Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue in Jerusalem

Source: Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue in Jerusalem

Our flagship programme: JCJCR: The Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations

Some of you may recognize the name of our flagship programme: JCJCR: The Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations, out of which Rossing has grown. The Rossing Center is an affiliate of ICCJ, and as such we are your fellow member organization in the Holy Land.

To date, we have collaborated on specific issues or programs with over 120 Jewish, Christian, interfaith, intercultural, educational and public bodies. Over 6,000 individuals are directly involved in our activities each year.6

We encourage you to consider a Study Tour to complement your interreligious work at home. And I invite you to look at ADAShA's e-brochure and consider arranging your programme through your sister ICCJ-member organization.

Our Goals

• Create and deepen relationships across religious and national lines despite differences and disagreement
• Contribute to understanding and appreciation of the other’s religious/cultural/national narrative, traditions, beliefs and practices
• Combat prejudices and negative stereotyp

Our Programs

Dialogue and Identity
Spurs curiosity, knowledge, intercultural communication and relationship-building among Israel’s Jewish, Christian and Muslim school children.

Open House
A grassroots, interfaith, and intercultural hub building shared society in Ramle by the city’s residents from its diverse Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities.

JCJCR
Teaching the past and present of Christian communities in the Holy Land to Israeli teachers, tour guides, pre-and post-national service youth and IDF educators.

ADAShA ADAShA’s e-brochure
Brings groups – interreligious or interested in interreligious issues – to Israel and exposes them to an ‘across the spectrum’ educational experience of religious and political narratives and perspectives.

Educating for Change
Builds educators’ skills in facilitating conflict-related discussions among high school students, encouraging their respect for difference and diversity, and their role as enablers of an inclusive society

Meeting Place
Promoting a more inclusive campus for students Jewish, Christian and Muslim – Israelis and Palestinians – through joint study and dialogue groups.

Healing Hatred
An innovative model for interreligious dialogue based on the tools of spiritual counselling.

Know Your Neighbor
A reliable, simple and coherent database for explorers of the Holy Land’s three Abrahami

All programs

Our flagship programme: JCJCR: The Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations

JCJCR was established in 2004 to meet the challenges posed by the complex and special encounter between the Jewish majority population and the Christian Arab minority in the Holy Land. JCJCR runs a wide range of courses, conferences, seminars and lectures on topics such as Christian communities in the Holy Land, local Jewish-Christian relations and interfaith and intercultural relations. JCJCR targets key audiences such as teachers and tour guides, as well as stakeholders including Israeli government and military officials.

Activities of JCJCR – Jerusalem Center for Jewish – Christian Relations

• JCJCR courses
• Conferences and Symposia
• Information Services

JCJCR Courses

The Center initiates and runs courses throughout the country for diverse audiences. Most of the courses are for Israeli Jewish audiences and focus on the local Christian communities, their history, their heritage and their traditions. The aim of the courses is to impart basic knowledge alongside encouraging understanding of and tolerance towards others, and fostering respect for minority communities. The Center also organizes courses for Arab audiences that provide information on Jewish traditions and explore issues related to Israeli Jewish identity.

All courses are conducted in cooperation with educational institutions such as teachers-training colleges and universities.

Teacher Training:
Annual courses of 56 hours in teacher-training colleges focus on the history, heritage and traditions of the Christian communities in the Holy Land. The courses give an overview of the birth of Christianity and the history of the Churches, and then move on to other topics such as Jewish-Christian relations, the relations between the State of Israel and the Churches, the education system and the teaching of Christianity, the holiday calendar of the local communities, the lay people and the clergy. During the course, the teachers visit sites related to the topics studied. In recent years the courses have been taught at David Yellin College and the Kerem Institute in Jerusalem and at Seminar HaKibbutzim in Tel Aviv.

Teaching Religions:
The Center holds additional courses examining the question of how to teach religions in the formal and informal educational system, and teaching religions in the framework of educational tours. The courses are intended for student teachers and their purpose is to enable teachers to develop tools for teaching religions creatively in the classroom.

Short courses:
courses dealing with familiarity with the Christian communities, their scriptures and traditions. The courses include a combination of tours and class meetings, and are intended for pre- and post- army preparatory courses and informal study frameworks.

Short courses:
The courses are held annually in cooperation with the Department of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University in the framework of the “Introduction to Christianity” class, in which the participants are exposed to the communities, the holy sites, and the past and present of the city of Jerusalem.

Short courses for the Arab public:
The courses are held in the Galilee and expose participants to the historical and cultural background of Jewish society in Israel. The courses deal with subjects related to religious and cultural heritage and the different streams and groups that make up Jewish society in Israel.

Conferences and Symposia

The Center initiates and organizes conferences for selected target audiences and symposia open to the general public, focusing on historical and current issues that affect the relations between Jews and Christians in the Holy Land. The conferences are held in cooperation with other educational institutions.

In the past, conferences have dealt with various topics such as the changes in the Catholic Church following the Second Vatican Council; the religious world of the communities of migrant workers and asylum seekers in Israel; the contribution of papal visits to relations between Jews and Christians in Israel; a series of conferences devoted to each Christian community; the question of church property; Israeli policy towards churches; and the Christian education system.

Information services

The aim of JCJCR’s information services is to offer Jewish and Arab society in Israel up-to-date information on issues related to Christian communities and Jewish-Christian relations. The Center offers historical and current information to students and researchers, foreign and local journalists, diplomatic missions, public and government institutions, religious institutions, academic institutions and interested parties.