Study

This program is a special offer to the volunteers, it distinguishes Nes Ammim from the other organisations in Israel – and donations make it possible to be free of charge for volunteers!

The five columns of the study program

Ähre
 Study evenings 		Ähre
 Seminars 		Ähre
 Excursions 		Ähre
 Hebrew courses 		Ähre
 Dialogue
• The Israeli society, culture and politics
• Israel and the Middle East
• The Steps in the Jewish-Arab peace process
    (in cooperation with the Nes Ammim dialogue
• Jewish self-image in the past and at the present
• Jewish festivals
• Trends in Judaism
• Jewish-Christian relations
• Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust
• Islam and the Islamic world
• The Christian identity in interreligious and intercultural contexts in Israel
• The Christian communities in Israel
• Other religious minorities: The Druze and Bahai
• Aspects of Israel´s history over the centuries
The subjects of these evening meetings which provide an opportunity to study together and to discuss with each other, accompany the volunteers throughout the year.
Studyroom
Avner Shai im Study-Room von Nes Ammim.
An example is the Hebrew Culture Course with Avner Shai
A son of Holcaust survivors and an officer in the Israeli reserve army, Avner Shai is an authentic and competent lecturer and he speaks in the Nes Ammim Study Room.

He speaks of the army and brings with him a soldier and a mother who lost her son in the army.
He speaks of the connection between the Hebrew language and Hebrew culture, about Jewish immigration, the modern Jewish world of Reformed Judaism, about the period between the Second World War and the establishment of Israel, and he takes the volunteers with him to visit Tel Aviv and shows them the city in his own inimitable way.

Avner Shai introduces himself:

Hebrew Culture Course

Hebrew Culture Course

Hebrew Culture Course
Language is an expression of culture. Culture is an expression of language. Knowledge of a country´s language gives access to its people.
Therefore, there is an opportunity in Nes Ammim to learn Hebrew. Interested beginners start with the Hebrew Aleph-Bet, learn to write, to read and to speak. Diligent learners and linguistically-gifted students can speak fluently Hebrew after only one year.
For advanced students two other courses are offered in which the students read demanding texts and complex conversations and discussions are held.
Throughout the year the Study Department organises three seminars outside of Nes Ammim:
The Negev seminar
For three days, the volunteers go from Nes Ammim to the Negev desert. They sleep under the open skies, walk in dry river beds and through weird rock formations, they cook and eat together in the great outdoors, under stars which only the desert sky shows so clearly.

Three days in the Negev. For most of the volunteers this means their first contact with the ancient wild culture of the Nabataeans and also with the contemporary bedouins' culture.

During these three days, the Nes Ammim volunteers get to know both the desert and themselves better. Besides all these new, adventurous impressions, those three days benefit the social cooperation – that forms a group!
Maktesh Ramon
Impressions of the Negev seminar, taken by Ralf Braun, Melanie MĂĽller and Matthias Holtmann
of the German TV channel SWR:
The Holocaust Seminar

The survivors who had fought against German soldiers in the Warsaw ghetto, founded a kibbutz in the North of Israel – Lochamei HaGetaot is a neighboring kibbutz to Nes Ammim.
There, in the world´s first Holocaust museum, the volunteers get new access and perspective to history in seminar units, workshops, discussions and exhibitions – not by theoretical reviewing of historical material, but by face-to-face meetings with Holocaust survivors, contemporary witnesses and by encountering personal tragedies. 		Holocaust Seminar

Holocaust Seminar
Holocaust Seminar

 Holocaust Seminar
Holocaust Seminar

Holocaust Seminar 		To create a fresh start in the relations between Jews and Christians – as well as between Israelis and Europeans – was one of the first aims of the founders of Nes Ammim.
The Holocaust seminar, obligatory for all Nes Ammim volunteers, takes place annually in winter. It takes three days and is located in the neighboring kibbutz Lochamei HaGetaot, the museum of the ghetto fighters.
During these three very intensive days the volunteers of Nes Ammim learn about the Jewish view point regarding the difficult subject of the Shoah.

This opens insights into the political as well as the apolitical aspects of everyday life in Israel.
This Holocaust seminar usually creates a powerful impression that remains in the minds of the participants.
The Jerusalem Seminar
Jerusalem "in between"
"In between" is the guide between heaven and earth, between east and west, between minority and majority – to name only a few "in betweens".

This seminar discloses the Jewish and Christian world in a city which has been sought-after and hotly contested for hundreds of years – today´s capital city of Israel. Contrary to what is expected the seminar participants face another Jerusalem which presents itself as an alluring and confusing city, crowded by people, religions, cultures and a long, long history. The volunteers get the opportunity to look into the religions` backyards. These three seminar days in Jerusalem open the eyes of the participants to the complexity and complicatedness of this town.
In order to experience the surroundings comprehensively „with all senses“, the volunteers make monthly excursions into the near periphery of Nes Ammim and further afield.
Both for the volunteers who stay in Nes Ammim for a year or less, as well for those who stay in the village for a longer period, there is always a lot to discover and there are many new impressions to gain each time.
The destinations of these excursions are quite different every time. Sometimes they follow the traces of antique synagogues into the Golan, sometimes the main focus lies on the Christian sites in the Galilee and at the Sea of Galilee, sometimes it is about the settlements of the German Templars. At other times they visit important national parks such as Meggido, Caesarea or Bet She’an. Also Acco with its varied history of the millenniums is on the curriculum. 		Akko Exkursion

