Jerusalem University College (formerly American Institute of Holy Land Studies) is an independent undergraduate and graduate academic institution in Israel used by a consortium of North American theological seminaries and Christian colleges.
JUC was found in 1957. It offers an independent two-year graduate program of courses leading to the degrees of Master of Arts in Biblical History and Geography, Hebrew and Cognate Languages, Middle Eastern Cultures and Religions, and the Hebraic Roots of Christianity. [1] For consortium students, it offers a graduate or undergraduate semester or year abroad (in Israel), as well as shorter two and three week courses. [2]
The campus has been located on Mount Zion, outside the Old City of Jerusalem near the Jaffa Gate, since 1967, and overlooks the Hinnom Valley (Valley of Gehenna). The campus grounds were formerly the Bishop Gobat School (est. 1847 by Samuel Gobat), which moved in 1853 in the building erected on unused reserve land of the Protestant Mount Zion Cemetery. [3] It was one of the first structures to be built outside the Old City of Jerusalem, the others being Kerem Avraham, the Schneller Orphanage, Mishkenot Sha'ananim and the Russian Compound, [4] Instructors hail from across the political and religious spectrum but mainly espouse conservative evangelical Christian thought as represented by the members schools of the consortium," [5] —these schools include a wide range of Protestant traditions. JUC is accredited by the Asia Theological Association (ATA) and is an international affiliate of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities [6] Jerusalem University College’s North American office is located in Xenia, Ohio.
Two of Jerusalem University College's masters programs were accredited by the Asia Theological Association in 1998 and accreditation was recertified by the ATA in 2008 and 2017. [7]
Mount Zion is a hill in Jerusalem, located just outside the walls of the Old City. The term Mount Zion has been used in the Hebrew Bible first for the City of David and later for the Temple Mount, but its meaning has shifted and it is now used as the name of ancient Jerusalem's Western Hill. In a wider sense, the term Zion is also used for the entire Land of Israel.
Samuel Gobat was a Swiss Calvinist who became an Anglican missionary in Africa and was the Protestant Bishop of Jerusalem from 1846 until his death.
Kerem Avraham, in English Abraham's Vineyard, is a neighbourhood near Geula in central Jerusalem, founded in 1855. It is bounded by Malkhei Yisrael Street, Yechezkel Street, Tzefanya Street, and the Schneller Compound.
Jerusalem's population size and composition has shifted many times over its 5,000 year history.
Mishkenot Sha'ananim was the first Jewish settlement built outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, on a hill directly across from Mount Zion. It was built in 1859–1860. This guesthouse was one of the first structures to be built outside the Old City, the others being Kerem Avraham, the Schneller Orphanage, Bishop Gobat school, and the Russian Compound.
Beit HaKerem is a largely secular upscale neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem. It is located between Kiryat Moshe to the northwest and Bayit VeGan to the south. Beit HaKerem has a population of 15,000.
The Russian Compound is one of the oldest districts in central Jerusalem, featuring a large Russian Orthodox church, the Russian-owned Sergei's Courtyard and the premises of the Russian Consulate General in Jerusalem, as well as the site of former pilgrim hostels, some of which are used as Israeli government buildings, and one of which hosts the Museum of Underground Prisoners. The compound was built between 1860 and 1890, with the addition in 1903 of the Nikolai Pilgrims Hospice. It was one of the first structures to be built outside the Old City of Jerusalem.
Yemin Moshe is a historic neighborhood in Jerusalem, overlooking the Old City.
Nachlaot is a cluster of 23 courtyard neighborhoods in central Jerusalem surrounding the Mahane Yehuda Market. It is known for its narrow, winding lanes, old-style housing, hidden courtyards and many small synagogues.
James Finn (1806–1872) was a British Consul in Jerusalem, in the then Ottoman Empire (1846–1863). He arrived in 1845 with his wife Elizabeth Anne Finn. Finn was a devout Christian, who belonged to the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, but who did not engage in missionary work during his years in Jerusalem.
