Princeton Students Visit Shalem to Explore Israeli Culture and Intellectual Life

This December, Shalem students hosted a student delegation from Princeton University during a winter-break tour of Israel with former ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer. Over dinner in the Shalem student lounge, the two groups discussed key issues facing the Jewish state and the role they hope to play in its shaping its future. They also laid the foundation for an ongoing conversation, which, said Shalem student and event organizer Hadas Ofir, “is itself an answer to one of the most difficult challenges we as Jews face today: maintaining a sense of peoplehood and a belief in a shared destiny.”

Hadas, who herself spent several years of her childhood in the Ukraine during her family’s shlichut, invited the twenty-five Princeton students to make Shalem a stop on their packed tour of the country, which included meetings with influential politicians, activists, and leaders in Israeli society. The invitation, Hadas explained, was born of the desire to offer the Princeton students an opportunity to ask questions and express their concerns about Israeli society as peers—a vantage point that, she hoped, would enable fruitful dialogue.

According to Rabbi Julie Roth, Executive Director of Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life–Hillel, that’s exactly what it did: “The meeting between Princeton’s students and Shalem’s not only helped to paint a fuller picture of the Jewish state than our group would have otherwise seen on this trip. It also showed that their Israeli counterparts, as reflected in the Shalem student body, are deeply thoughtful individuals, concerned with many of the same issues as they are, and willing to reflect openly and critically on their society. Undoubtedly,” she concluded, “that realization will encourage our students to build bridges with Israel in the future.”