Tikvah

Summer Seminars

The Tikvah Fund sponsors and produces a variety of academic seminars every summer. You will find our 2012 roster listed below. These seminars are still being planned, so please check back for more in the next months. Students may apply to and (if the timing permits) attend multiple Tikvah summer seminars.

 

Jewish Thought and Enduring Human Questions at Princeton.

  • Program Dates: July 22 - August 8.
  • Academic Director: Leora Batnitzky
  • Contact: Polly Strauss, pstrauss@princeton.edu
  • Eligible: All undergraduates at U.S., Israeli, and international colleges and universities, including current undergraduates who will have completed their undergraduate degrees by the time the program takes place.
  • Students from universities in North America, Israel and elsewhere around the world convene in Princeton for two weeks in the summer to study Jewish texts, Jewish thought, and Jewish perspectives on the great questions of human life. Students read and discuss classic Jewish and Western texts, hear lectures by renowned professors, and have opportunities for advising sessions with visiting faculty. For more details, and information on the 2012 program, click the link above.
  • In conjunction with the Princeton seminar, Middlebury Language Schools will offer an intensive four-week program in Modern and Biblical Hebrew. Students who are accepted to the Princeton program will be able to enroll in the Tikvah Hebrew Program at MLS at no cost (space permitting). The program is intended for beginners, so no prior knowledge of Modern or Biblical Hebrew is required. Contact hebrew@tikvahfund.org with questions or to apply.

The Tikvah Israel Fellows at Ein Prat, Israel.

  • Program Dates: June 18 - July 24.
  • Academic Director: Micah Goodman
  • Contact: tikvahisraelfellows@tikvahfund.org
  • Eligible: Applicants must come from countries other than Israel and must be native English speakers or have very strong English skills. In addition, applicants must be between the ages of 20 and 29 by the time the program starts.
  • The purpose and meaning of the State of Israel lie at the center of one of the world's most passionate debates. For five weeks in the summer of 2012, a select group of undergraduates, post-graduates and graduate students from the U.S., Canada and the UK will gather at the Israeli Academy for Leadership at Ein Prat for intensive study of this topic. Drawing on the canonical texts of Judaism and the great works of Western civilization, the Fellows will explore the origins of Zionism, the challenges facing the Jewish State, and a range of visions for Israel's future. For more details, click the link above.

 

The Jewish State: Democracy, Freedom, and Virtue at Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  • Program Dates: August 26 - September 13
  • Academic Director: Peter Berkowitz, Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University
  • Contact: jewishstate@tikvahfund.org
  • Eligible: Open to exceptional B.A. students in any field from every higher educational institution in Israel with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 85. M.A. students will also be considered. Students should be fluent in Hebrew and have excellent English.
  • This institute will explore the philosophical foundations of liberal democracy, and examine the variety of daunting civic dilemmas that Israel faces as the nation state of the Jewish people in securing its founding commitments to freedom and democracy.

 

Political Thought, Economics, & Strategy at Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  • Program Dates: August 5 - 23
  • Academic Director: Ran Baratz, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Shalem Center, Jerusalem
  • Contact: pes@tikvahfund.org
  • Eligible: Advanced BA and early MA students from Israel and abroad who are competent in both English and Hebrew are eligible to apply.
  • This is a new, 3 week-long interdisciplinary international summer institute at the Hebrew University that will broaden the horizons of a very select group of students from a variety of fields in three major topics: Political Thought, Economics and Strategy. Through a combination of perspectives - ancient to modern republicanism, political conservatism, and realist thought - this new joint venture offers an innovative and intensive educational experience. Diverse learning methods will be employed and leading faculty from Israel and abroad will teach in the institute.