Geula is a neighborhood in the center of Jerusalem, populated mainly by Haredi Jews. Geula is bordered by Zikhron Moshe and Mekor Baruch on the west, the Bukharim neighborhood on the north, Mea Shearim on the east and the Jerusalem city center on the south.
Tokyo Christian University is a private university in Inzai, Chiba, Japan, offering an undergraduate liberal arts degree in both Japanese and English. TCU is the only evangelical university fully accredited by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).
Schneller Orphanage, also called the Syrian Orphanage, was a German Protestant orphanage that operated in Jerusalem from 1860 to 1940.
Avraham Wolfensohn (1783–1855) was a Jewish rabbi, Talmudic judge and leader of the Ashkenazi community in Safed, Ottoman Galilee in the mid-19th century.
The Protestant Mount Zion Cemetery on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, is a cemetery owned by the Anglican Church Missionary Trust Association Ltd., London, represented by the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and The Middle East. In 1848 Samuel Gobat, Bishop of Jerusalem, opened the cemetery and dedicated it as ecumenical graveyard for congregants of Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and old Catholic faith. Since its original beneficiary, the Bishopric of Jerusalem was maintained as a joint venture of the Anglican Church of England and the Evangelical Church in Prussia, a united Protestant Landeskirche of Lutheran and Reformed congregations, until 1886, the Jerusalem Lutheran congregation preserved a right to bury congregants there also after the Jerusalem Bishopric had become a solely Anglican diocese.
The expansion of Jerusalem outside of the Old City walls, which included shifting the city center to the new neighborhoods, started in the mid-19th century and by the early 20th century had entirely transformed the city. Prior to the 19th century, the main built up areas outside the walls were the complex around King David's Tomb on the southern Mount Zion, and the village of Silwan.
Malkhei Yisrael Street, also spelled Malchei Yisrael, is an east–west street in the Geula neighborhood of north-central Jerusalem. Its eastern flank, which abuts Mea Shearim Street at an intersection called Kikar HaShabbat, is the main shopping district for Haredi Jewish residents of northern Jerusalem. The remainder of the street, which extends to Sarei Yisrael Street at its western end, includes the historic Schneller Compound and numerous Haredi and Hasidic yeshivas, girls' schools, and synagogues.
City Line is the name given to a segment of the Green Line that divided the city of Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967. It was 7 km in length, and constituted a temporary boundary line in accordance with Israel's Armistice Agreement with Jordan, which divided the city between East Jerusalem which was part of the Kingdom of Jordan, and West Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel. The Old City bordered the City line on the east side, and thus had been part of the "Jordanian Jerusalem". On both sides of the City line fortifications and obstacles were deployed, and different buildings in the city along the line were used as military posts.
The Trinity Theological Seminary is a Protestant seminary located on a 70-acre campus in Legon, Accra. As an ecumenical theological tertiary and ministerial training institution, it serves students in Ghana and the West African sub-region. The focus of the curriculum is pedagogy, guidance, counselling, and fieldwork to adequately prepare students for careers in Christian ministry. The school has charter status, offers certificate, diploma, and degree programmes, and is accredited by the National Accreditation Board of the Ghanaian Ministry of Education.
The beginning of construction outside the Jerusalem Old City in the mid-19th century was linked to the changing relations between the Ottoman government and the European powers. After the Crimean War, various rights and privileges were extended to non-Muslims who now enjoyed greater tolerance and more security of life and property. All of this directly influenced the expansion of Jerusalem beyond the city walls. From the mid-1850s to the early 1860s, several new buildings rose outside the walls, among them the mission house of the English consul, James Finn, in what came to be known as Abraham's Vineyard (Kerem Avraham), the Protestant school built by Bishop Samuel Gobat on Mount Zion; the Russian Compound; the Mishkenot Sha'ananim houses: and the Schneller Orphanage complex. These complexes were all built by foreigners, with funds from abroad, as semi-autonomous compounds encompassed by walls and with gates that were closed at night. Their appearance was European, and they stood out against the Middle-Eastern-style buildings of Palestine.