Jerusalem, Israel

Jerusalem is a holy place for three world religions.

Settled more than 3,000 years ago, Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world and a holy place for three of the world’s major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This meeting place between the East and West is also a major center for reporting on the Middle East and many international news organizations maintain bureaus here. Students will learn international reporting techniques from veteran journalists and then work as foreign correspondents themselves, publishing their work on a multimedia website.

Students will live and learn at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a modern campus on Mt. Scopus.

Academic Credit

Students will sign up for two three-credit courses:

• Modern Israel — Noted Israel scholar Eran Kaplan, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor in Israel Studies at San Francisco State University, will lead students on a journey through the history, politics and culture of this fascinating country. Students will meet with politicians, policy makers and community leaders offering a variety of perspectives.  
• International Reporting –Students will learn how to develop sources, conduct interviews and work with an interpreter and then report on the city around them, publishing their work on a professional-quality website. The course will be taught by a team of veteran journalists who have covered the Middle East for years, including longtime NPR Jerusalem correspondent Linda Gradstein and former Christian Science Monitor reporter Ilene Prusher.

Students will earn 6 transferable credits from our partner university, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

GRADUATE CREDIT AVAILABLE: Graduate students can earn graduate credit by submitting, upon completion of the course, an additional 20-page seminar paper on a designated topic, approved in advance by the course instructor. Students must submit this paper within one month of the conclusion of the course. Graduate students should confirm with their home universities if this arrangement is acceptable before registering for the course.

People from around the world come to visit the Western Wall.

The City

Jerusalem is one of the most fascinating cities in the world, mixing ancient and modern, holy and secular. Walk the stone streets of the Old City or the lively thoroughfares of modern Jerusalem and you’ll witness the diversity of the human experience. The capital of Israel, Jerusalem has an abundant collection of historical and holy sites, as well as museums, theaters, restaurants and dance clubs, all a short bus or taxi ride away from the Mt. Scopus campus.

The University

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was founded in 1925, two decades before the founding of the state of Israel, and currently has about 23,000 students. During the summer, students from around the world come here to study Hebrew language, archaeology, Middle East Studies and Jewish Studies. ieiMedia students will have the opportunity to mingle with Israeli and international students.

Travel Opportunities

Students will have the opportunity to travel to other locations in Israel, such as Haifa, Masada and Tel Aviv.

Students will have two three-day weekends (Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays) free to explore the city, or to travel within Israel. Tel Aviv, Haifa, Bethlehem and other cities are all accessible by bus. Those who want to tour extensively should plan travel time before or after the program.

Students

Students will visit the ruins of ancient Masada

The program is open to English-speaking college students and recent graduates from any school. Students from many public and private universities — including American University, New York University, UCLA, University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Temple University, Arizona State University, University of Arizona, University of Montana, Arizona State University, Amherst College, University of Nevada-Reno, Nanyang Technological University and Carleton University — have participated in past ieiMedia programs. International students with excellent English skills are strongly encouraged to apply; ieiMedia has hosted students from Japan, the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Thailand and Trinidad.

Most of our students are journalism or communications majors but those majoring in other subjects are welcome as well. For non-journalism/communication majors, experience working for a college or professional publication is helpful, but not necessary.

The program is open to graduate students. We’d be happy to talk with you about supervising an independent project that would qualify for graduate credit at your school, or to offer this experience as a graduate internship.

Faculty

Our faculty come from leading universities and news organizations. In 2013 our faculty will include:

The Dome of the Rock, or Haram ash Sharif, is one of many holy shrines in Jerusalem.

Program Director

Rachele Kanigel is an associate professor of journalism at San Francisco State University.  Before becoming a professor she was a daily newspaper reporter for 15 years and worked at The Oakland Tribune and The News and Observer in Raleigh, NC. She continues to freelance for magazine and websites; her work has appeared in TIME, U.S. News & World Report, Health, Yoga Journal, Prevention, CNN.com, MSNBC.com and other magazines and websites. She is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and is the author of The Student Newspaper Survival Guide. She has directed ieiMedia programs in Urbino, Italy (2009) and Perpignan, France (2010-2011) and taught in ieiMedia’s Cagli program in 2007.

