Herzog Centre Student Activities

To complement our courses and enrich the learning experience for our students, the Centre organises course-related activities throughout the year. From celebrating festivals (in cooperation with Trinity's Jewish Student Society), to hosting visiting speakers and arranging study trips in Dublin and to destinations overseas, the Centre aims to provide a broad educational experience. One student who studied with us for a year has described her experience of the Centre.

Study Trips

• To Berlin...

In April 2008, a group of undergraduate, postgraduate and extra-mural students joined Dr. Zuleika Rodgers on a five-day trip to Berlin. The tour was organised through Milk and Honey Tours and we joined Dr. Klauss Herrmann and his students from Berlin Institut fur Judaistik, at the Freie University of Berlin for seminars. The staff and students of the Institut also generously hosted us at the Institut for a presentation of the online Holocaust memoir project.

Students in Babelplatz reading from authors whose books were burned by the Nazis in 1933.   At the Topography of Terror Exhibition

To Poland...

The high point of the 2006-2007 year was a five-day trip to the Jewish sites of Poland for thirty undergraduates. the trip was organised to complement two of our taught courses, but for some students it turned into a "life-changing" experience, and others found themselves drawn to new areas of study. Our visit received some financial support from the Trinity Association.

For many students it was a great surprise to encounter something of the long and diverse history of the Jews in Poland, while each of us had come to terms with the eradication of that culture, as well as that of Jewish comunities all over Europe. All students commented on how their personal experience of visiting sites dedicated to commemorating the victims of the Shoah had transformed thteir understanding of that catastrophe.

Celebration of Festivals and Events

The Weingreen Museum provided the location for our students' celebration of Shabbat and Jewish festivals, and in 2007 the Junior Freshman students in the course Introduction to Jewish Civilization, prepared an exhibition on Jewish Festivals and Lifecycle which they presented to visiting school groups.

	Students celebrating Purim in fancy-dress, lighting the candle for the first night of Hannukah, and a Sabbath dinner in the Weingreen Museum

Meeting with a Holocaust Survivor

Lynn Jackson of The Holocaust Educational Trust of Ireland kindly organised a special event for students and faculty. Tomi Reichental, who spent part of his childhood in Bergen Belsen concentration camp, spent a morning talking of his experiences of World War II and shared his reflections on the Shoah.

Museums and Synagogues

For those students in the Introduction to Jewish Civilization course in 2006-2007, an invitation to visit Dublin's progressive synagogue turned out to be a very special experience. Dr. Charles Middleburgh hosted them for lunch, and gave a full and comprehensive introduction to Jewish liturgy, while in 2007 and in 2008, our group were welcomed by the Director to the Irish Jewish Museum.