For the 30th consecutive year, Herzog College hosted its annual Bible conference, the Yemei Iyun B’Tanakh, this week with lectures in-person and online in four languages.
The proceedings were held entirely online last summer because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year it was “hybrid,” with a combination of in-person and online sessions.
Some 77 lectures were pre-recorded for people around the world to enjoy, including lectures in Spanish, French, English and Hebrew. An additional 80 lectures were delivered to live audiences at Herzog College in Alon Shvut. There were also live and recorded presentations from historical sites around Israel by official tour guides.
This year’s Yemei Iyun was dedicated to the memory of Moshe (“Moshko”) Moskowitz, founder of Yeshivat Har Etzion and Herzog College, who died earlier this year.
The annual Bible conference is traditionally held at Herzog College during the “Nine Days” before Tisha B’Av and attended by a varied audience from throughout Israel and overseas. Teachers of Tanach in Israeli schools can count these lectures towards their in-service training requirement.
The opportunity to teach Tanach to an international audience inspired college administrators to offer the lectures online on-demand again this year, as well as add lectures in Spanish, French and Hebrew. Herzog College has become increasingly involved in delivering teacher training to Jewish-studies teachers around the world in different languages and recently won an Israeli government tender to provide support and resources to Jewish schools worldwide.
Dr. Ezra Kahalani, provost of Herzog College, says: “We have been providing online teacher training in North and South America, France and Australia, in collaboration with the Ministry of Diaspora and the Ministry of Education. The 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. Perhaps with hindsight, we will appreciate this as one small benefit of the very challenging COVID-19 pandemic experience.”
Friends of Herzog College can access online lectures from the Yemei Iyun B’Tanakh here.