Yad Vashem Exkursion

Yad Vashem Exkursion
 Yad Vashem Exkursion
Pfeil The whole slide show
An excursion, picked out of many others: one day in Yad VaShem, the national Holocaust memorial in Israel. A whole day long, the volunteers observe how the anonymous victims of the Shoah get a name – by the Children’s Memorial, by art, by a gigantic labyrinth of boards with the names of Jewish communities which were destroyed during the Shoah in Europe, the so-called valley of the communities. A corridor through the new museum of Yad VaShem adds a historical aspect telling the history of people in the years between 1933 and 1948, their stories – how they lived and how they died.
The visit to Yad VaShem completes the experiences which the Nes Ammim volunteers gained in the Holocaust seminar.
Studying in Nes Ammim
Nes Ammim offers affordable accommodation for pastors and theologians who, in the course of a study visit, sabbatical, or introductory stay in Israel, would like to stay for either shorter or longer period in this country. Housing is in village pavilions being held in reserve for this purpose. The cost for one person will be € 40 per day or € 250 per week. The costs for each additional week will be € 200. The cost for an extra person will be € 5 per day. Communal meals may be shared with volunteers in the dining hall of the volunteer community. The costs for full board are € 11 per person per day, but only meals taken will be charged. The above-mentioned prices may be a bit lower or higher, dependent upon the exchange rate of the shekel.
Nes Ammim is located in the Northwestern part of the Galilee, an area with a mixed population of Jews and Arabs and with a Christian minority. It is a good base to get an impression of the lives of 'ordinary' people, Jews and Arabs, within the complex realities of Israel.
Nes Ammim has an extensive library in Judaism and Jewish-Christian dialogue. The study leader, the pastor and the dialogue coordinator are available for study advice and can assist in providing contacts within the Nes Ammim network.. In the Netherlands, an individual study program can be discussed with Prof. Dineke Houtman, professor of Judaism with special attention to the relationship of Judaism and Christianity, of the Protestant University in Kampen.
Pastors and theologians have the opportunity to participate in excursions and lectures that are organized within the study program for volunteers. Also, Nes Ammim's Study Office may be helpful in organizing individual tours, meetings and multi-day trips elsewhere in Israel and the West Bank. Due to it's decades-long presence in this country, Nes Ammim maintains an extended network of contacts for retreats and educational opportunities, and often can assist in finding quality, affordable places to stay.
In recent years, Nes Ammim was redeveloped as a centre for Jewish-Arab dialogue and as a meeting place for interfaith groups, who very much appreciate the facilities we have to offer. A short or extended stay in Nes Ammim provides an opportunity to share in the life of this small community of 40 mostly young German and Dutch volunteers, a community which has an exceptionally special history with committed ideals towards dialogue. Nes Ammim is located 5km from the beach, train and bus stations, Nahariya and 8km from Akko. Transportation is easily accommodated and for € 22 per day a small car can be rented in Nahariya.
Those who are interested may contact Prof. Dineke Houtman, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it in the Netherlands or Nes Ammim's resident pastor couple, Annemarie van Andel and Frans van der Sar, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Taking part in Jewish festivals
At many Jewish festivals non-Jewish guests are also invited to join the celebrations.
Thus, in winter every year, the Nes Ammim volunteers celebrate the Hanukka festival, the Jewish „Festival of Lights“. They celebrate it with the inhabitants of a retirement home in the neighboring Shavei Zion. The „Festival of Lights“ which takes place around the time of the Christian Christmas (whereas its origin has no concern with Christmas), is celebrated in Jewish houses for a whole week. On each of eight days a new candle is lit. The volunteers sing songs with the older inhabitants of the home, listen to and tell stories, hold a quiz with each other and eat "Sufganiot" (a kind of doughnuts) – a typical Hanukka celebration.
Another celebration, one of the most important ones in Judaism, is Pessach (Passover), which is celebrated in the spring and commemorates the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. In the annual cyclic calendar, the Jewish Pessach and Christian Easter mostly coincide. Pessach also is celebrated for a full week. The prelude of this festival, the Seder evening, is ruled by a certain liturgy, the Pessach-Hagada, and most Jewish families celebrate it together with many guests. The volunteers from Nes Ammim also have the opportunity to celebrate it, either at private families or as a member of the assistants staff in the guest house in Nes Ammim, where many Jewish families spend their Pessach holidays. During the Pesach week the volunteers must eat Matza instead of bread, as well as potatoes instead of flour dishes, even in their own "kosher" dining room.
Another festival which the volunteers can take part in is the Simhat Torah festivity at the end of the Sukkot celebration in autumn. Simhat Torah, the „joy of / about the Torah“, celebrates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish believers. The party is celebrated on an evening, with many songs and dances at one of the places in the area and the volunteers are a part of it – "Judaism at first hand"!
Simchat Thora
Simchat Thora
Simchat Thora
Simchat Thora