This page provides information about activities beyond the HEBR classroom; links to study tools and resources, including Israeli literature; and gives additional information about Israeli culture.
The Hebrew Language program is versatile and energetic. Students have the opportunity to participate in Hebrew Café, attend Israeli Film screenings and join the many events and activities on campus organized by Hillel, the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and the many student groups. Outside campus, there are many opportunities to get involved and join in celebrating the Jewish holidays in one of Kingston's Jewish community organizations.
Queen's International Centre
The Queen’s University International Centre (QUIC) is an international education support service for students, faculty and staff at Queen’s. Through its activities the Centre promotes an internationally informed and cross culturally sensitive university community.
QUIC programs and services support
- the academic and personal development of international students, other international members of the Queen’s community, and their families;
- the academic and personal development of Queen’s students, staff and faculty interested in Education Abroad; and
- the internationalization of the campus by working with university departments, offices, groups and individuals to enhance and diversify the international learning environment at Queen’s through educational and training activities.
QUIC offers many cultural events and get-togethers for students, as well as the opportunity to volunteer to support international students with improving their English as they integrate into Queen’s life. It is a fruitful way to meet other students from other countries, to help and to learn from one another.
Check QUIC's Calendar of Events for the most up-to-date information.
Israeli Film Night
Israeli movies with English subtitles will be screened during the Fall and the Winter Terms as part of the LLCU International Film Night. Announcements will be made at the beginning of each term.
You can also check our news section for the most updated event information.
Hebrew Café
The Hebrew Conversation Club at Queen`s invites everyone to weekly meetings. Come, have a coffee and improve your Hebrew.
Open to all interested students. Please contact Prof. Haklai at haklain@queensu.ca for more information.
Student Clubs
With approximately 450 student clubs to choose from, you can easily enhance what you learn in the classroom and have the chance to embrace your passions. More than 100 cultural and ethnic student clubs and organizations foster diversity and cultural engagement on campus. Below are AMS (Alma Mater Society) clubs that may be of interest to students of Hebrew:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
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Queen’s Hillel is the centre for Jewish life on campus. Queen’s Hillel acts as a resource for all Jewish students seeking a connection to their cultural identity and a Jewish community. Queen’s Hillel allows its member to relate to their Judaism on a social, cultural and religious level. The club represents Jewish concerns on campus and international issues and strives to promote one of the pillars of our Canadian society, multiculturalism. Hillel seeks to represent the richness and diversity of Jewish culture and through education try and fight ignorance and anti-Semitism. Facebook page |
Kingston community
Kingston is one of the oldest small Jewish communities in Ontario. Jews began arriving here in the early 1840s. Between 1881 and 1901, the Jewish population of Kingston increased from 22 to 128, more than a five-fold increase. Kingston's Jewish population stagnated during the following decades until after the Second World War, due to the Canadian government's severe restrictions on the entry of Jews into Canada. The 1950s, however, were a time of growth for the Jewish community. Many families had acquired wealth, and moved from the north-east part of Kingston to more upscale areas in the south and west. (Source: Ontario Jewish Archive.)
The Kingston Jewish Council is passionate about Kingston. It is their mission to strengthen and enrich our city by supporting the vibrant Jewish community. They provide community-wide programs and exciting events that add flavour to local Jewish life.
The Beth Israel Congregation is committed to meeting the religious, educational, social and cultural needs of their members in a warm, welcoming, and supportive atmosphere. Beth Israel is a house of worship and also a meeting place for the wider Jewish community in Southeast Ontario.
The Chabad Student Centre's mission is to reach out to every Jewish young adult and offer them a way to connect to their Jewish roots within a warm, welcoming, and stimulating environment. Holiday celebrations, Shabbat dinners, community service programs, guest lectures, and Jewish study classes are some of the programs that are offered through the Chabad Student Centre. They make themselves available for both the spiritual and physical well-being of Jewish students.
| Learning Hebrew | |
|---|---|
| Morfix Dictionary | Morfix is a free online Hebrew-English and English-Hebrew dictionary. It is the only dictionary that contains accurate up-to-date translations from Hebrew to English and vice versa, phrases and idioms from all language strata, including literary forms, Israeli slang, acronyms and technological terms. |
| Microsoft's English-Hebrew Glossary | Lots of computing specific terms listed A-Z along with their Hebrew equivalents. Needs enabling your browser to display Hebrew characters properly. |
| Google translation | Search for words, phrases, whole articles. |
| Hebrew Virtual Keyboard |
An online onscreen virtual Hebrew Keyboard emulator on the internet! Now you can Write Hebrew online, search in Google, save as Word document or search YouTube - all in one place. |
| Hebrew Verbs | Hebrew Verbs uses a unique software to aid in learning Hebrew verbs and their conjugations. Whether a beginner or an advanced level Hebrew speaker, Hebrew Verbs can help you learn Hebrew in a simple, structured way. |
| Academy of Hebrew Language in Jerusalem | The Academy sets standards for modern Hebrew grammar, orthography, transliteration, and punctuation based on the historical development of the language. |
| Literature | |
|---|---|
| The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature (ITHL) was founded in 1962 to acquaint foreign readers with the best of modern Hebrew literature. | |
| Ben Yehuda Project | An online access to Hebrew literature |
| Web site devoted to Hebrew poetry composed primarily from the fourth to the eighteenth centuries, with an emphasis, at present, on the period from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, the so-called Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain. | |
| The Complete Hebrew Bible (Tanach) in five editions in Hebrew (including one with cantillation marks), English (JPS 1917), parallel Hebrew and English (voweled Hebrew and JPS English), and parallel Hebrew and French (voweled Hebrew and Rabbinat French). | |
| Website where you can purchase Hebrew books | |
| Modern Hebrew Literature - a Bio-Bibliographical Lexicon | Website that lists and describes almost all Modern Hebrew literature writers and their biographies |
| iCast | iCast has more than 3,000 podcasts and various programs, over 60 thousand episodes and hundreds of audio books of the best of Hebrew literature for children, youth and adults; some recorded voices of the writers themselves and others recorded by actors and voice talents. |
| General | |
|---|---|
| Israel | General information from Wikipedia |
| Israel Travel Guide | from Wikitravel |
| Embassy of Israel | The Embassy of Israel is the official representative of the State of Israel in Canada. |
| Travelling in Israel | Information for travelling to Israel, from the Government of Canada |
| Go Israel | Information for Canadians travelling to Israel, from the Ministry of Tourism, Government of Israel |
| The Weiss-Livnat International MA in Holocaust Studies |
The one-year International Master’s Program in Holocaust Studies at the University of Haifa is dedicated to creating and nurturing a new generation of Holocaust researchers and educators. The program aims at providing students with more than just an academic curriculum; it has been designed with the addition of exciting and challenging activities to spark the interest of the student and encourage personal development and dedication to the field of Holocaust research. |
Queen's library has a collection of texts relating to Jewish Studies, including articles, atlases, sacred texts and biographies. The dictionaries and encyclopedias are located in the Reference section of Stauffer Library. If you need help from a librarian, please contact Ms. Elizabeth Gibson.