Journal entry, Feb 28th 2011: Yad Vashem! This was truly a hard field trip day…for the past two months we have been taking an Israeli class on Judaism up to modern Israel. One of the last field trips for this class was to visit Yad Vashem, or the Holocaust Museum. Outside of the cement museum...
I remember Brother Chadwick telling us time and time again that studying the Bible is much like studying your own family history, that those that don’t enjoy studying the Bible are doing themselves a disservice because this is truly part of their own family history, no matter where your family comes from. What he said...
Sometimes it takes a torched turkey to remind us what Thanksgiving is really all about. As a sophomore in college, I decided to pack up my apartment, say farewell to America, and try my hand overseas in a study abroad program. I joined 172 all-American, green-as-grass students dropped in Israel for a semester. Talk about...
Living Between Two Worlds: Experiencing the Diverse Cultures of the Middle East Part of the magic of living in Jerusalem is living among many people from diverse cultures and ethnic backgrounds. For me, this actually started a bit before BYU Jerusalem when I lived in the BYU Foreign Language housing. I was in the French...
One memory that stood out in my mind from my time in Jerusalem was the Last Week of Christ’s Life Field Trips. One of the stops was the Dominus Flevit Church: this church is a Franciscan church commemorating where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Our group always sang a hymn at every site we went to. ...
When I was 21, I attended the Fall 2000 semester at Brigham Young University’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. I was a history major and loved exploring a land that held so many stories. We traveled and learned Hebrew and Arabic and studied the New and Old Testaments with wise professors and ate so...
April 13, 1995 Journal Entry I am sitting in front of Damascus Gate, simply watching. I can hear the beat of arabic music coming from the old city shops. A round woman with a sack of food balanced perfectly on her head slowly moves up the steps. Beggars sit scattered across the stairs, one with...
A young Jewish boy by the name of Zeev Kaplan called the Center early in 2009, and said that all he wanted for his Bar Mitzvah was to play the organ at the BYU Center. We were given the assignment to contact his family and organize this event. Prior to Zeev’s performance, it was necessary...
The BYU Jerusalem Center became a beacon for the entire Country by promoting Sunday Night Concerts involving world class musicians. People flocked to the center every Sunday evening for these concerts. Performers came from the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as guest artists from all over the world. For the most part, the auditorium was...
The night before leaving for Jerusalem in fall 1992, my now-husband “officially” proposed. Anticipating our upcoming separation, he wanted to make sure everyone knew I was already taken at what he called the BYU Jerusalem Center “Love Boat.” I’m sure his concern was overblown, but being engaged did help me focus more on certain aspects...
