This past summer, Northeastern students had the opportunity to study abroad on three exciting Dialogue of Civilization programs related to Jewish Studies. Lori Lefkovitz, Ruderman Professor and Director of Jewish Studies, led a trip entitled “Contemporary Israel and its Complexities,” exploring the complexities of Israeli society, politics, and culture and how they are represented in journalism, art, and literature. Jeffrey Burds, professor of History, led students on a five-week tour of Poland, including three weeks in Warsaw, where they visited the scene of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the Museum of the History of the Jews of Poland, and two weeks traveling to Krakow, Auschwitz, Rabka, Zakopane, and Gdansk. Natalie Bormann, a faculty member in the Political Science Department, led a trip to Germany and Poland focused on “Holocaust and Genocide Studies”; the trip focused especially on key sites of trauma and memory, such as the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau, the Nuremberg trial courtroom, Schindler’s factory, and the former Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw.
We asked students on each of these Dialogues to share their reflections on the trips. Some shared excerpts from blogs they kept while traveling; others wrote reflections for this purpose. Click on the links below to read the students’ reflections.
Israel: Contemporary Israel and its Complexities
Germany and Poland: Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Poland: From Occupation to Resistance