Modern Israel Faculty

Eran Kaplan is the Rhoda and Richard Goldman Chair in Israel Studies at SFSU. He received his B.A. (magna cum laude) from Tel Aviv University and his Ph.D. in Modern Jewish History from Brandeis University. Before coming to San Francisco, he taught at Princeton, Cincinnati and Toronto. He is the author of The Jewish Radical Right: Revisionist Zionism and its Ideological Legacy and of The Origins Of Israel: A Documentary History with Derek Penslar (both published by the University of Wisconsin Press). In addition to his scholarly publications, he has contributed articles to Haaretz and Tikkun.

International Reporting Faculty

Ilene Prusher is a multi-genre writer based in Jerusalem, who has covered some 30 countries in the course of her career as a foreign correspondent. She was a staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor from 2000 to 2010, serving as the Boston-based newspaper’s bureau chief in Tokyo, Istanbul, and Jerusalem and covering the major conflicts of the past decade: Iraq and Afghanistan. She now teaches Reporting Conflict for NYU-Tel Aviv, runs creative writing workshops, writes for Haaretz, and writes Primigravida, a popular blog about motherhood. After graduating from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1993, she started her career as a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Later, she freelanced from the Middle East for Newsday, The New Republic, The Financial Times, The Guardian and The Observer (UK). She was nominated by The Christian Science Monitor for a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for ”What’s a Kidney Worth,” an investigative story on organ trafficking, and won the United Nations Correspondents’ Association (UNCA) Award in 1998 for several stories on Somalia. Her first novel, Baghdad Fixer, was released in November 2012 by Halban Publishers in London.

Linda Gradstein Linda Gradstein is the Middle East Bureau Chief for The Media Line, one of the largest purveyors of content to the Arab World. For 20 years, she was the Jerusalem correspondent for National Public Radio and has won several awards for her coverage. She has also published stories in The Washington Post, Slate, and The Jerusalem Report. She has been a visiting professor of journalism at Georgetown University in Washington, DC and at the College of Charleston, in Charleston, South Carolina. Linda speaks Hebrew and Arabic. Her most important productions are her four children, age 8 – 18.

Accommodations

Students will live in modern dorms on Hebrew University's Mt. Scopus campus.

Students will live in dormitories on the Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus, a short walk from university classrooms and a short cab or bus ride from the city center. Students typically live in single rooms within five-person suites. Each bedroom contains a bed, desk, chair and closet. Linens will be provided. Suitemates share bathrooms and a full kitchen, where participants can prepare their own meals. Moderately priced kosher snack bars, as well as a small supermarket, can be found in or near the student housing complex. Self-service automatic washing machines and dryers are located in each dormitory complex.​

Equipment

Students are expected to bring a laptop computer and digital camera and encouraged to bring a cell phone, camera or other device that can record audio and video.

Interpreters

Most people in Israel speak at least some English. Interpreters will be provided for students who want to interview Arabic or Hebrew speakers.

Program Cost

The cost is $4,995 plus airfare. The price includes tuition (6 transferable units from Hebrew University), housing, instruction, health insurance, welcome and goodbye dinners and special programs, activities and cultural events. Transfer from and to the Ben Gurion International airport is also provided for students who arrive at the recommended time (students who do not arrive by the appointed time or who choose to arrive early can catch a taxi or shuttle to the campus at their own expense).

Financial Aid

Jerusalem has holy sites for three major religions-- Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

A limited number of partial scholarships may be available. Students with demonstrated financial need can apply for Summer Study Travel Grants of up to $750 from the Rothberg International School Office of Academic Affairs. The grants are offered to current undergraduate American students, enrolled in a degree-seeking program at a U.S. college or university and must be used toward travel expenses.

Because Israel is considered a holy place for the world’s three major religions — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — students may be able to get financial assistance to travel there from religious institutions and organizations. Christian students, for example, may be able to get financial aid from their church or a Christian organization. Jewish students may be able to get scholarships or grants from their synagogues, local Jewish Federation or other groups, including:

• The Israel Scholarship Committee of the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies
• Jewish National Fund’s Plant Your Way to Israel Program
• John H. and Ann G. Rhodes Foundation Scholarship (for residents of Illinois and Virginia)
• Hillel The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life
• Amy Adina Shulman Memorial Fund
  

Other scholarships may become available; for more information see our Financial Aid page.

Application Process

Students must fill out the online application and submit a letter of recommendation from a professor or employer and college transcripts, along with a $500 deposit. Deposits will be refunded only if a student is not accepted into the program.

For more information, fill out our contact form.