JEWISH HISTORICAL SEMINARS

 

was started over 38 years ago by Jo-Anne Greenblatt, Professor Yom Tov Assis (z"l) and Debbie Zuberi and later joined by Professor Shalom Sabar.  We also have other wonderful lecturers: Dr. Kathy Aron-Beller, Dr. Eliezer Papo, Dr. Tirtsah Levie-Bernfeld, Dr. Debra Kaplan and Prof. Marcin Wodzinski.  We developed study tours in English with the concept of visiting the Jewish community of a specific region or country and learning about their past and present.

 

We started traveling to Castile and Andalusia in Spain in 1986 followed by other countries and regions in Europe.  We later expanded to Uzbekistan, Morocco, China, India and other destination as well (see our destination page).

 

The idea was to bring Scholars in Residence (professors, educators and lecturers) with great knowledge of the Jewish history, art and folklore of the place we visit.  The lectures are given in the morning, usually in hotel lecture rooms.  We visit the Jewish sites which often include private exhibitions of old Jewish manuscripts and books in archives and libraries.

 

We have excellent local English speaking guides throughout the tours who cover the local sites, history and culture.

 

Our tours are without Shabbat travel and include kosher or vegetarian meals whenever possible.  We join the local communities for Shabbat.

 

A big aspect of Jewish Historical Seminars are the wonderful people who join us from all over the world.  They come from Israel, North America, Europe, Mexico, El Salvador, Brazil and Australia and join us where we start the tour. Jewish Historical Seminars has been built up throughout the years via word of mouth.  Many of our clients have returned a number of times on our tours, which is definitely the best form of advertisement!