Religions and Interreligious Dialogue in the Galilee

Dr. Yael Kedar specializes in the history of science, particularly in medieval science and philosophy. She has written on Robert Grosseteste, Roger Bacon, and Albert the Great’s optics and metaphysics of light, often related to issues of Christian theology. During the last three years, she has been engaged in an Israel Science Foundation project on the origin and development of the concept of laws of nature from the thirteenth century to Newton. Her upcoming project concerns the link between the idea of scientific progress and Christian Apocalyptic and millennial conceptions. She is teaching courses on the philosophy of religion, metaphysics and inter-religious dialogue.

Zevic Mishor was born and grew up in Australia, before moving back home to Israel a few years ago. He began his academic journey in neuroscience and then continued to anthropology, doing his ethnographic research with a Chasidic Jewish community, in the city of Safed in the Galilee region of Israel. Zevic has a keen interest in religion, philosophy, pharmacology and non-ordinary states of consciousness, and in the integration of different academic disciplines in order to understand the human saga as a whole.

With degrees from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and The Jewish Theological Seminary of New York, the doctoral work of Golan Ben-Chorin Ed.D. is founded on twenty-five years of experience in the fields of Jewish education and dialogue of communities of faith. Spanning five continents and informed by both the formal and informal academic disciplines of education, his work has included teaching at Brandies University, a research fellowship at The Center for Jewish Education in The Diaspora at Haifa University and speaking engagements at international conferences around the world. Receiving his Rabbinical ordination in 2007 from the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, Rabbi Ben-Chorin Ed.D. has created and taught a variety of courses on pluralistic Jewish education and founded HaiFIC – The Haifa Forum for Interfaith Cooperation.

Course Overview: Religions and Interreligious Dialogue in the Galilee is a theoretical and experiential course designed to give students a deeper understanding of the historical, political, and religious background of Galilee communities, and to experience interreligious dialogue. The course takes advantage of our unique setting to supplement lectures and panel discussions with on-site learning, meeting with leaders and exploring  religious sites of the diverse Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Druze communities. The course will focus on conflict resolution and interreligious dialogue from religious leaders and activists for whom these challenges are part of their daily life.