The Elijah Interfaith Summer School and Interreligious Leadership Seminar 2022

Source: Elijah Interfaith Institute

“Return to Jerusalem”

24 - 29th July; 31st July - 4 August

After two years of only being on Zoom, we are able to offer the experience of community-building and encounter with the holy city of Jerusalem that characterises an Elijah summer school, while continuing to offer the opportunity to participate to those who cannot join us in person.

Morning sessions:

• 9:00 am -1:00 pm, exploring and understanding Jerusalem through the eyes of different religious traditions, imbibing the sanctity of the holy city; afternoon sessions (live-streamed):
• 4:00 – 7:00 pm, the concept of “return”.

Topics include:

• “The need for ‘return’ – loss and restoration – grief and consolation,”
• “The concept of ‘return’ as repentance, purification or reunification,”
• “Returning to sacred places – pilgrimage. What makes a site holy and a magnet for pilgrimage?”, “Return to self and processes of return as part of interior psychological map, activated in prayer. “
• The seminar will include a 3-day workshop devoted to the power of prayer and making prayer meaningful.

Register here:

What Will You Learn?

Jerusalem in Judaism, Christianity and Islam and in other traditions The meaning of "return" in theological and spiritual terms:

• Loss and consolation
• Exile and return
• Return to oneself - return to one's identity
• Why we return to sites of pilgrimage
• Concepts of time – return in time

This year's summer school features a special training module in the art of prayer.

Following a week of reflection on different interfaith dimensions of "return" and of "Jerusalem", the second week will be a prayer-training seminar. Deepening the prayer experience in the mutual presence of believers of different faiths is part of what we understand Jerusalem to represent and what Elijah's vision for Jerusalem is.

The Art of Prayer is a regenerative learning approach exploring a core component of our shared human existence - our natural capacity for prayer. In this workshop we will practice gradual steps that delicately unfold the field of prayer; and allow us to freshly rediscover our own meaning in praying. Together we reformulate and refresh pathways into the intimate experience of being in the world - of becoming creatures endowed with curiosity, kindness and a sensitivity to the yet unknown. It is about transforming our understanding of the act of prayer from a mere practice into a living model for existence.

When: 24-29th July; 31st July -4 August, 2022

Where: Jerusalem, Shir Hadash, Yaakov Rubin 1 (off Graetz)

Hours: Morning sessions: 9:00 am -1:00 pm; afternoon sessions (live-streamed): 4:00 – 7:00 pm.