Last summer, Lauren Elder (IAFS ’15) stepped off a plane in Jerusalem, determined to make the most of her Global Grant scholarship. She had jumped at the opportunity to join the global seminar offered by the Program in Jewish Studies and International Affairs at CU-Boulder, “Justice, Democracy, and Human Rights in Israel and the West Bank.”
As an International Affairs major with a geographic concentration in the Middle East, this program gave her a unique opportunity to see the daily reality of current Middle East issues she had been studying. During the five week seminar, Elder spent two weeks interning in Tel Aviv at Kav LaOved, a non-profit organization which serves to protect the rights of disadvantaged workers in Israel. “It was an incredible, intense, and perspective-altering experience,” explains Elder. She adds, “I spoke with many activists who work for rights of Palestinians, religious pluralism, LGBTQ, environmental conservation, worker's rights, refugee rights, and peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”
Elder absorbed history by walking in old city Jerusalem, admiring the diverse quarters and cultural sites dating back thousands of years. Every day, she would grab lunch at a local kosher café and marvel at 10 different languages being spoken around her. However, she also found herself in the West Bank, struck by powerful emotions when looking at the security wall from the Bethlehem side, covered in graffiti. Elder shares, “In the West Bank, I gained a different viewpoint on how conflict impacts everyday life, especially when passing through checkpoints to get back to Jerusalem from Ramallah.”
Elder will never forget the moment she met two close friends: an Israeli settler and a Palestinian activist, who were formerly in jail. Elder was struck by their relationship: “These two friends create dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis to develop more a peaceful discourse. They find a common ground in the hopes of creating peace. Speaking with them was truly inspiring and an experience I will bring back with me to CU-Boulder and IAFS.”
Lauren Elder is an IAFS major who studied abroad in summer 2014 on the JWST/IAFS Global Seminar to Jerusalem.