COURTESY OF OU
OUR COMMUNITY Oakland students at the Bedouin tent experience.
Archaeological Discoveries Oakland U. study abroad team anxiously anticipating a return to Israel.
Oakland students at Caesarea, 2018 Dr. Pytlik excavates loom weights at Khirbet Arai, 2019
Oakland group at the Ophel Archaeological garden, Jerusalem.
Oakland student excavates a room at Khirbet Qeiyafa
DR. MICHAEL PYTLIK SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
O
akland University’s Israel Study Abroad program had completed 11 consecutive trips to Israel since 2009 — until the pandemic put an end to that annual streak in 2020. Since its inception, I, along with co-faculty members Dr. Richard Stamps and Dr. Jon Carroll, have planned these visits, and the program has been successful due in large part to the generous support from the Jewish community. This program began when administrators from Oakland toured Israel while they were cementing relations with other academic programs in Israel. Touring in Israel inevitably means visiting archaeological sites. This seemed like a nice fit for students who studied anthropology, archaeology and Judaic Studies at Oakland, and I offered to lead the trips, having already been to Israel dozens of
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times and worked at numerous archaeological sites. In 2009, students were fully funded thanks to generous donors. That trip included a week at the now-famous site of Khirbet Qeiyafa, identified as biblical Sha’arayim. An additional week included a tour of Israel. The students were greatly moved by their experiences in Israel, and several of them returned the following year to continue the work. In 2009, Oakland, participating with Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was able to confirm the identity of the site as Sha’arayim, mentioned in the David and Goliath story. This site was dug for another four years and exciting finds awaited the students every year; students also visited such important sites as Beth Shean, En-Gedi, Masada, continued on page 20
APRIL 8 • 2021
Oakland student at Lachish
