Yom Yerushalayim on Campus: A Real City, Real Hope

A few weeks after moving to Jerusalem from the US, I knew I’d made the right decision. It was 1991 — around this time of year, as the city prepares for Yom Yerushalayim. I was on a local bus when the driver pulled over in the middle of a street. I thought it might be to let someone on, but we were in between stops. Instead, the driver had stopped to greet a group of local children. “Chag Sameach, Abba!” (Happy Holiday, Father) they replied in unison.

It was a different time, but the eternal city remains a special place — in my heart and in those of millions around the world.

Yom Yerushalayim is the day we celebrate the city’s reunification in 1967. And it’s a particularly special day for Jerusalem Multidisciplinary College (JMC), where I serve as president.

JMC is located in the living, thriving heart of downtown Jerusalem.  Our roots here go back to 1888, when our main building was originally constructed as a small field hospital for the city’s fledgling Jewish community. In 1970, three years after the city’s reunification, we were established as a vocational college to meet the urgent local and national need for skilled workers.

Today, our campus has grown to include state-of-the-art laboratories and AI-assisted learning spaces — a blend of heritage and modernity that reflects the essence of Jerusalem itself. This blend also speaks to something not always obvious to those outside of Israel: Jerusalem is a real place, not a mythical place. We’re a city that needs nurses, social workers, optometrists, speech pathologists, and computer programmers.

I’m deeply proud of the role JMC plays in meeting these needs in Jerusalem. Our optometry graduates work alongside ophthalmologists at Hadassah Medical Center, providing essential eye care services to the community. Our Politics and Communication graduates serve the people within the Knesset and various government ministries. Our Social Work and Communication Disorders graduates are actively engaged throughout the city, addressing the needs of diverse populations.

But our alumni don’t just serve the city they live in, they uplift its communities through their very own education journey. Thirty percent of our students are from Arab backgrounds. Others hail from Haredi, settler and many other communities. Over half of our 5000-plus students are the first generation in their family to attend college, and over 90% of our graduates find work within the field in which they’ve trained. We believe in all our students and we’re committed to empowering them with a career-driven education.

Moving forward, JMC is here to meet the evolving needs of both the city and nation. In the aftermath of October 7, nearly a million Israelis are suffering from PTSD, anxiety, or depression as a direct result of the war. Over 300,000 require immediate treatment to prevent long-term trauma-related conditions. So to meet this need, we’re creating an entirely new school of rehabilitative healthcare. We also expect to increase our enrollment across all programs by 40% in the coming years.

Ultimately, we’re motivated to act in all we do at JMC because we believe in a bright future for our city and nation. And thankfully, we’re not alone in that belief.

Last month, we welcomed Brianna Wu – an American video game developer and former U.S. congressional candidate — to campus. Brianna is a strong supporter of Israel, a fact that has left her alienated from many of her progressive peers.

During her visit, Brianna met students, faculty and staff to learn about the intersections of higher education, Zionism, and civil discourse. She also shared her own stories of finding strength in unexpected places, of learning from people whose backgrounds and perspectives are different.

We discussed how no one person can change the region’s political reality. But what we can do is prepare students to become thoughtful, principled leaders within their communities and professions. I’m proud that JMC is doing just that.

A particular highlight for Brianna was meeting some of our Arab students, who told her how they sometimes miss exams or classes when delayed at checkpoints. They also told her how their Jewish classmates and professors made them feel safe in the western part of the city.

Personally, I am grateful that our city’s reunification has given them the chance to come to JMC and be a part of our academic community. This is part of what Yom Yerushalayim means to me: that together, we’re able to offer our nation a bright and beautiful vision of our future: a pluralistic, peaceful, and prosperous society.

So today, as I celebrate the incredible resiliency of our wonderful city, I’m also thankful for our incredible students, wherever they come from.