For the 30th consecutive year, Herzog College hosted its annual pre-Tisha Be’av Bible conference.
Herzog College is named for Yaakov Herzog, a Dublin-born, Jerusalem-ordained rabbi, diplomat, policy adviser to David Ben-Gurion and Levi Eshkol, scholar, the younger son of the State of Israel’s first Ashkenazi chief rabbi, brother of the state’s sixth president and uncle of the current president.
The college, founded in 1973, has more than 3,500 students and is considered to be one of the largest teacher training facilities in Israel.
In addition to being approved to award bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education, it provides guidance for Jewish schools in many parts of the world. Originating in Alon Shvut, it merged with the Jerusalem-based Lifshitz College of Education in 2013. It also has a campus for women at Migdal Oz.
The Bible Conference was held online and in person, with 77 lectures recorded for global distribution and access, plus 80 lectures delivered to a live audience at Alon Shvut.
According to Herzog College provost Dr. Ezra Kahalani, the college has been providing online teacher training in North and South America, France and Australia, in collaboration with the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and the Ministry of Education. While distance learning is not new and existed even in the pre-computer age, when it was done by radio, it has developed greater impetus in recent years, especially during the pandemic.
“This accelerated development of distance learning has made it possible for us to share our passion for Torah, our expertise in pedagogy and our love of the Land of Israel with teachers and students in Jewish schools, and with Jewish people all over the world,” said Kahalani. “Perhaps with hindsight, we will appreciate this as one small benefit of the very challenging COVID-19 pandemic experience.”
■ IN AN era in which public health is constantly in the news, Dr. Kenneth Collins has chosen an appropriate time in which to launch his latest book, Medicine from Biblical Canaan to Modern Israel.
The book is rich in its history, detail and diversity, which is not surprising as Collins is not only a physician, but also an historian.
A former president of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council and former chair of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, he was a general practitioner in Glasgow for more than 30 years. Collins edited the medical history journal Vasalius from 2009 to 2017, and is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow and visiting professor in the History of Medicine at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. The book launch will take place on Wednesday, July 26, at 7:30 p.m. at the Hazvi Yisrael Synagogue, 14 Hovevei Zion Street, where Collins is a member of the synagogue committee as well as one of its former chairmen.
■ THE B’SHEVA communications group, which holds an annual Jerusalem Conference, is also hosting a summer conference with the participation of President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and many other political, media and religious figures. The two-day conference will open at the Begin Heritage Center on Sunday, August 1. Topics to be discussed include Jewish-Arab relations in the aftermath of recent riots, the future of Jewish settlement in the West Bank and possible changes in the status quo.
■ GIVEN THE fact that the conference is taking place in Jerusalem, Mayor Moshe Lion will also be among the keynote speakers, as will his predecessor in office Nir Barkat, who last week flew to the US in an effort to prevent the re-opening in Agron Street, of the American Consulate General, which served the Palestinian population before the US Embassy was transferred from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Lion should take note of an article that appeared in last Friday’s Jerusalem Post under the by-line of Managing Editor David Brinn.
In conversation with a veteran restaurateur in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, Brinn was told that unlike Teddy Kollek, who regularly visited and asked residents and business people about their problems, had one of his aides write down what he’d been told, and then did something to amend the situation, Lion never looks left or right when he comes to the Old City, but heads straight for the Western Wall. According to what Brinn was told, Lion has never visited the Christian Quarter. The people living and working there also pay rates and taxes and deserve the attention of the mayor.
■ WHILE GUESTS sweltered in the humidity of the garden of French Ambassador Eric Danon at the Bastille Day celebrations last week, the weather in Jerusalem was fine, and tables laden with kosher delicacies dotted the vast garden of the French Consulate in the capital, a factor greatly appreciated by those of the Jewish guests who are religiously observant.
It was the first Bastille Day celebration for Consul General René Troccaz, who had taken up his post more than a year and a half earlier. Due to the COVID pandemic, there had been no reception in 2020. However, the 2021 event did not attract as large a crowd as might have been anticipated. Part of the dual French-Israeli community stayed away in protest of the recent visit by the consul to Gaza in order to confer France’s second highest honor to a Gaza-based lawyer who had submitted dozens of cases against Israel to the International Criminal Court and who declared that Israel was deliberately targeting civilians.
Addressing his guests, Troccaz was at pains to avoid sensitive issues and mentioned the work done by his team to help French citizens in need of consular services, adding that assistance given was the second highest of all French representations in the world. He was warmly applauded to the sound of popping champagne corks.
The French Consulate General in Jerusalem goes back to way before the establishment of the state to the days of Ottoman rule. The first consul was appointed by King Louis XIII as far back as 1623 to give succor to Christian pilgrims who came to pray at the Holy Places, particularly those which were French possessions. In 1893, the consul’s rank was upgraded to that of consul general.
Situated opposite the side entrance to the King David Hotel in Emil Botta Street, the French Consulate in Jerusalem operates independently from the French Embassy in Tel Aviv and is the French representative to the Palestinian National Authority.
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