Festival of learning kicks off in Jerusalem

Jerusalem may be the city with more Jewish study centers per capita than any other, but Limmud Jerusalem is able to uniquely gather the capital’s disparate communities in a festival of learning.

Taking place at the Herzl Center on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on August 27-28, the program includes a eclectic range of personalities, including Yesh Atid Knesset member Aliza Lavie, Darfur refugee Mutassim Ali, secular humanist rabbi Iris Yaniv, Ethiopian religious leader Kes Ephraim Tziyon-Lavai and comedian Yisrael Campbell.

“We have nearly every kind of religious leader,” said Regev Ben David, a Limmud co-chair. “We have an amazing group of people who want to come and learn together.”

Limmud Jerusalem, which last met three years ago, closely follows the blueprint of International Limmud, the global learning conference founded in 1980 in England. Given its location in Jerusalem, a center of Jewish study, it bears its own set of only-in-Jerusalem characteristics, said Ben David.

There are panels such as “Jerusalem Culture? Not an Oxymoron, Not What You Think!” and a multi-faith panel that will include a Jerusalem peacemaker, a Palestinian evangelical pastor, a Palestinian Muslim from Husan and a Sufi Muslim peacemaker from Nazareth.

Included in the 150 Hebrew and English sessions, workshops, performances and tours are a sermon slam, a session titled “The Rabbi, the Teacher and the Vibrator,” and “Why Don’t Israelis Stand in Line?!”

Given that it is the final week of summer vacation, there is also Young Limmud, with babysitting services from 8 am until 4 pm for children ages 2 to 5, and activities for children ages 6 through 10.

Some aspects of Limmud Jerusalem are typical for the international learning experience, others are distinctive to the holy city.

“Thank God, there are so many institutions of culture and arts and learning and Jewish identity in Jerusalem,” said Ben David, who runs the Beit Midrash program for adults at Ein Prat, a pluralistic learning institution. “But, we bring Limmud to Jerusalem because it can give what no other place can, it’s a place where we can have walking tours and movement classes, and song and text studies.”

It’s also a city that doesn’t always offer one location for people of all ages and backgrounds to gather together to learn, said Ben David.

“There’s almost no place where you can find kids, students, young families and older people learning together,” he said. “Usually it’s one or the other.”

Two other communities that are prevalent in Jerusalem, English speakers and young Israeli families, are “two separate worlds that don’t always meet,” said Ben David, and they will come together at Limmud Jerusalem.

There will also be an emphasis on interfaith and interdenominational programming in the program, following a series of tragic deaths in the capital, including a stabbing at the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade.

“There’s the Jewish cultural scene and the dialogue scene, and they don’t always come together,” said Ben David. “Here is an event that’s very Jewish, but also very open to dialogue.”

“When there’s terror, everyone talks about it,” he said. “We feel that our job is to broadcast it.”

Limmud Jerusalem is part of Limmud Interational. It is also one of several other Limmud festivals in Israel, including in the Arava, Beersheba, the Galil, Haifa, Modiin, Tel Aviv and Yerucham.

“Anyone who comes to Limmud anywhere can identify it as Limmud,” said Ben David. “We don’t want to be different, it’s just that Jerusalem calls for and points out things that aren’t relevant elsewhere. We don’t have to go far to find people of all kinds, it’s just ingrained in our city, and that’s really an added value.”

For more information about Limmud and to register, visit the Limmud Jerusalem website.