Home Resources Enhancing Student Learning on Jewish Heritage Travel Journeys
March 2026

Enhancing Student Learning on Jewish Heritage Travel Journeys

Dr. David I. Bernstein
Dean Emeritus
Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies
DOWNLOAD RESOURCE
DOWNLOAD RESOURCE
DOWNLOAD RESEARCH PAPER
DOWNLOAD RESEARCH PAPER
To engage in Jewish heritage travel is to use the liminality of the journey to turn shared history into a deeply felt bond for a better Jewish future.

Jewish heritage travel is an excellent experiential educational mode to help younger and older Jews confront our shared history, both in the cognitive and affective realms. It also offers the opportunity to emphasize the bonds we share today with Jews around the globe. The liminality of travel can make such experiences more deeply felt than in a regular school setting. Such experiential learning can be a key to building a better Jewish future, with stronger bonds among Jews.

Dr. David I. Bernstein is the Dean Emeritus of the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies, where he served as Dean for 23 years. Previously he was the Director of Midreshet Lindenbaum. A life-long student of Jewish history, he also leads Jewish heritage journeys to Central and Eastern Europe. Reflecting on the diversity and vitality of past Jewish communities, he also brings his students into close contact with these reviving current Jewish communities. Believing that Jewish life is not only important but is also enriching, empowering and personally rewarding, he has devoted himself to the Jewish education field for decades. A native New Yorker, he now lives with his wife and family in Jerusalem.
Share

More PEDAGOGIES RESOURCES

A Practice of Wonder: Cultivating Jewish Belonging Through Awe and Attention

Deborah Niederman

Director of Education
Temple Shalom

To engage in a practice of wonder is to see personal experiences of awe as part of a broader Jewish narrative and a commitment to the collective.

Access Resource

Meaning-Making in the Teaching of Tanakh Storytelling as a Pedagogy for Connection to the Jewish People

Reuven Spolter

Educational Development Coordinator for English Speaking Countries at Herzog Global
Herzog College

To teach Tanakh through storytelling is to transmit shared memory and values, fostering a deeper connection and long-term engagement with tradition.

Access Resource

Primary Sources as a Portal to Jewish Peoplehood

Shuvi Hoffman

Manager of Global Jewish Education
The National Library of Israel

To learn through primary sources is to enter a portal into a different context and move from a spectator to an active participant in the Jewish story.

Access Resource

The Mosaic of the Jewish People: A Pedagogy of Relational Sense-Making

Mikhael Reuven Kesher

Director, Israel Education
The Jewish Education Project

To engage in relational sense-making is to explore the patterns of overlap, difference, and tension within the complex mosaic of the Jewish people.

Access Resource

The Things We Carry: A Pedagogy of Jewish Migration and Adaptation

Dr. Analucia Lopezrevoredo

Founder and Executive Director
Jewtina y Co

To experience The Things We Carry is to engage all five senses to make the lived experiences of Jewish migration personal and embodied.

Access Resource

Drawing Out a New Torah

Jacqueline Nicholls

Freelance Artist and Educator

To draw out a new Torah is to use artistic engagement as a way of thinking that raises voices previously not included in traditional learning.

Access Resource
View All