The first LDS official to enter Jerusalem was apostle Orson Hyde, who came in 1841 and dedicated the land for the gathering of the people of Israel, the creation of a Jewish...

President David O. McKay approves a BYU study-abroad program in the Holy Land, with the requirement that studies be equally divided between Arab and Israeli histories, cultures, religions, and languages...

The Six-Day War leads to Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai. Within a year, Israel expropriates vacant land in East Jerusalem...

In 1968, the first group of 20 BYU students went on a study abroad to the Holy Land under the direction of Daniel Ludlow. A “traveling branch” of the church...

A year after the first, another group of BYU students studied abroad in the Holy Land.

President Harold B. Lee visits Jerusalem along with Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, during which they established the Jerusalem Branch of the Church with David Galbraith (resident director of Jerusalem Study...

The First Presidency grants permission for the branches in the Holy Land to observe the Sabbath on Saturday. (Information provided by BYU Studies Quarterly Volume 59, Number 4, 2020)

BYU’s student program in the Holy Land is cut short at the onset of the Yom Kippur War and students are moved to Salzburg, Austria, to finish their program. BYU’s...

Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek approaches David Galbraith to ascertain Church interest in acquiring a five-and-one-half-acre parcel of land that had become available on the Mount of Olives, landscaping it, and...

Ivan and Minnie Barrett are called to be special representatives of the Church in the Holy Land. They, and their successors (Jerusalem Center service couples), provide public affairs, humanitarian and...

BYU’s student programs in the Holy Land move to Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, which became the primary living quarters for students on the program for the next nine years. Before Ramat...

Presidents Spencer W. Kimball, Ezra Taft Benson, and five other members of the Quorum of the 12 apostles visited Israel to dedicate Orson Hyde Garden and announce planned construction of...

Groundbreaking ceremony on the Mount of Olives for construction of BYU Jerusalem Center took place. By August 1984, the church had received a commitment to lease the land. Construction on...

BYU President, Jeffrey R. Holland writes to Mayor Teddy Kollek promising that BYU nor the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will proselytize in Israel. This was a condition...

The lease was finally signed and has an addendum in which the Church and BYU agree that there will be no proselytizing activity and the building will be used for...

A regular 7-week Summer term student program was introduced for the first time, and the Summer Term 1987 group became the first to experience an entire program in the new...

The center was dedicated on May 16, 1989 by Howard W. Hunter,  the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  The dedication ceremony was small, as the church decided not...

With Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, which eventually set off the First Gulf War, the Summer term and Fall Semester programs instituted extra security precautions for students in Jerusalem. Fall semester...

Jerusalem Center student program suspended for part of 1991, leaving the center void of students because of the First Gulf War in Iraq. The program resumed in June that year.

Travel to Egypt suspended for security reasons. The students visited Jordan instead. Winter/Spring semester students participated in an archaeological dig at Tel Miqne (biblical Ekron).  

The six-month Winter/Spring program was discontinued and replaced with a 15-week Winter semester program and a 7-week Spring term program (joining the 7-week Summer term)    Photo from Spring Term...

President Gordon B. Hinckley visited Israel and the Jerusalem Center.  Back to back programs instituted for Spring and Summer terms [Spring I and II, Summer I and II] which would...

Guests are invited to a lighting ceremony as the Center joins in a citywide program to illuminate the exterior façade of structures of historical and architectural significance, including the Church...

Outbreak of the “Second Intifada” caused Fall semester program to be shortened. Students spent most of the latter part of their semester in Galilee at Ein Gev before they were...

The student program was closed from the Jerusalem Center during these six years; the Center remained open for local public visits and concerts. Humanitarian efforts based at the Center continued....

December 2006 Eran Hayet is appointed as the executive director of the Center, with Tawfic Alawi as one associate director and a rotating BYU-affiliated expatriate as a second associate director....

Student program recommenced at the Center with 40 students (one bus group). In summer the program expanded to 84 students (two bus groups) instead of 170, setting the new normal....

Separate Spring and Summer term programs were discontinued. The program would now consist of three semester programs per academic year: Fall, Winter, and Spring/Summer. (Photo Courtesy of Jeffrey R. Chadwick...

On Winter Semester visit to Egypt the program (80 students) was caught in events of the ‘Arab Spring’ revolution in Egypt, but safely completed their visit and returned to Israel...

The Spring/Summer semester program visited Turkey instead of Egypt, setting a new pattern that would last for five years.

The Winter semester program visited Egypt after a five-year hiatus, and visits to Turkey were discontinued. Spring/Summer and Fall semesters visited Greece. The program began regularly visiting Egypt in Winter...

The Jerusalem Center instituted its annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony on its outdoor balcony, complete with holiday lights decorating the Jerusalem Center building.

President Russell M. Nelson visit to Israel and Jerusalem Center as a part of his world tour

The Winter semester program left Israel early due to the Corona Virus pandemic. No programs were held in Jerusalem for Spring/Summer and Fall semesters 2020, nor in Winter 2021.  (Photo...

In November of 2019, former Fall 1993 Jerusalem Center Student–April Giddings Cobb, met with Jim Kearl, Debra Peterson, and Brent Top to propose an alumni organization for the Jerusalem Center...

After a two-year closure, the Jerusalem Center welcomed a new group of students in April 2022. While many new procedures were in place as precautionary measures, the students had a...

On October 7, 2023, violence broke out between Hamas in Gaza and Israel. After spending one week in the Jerusalem Center, students were relocated to Greece one week before their...