, which coordinates most organ-
izations' youth travel in Israel. "Tel
Aviv is a major Jewish city, but it is
similar to most major cities. But
Jerusalem ... Jerusalem is
Jerusalem."
The white, rocky hillsides, the
rusting trucks and more formal
monuments to Israel's 1948 War of
Independence, the green fields and
modern homes of the kibbutzim and
moshavim on the hills lining the
Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway all con-
tribute to the aura of history being
entered by the visitor.
Many of the summer programs
try to capture that spirit with a
Shabbat Jewish identity program in
Jerusalem. College-age counselors
interact with the young visitors,
playing games and asking probing
questions which allow each person to
examine their Jewish values.
On a recent visit to Israel, five
American Jewish journalisti were
treated to a six-day microcosm of ac-
tivities common to many, of the
summer programs, which are gener-
ally 38 days in length. Continuing
our Jerusalem experience, we were
treated to a Shabbat tour of the Old
City, the Western Wall and the
Temple Mount area, guided by
former Chicagoan Bernie Alpert of
the Israel Department of An-
tiquities.
The department runs daily tours
for summer program participants,
conducting seminars and distribut-
ing handouts which. accurately de-
scribe the millenia-old pottery
shards littering the Walks around
the Old City walls. Expert guides
explain the archeological digs and
the modern functioning of old

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Jerusalem, home of three ancient
religions, the black-garbed Orthodox,
thousands of Arabs and modern Is-
raelis. •
The faculty of Hebrew Univer-
sity hosts several study programs
each summer. The three-week
courses are taught in English and
the participants also have three-
week guided tours of Israel. "It is
not all work and no play," said
physics professor Avraham Simievic
at the hilly, tree-lined Givat Ram
campus. "We give homework and
tests in our classes, but we under-
stand when the students have circles
under their eyes." '
Dr. Simievic emphasized that
his physics classes are serious
courses, but geared to stimulating
interest and imagination. The stu-
dents pick their seminars in ad-
vance, and Dr. Simievic uses simple
experiments, film , and a • practical,
hands-on approach to keep the
courses lively. His course includes
the logic of computers and astro-
physics, and he excitedly links
physics to humanities and politics.
"I try to display the achieve-
ments of physics over the last 50
years," he said. "After all, we've dis-
covered more about the stars in that
time than in the previous 7,000
years."
Dr. Bernard Crammer, an or-
ganic chemistry professor who has
been teaching the summer seminars
for ten years, also works hard to
make his course fun for the students.
He emphasizes lab experiments on
how to prepare aspirin and insect
repellant, how to handle lab equip-
ment, and field trips to chemical
plants to hold the interest of young
people "who do not want to hear lec-
tures during summer vacation. They
want to work with their hands and
see more with their eyes." But he
also believes in some homework and
"teaching how to write a report that
is clean and tidy."
An exclusive program for •stu-
dent filmmakers is sponsored by the
Jerusalem Cinematheque in its his-
toric headquarters near the Sultan's
Pool, opposite the Old City walls.
The three-week program gives a
limited number of students an
opportunity to study Israel through
film and field trips, and to produce a
professional-quality film as a group
project.
Amy Kronish, director of the
summer film program, told the visit-
ing journalists the program is
limited by the size of mini-buses.
Sixteen students participated each of
the first two yeah, but the
Cinematheque would like to accomo-
date 32 students this summer.
Last year, the students dis-
cussed film with the director of the
controversial movie Behind the Wall,
as well as Rafik Halaby, a Druze Is-
raeli who is news editor for Israel
Television. The students produced a
film on Jewish-Arab co-existence,

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