1985 Fall
Our Fall 1985 Jerusalem Study Abroad group was made up of about 64 students. David Galbraith was our program director and Kelly Ogden, “DKO,” was our associate director. Ellis and Oda Rasmussen were in Israel serving as special representatives (not missionaries) of the Church to help plan and develop programs for the new BYU Jerusalem Center, and we were very fortunate to have Brother Rasmussen as our teacher for our Old Testament classes.
Fall 1985 was the last full semester that BYU Study Abroad students were housed in the Ramat Rachel kibbutz located atop a hill south of Jerusalem, about halfway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Ramat Rachel had a kosher kitchen, large dining room, one public telephone, and some offices located on the first floor. The second floor housed the female students in our group, and the third floor housed the males. There was a large classroom on the second floor where we had classes in religion, history, geography, political science, current affairs, and Hebrew or Arabic. Also on the second floor was a ballroom/gymnasium where we did our Israeli folk dancing and enjoyed a special Seder service. To get into the city of Jerusalem, we walked down off the hilltop to an Arab bus stop located on the Hebron/Bethlehem Road and caught a bus. Our Church meetings were held at “Mormon House” in Jerusalem.
The new BYU Jerusalem Center was under construction on Mount Scopus during the fall of 1985, and we were able to observe its progress. On November 1, our group visited the construction site for a special presentation given by David Galbraith and other leaders. We were given a tour of some of the completed sections of the Jerusalem Center and got to participate in the sinking of a time capsule. This time capsule contained a large parchment scroll signed by each student in our study abroad group, along with a copy of our fall 1985 Jerusalem Studies booklet, newspaper clippings, photographs, etc. This time capsule is scheduled to be unearthed and opened in 2085. At the construction site this day, we witnessed a protest demonstration by members of the Orthodox Jewish community opposed to the building of the new center. They carried signs and chanted, “Mormons, go home!”
We had many awesome field trips during our program, probably to the same places all the other study abroad groups visited. It was exciting to hike Mount Sinai in the dark and be on top in time to watch a glorious sunrise the next morning. Toward the end of October, we spent a week at the working kibbutz, Afikim, located just a few miles south of the Sea of Galilee. On our way there, we pulled off the road and gathered at a beautiful location along the Jordan River where we got to watch DKO baptize his daughter, Sarah. We worked in Afikim’s banana fields, fastening blue plastic bags around bunches of bananas. While we were at Afikim working hard, ten of our group went on a cruise to Greece and Turkey with Dann and Shirley Hone. They were also taught by David Galbraith, Daniel Ludlow, and Richard L. Gunn. They got to go to Athens, Corinth, Paul’s city of Ephesus, Rhodes & Santorini, Greece. In November, we enjoyed a two-week stay in Galilee at the En Gev holiday kibbutz on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. In December, at the conclusion of our semester program, most of the members of our group stayed on for an optional week-long trip to Egypt where we got to visit the pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, and the temples of Karnak and Luxor.
The leaders and members of our study abroad group were a wonderful bunch of people, and we grew very close during our semester together in Jerusalem. We made friendships and memories that we will treasure forever.
Joel Galbraith, son of David Galbraith, created this video during the student semester in Fall 1985.
