Kathryn Bassette, Heidi Yacoubian, and Michelle Bailey on the Sea of Galilee during the Passages trip in 2019. Courtesy | Heidi Yacoubian

Visiting Israel will enrich the faith of students and give them the chance to experience Israeli culture, said Hillsdale professors at an event to pro­mote a college trip over Christ­mas break.

In the session, Assistant Professor of Religion Don Westblade, Visiting Professor Michael Weingrad, and Israel tour guide Adrian Weisberg spoke about the Passages pro­gram, which is an organization that partners with Hillsdale for the trip. Passages aims to prepare college students to be Christian leaders who support the Jewish people.

“You see how this chang­es their life,” Weisberg said. “Coming to the land, walking in the footsteps of the patri­archs, in the footsteps of Je­sus. It completely changes the concepts that they had in their mind for the way they read the Bible.”

Westblade said Passages is a program dedicated to help­ing Christian students “see not only the beauty and the history, but the significance of Israel in its context.”

Hillsdale students who are accepted into the program will visit Israel from Dec. 27 to Jan. 6 and see historic and traditional biblical sites such as Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, the Via Dolorosa, and Jerusa­lem.

“That’s only half the pro­gram,” Weisberg said. “The other half of the program is literally meeting people out of regular Israeli life. You meet Is­raeli Christians mingling with Israeli Muslims. It’s a kaleido­scope of society.”

Passages students spend Shabbat with a practicing Jewish family. They also meet different Israeli people, such as Palestinians, a Maronite Christian pastor, and members of Israel’s legislature, according to Westblade.

“They’re going to get lots of perspectives on what Israel is, and hopefully in understand­ing what the place actually is, overcome a lot of the ste­reotypes that we might have,” Westblade said.

An Israel Defense Forces soldier will also accompany students on the bus for safety reasons, according to West­blade.

“I feel extremely safe in Isra­el,” Weingrad said. “The Israe­lis really know how to monitor the current security situation.”

Weingrad, who was in Isra­el this summer during the war with Iran, said that the Israelis are a people who have known incredible suffering, but have risen to the occasion with com­passion for their fellow citizens.

“That’s one of the main rea­sons that I would really suggest going and going now, because the Israelis offer an extraordi­nary, palpable day-to-day les­son in how to live life with joy and with gratitude, even under some extraordinarily difficult situations,” Weingrad said. “I know of no other people that loves life as deeply as the Israe­lis.”

Time is set aside for stu­dents to volunteer in Israel as well, so that they can serve communities impacted by the war, according to Weisberg.

“If you go with your church, it’s not going to be anything like the Passages tour,” Weisberg said. “You’ll get more classic Christian sites, but you won’t get that interaction with all the different people of Israel.”

Senior Tully Mitchell, who went on the trip last winter, said she will never read Psalms or the Gospels in the same way as before the trip.

“It was so impactful, Chris­tians have a lot to learn and absorb from Israel,” Mitchell said. “It was very edifying for me, and a great opportunity at a very low cost.”

Applicants must complete a 12-hour course before they re­ceive the link to apply. Students will also complete a capstone project when they return from the trip. The application is due on Oct. 1.

“They’re not really looking for people who just want a nice vacation,” Westblade said. “They’re looking for people who will come back and ad­vocate for the truths of what Israel really is.”

The trip, which is worth about $7,000, only costs stu­dents $980, according to West­blade.

“They said that visiting Is­rael was the fifth gospel, that you think you can understand what’s going on in the Scrip­ture, but you get so much more when you’re actually on the ground,” Weisberg said. “Even, to be specific, with so much, for example, topographical in­formation in Luke’s gospel.”