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What's the latest? Predeparture Guide Now Available (see below)
Listed below are a number of different resources we hope you will find useful as you prepare for the upcoming trip. Please let us know if you have any questions regarding the resources or if you have any other reccomendations.
Pre-departure Guides
Forms
Tour Accommodations
Books
Movies
Israel and Jordan Links
Sister Cities
Fun Facts
Pre-departure Guides
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View the full itinerary
ULAI Conference Booklet
Pre Departure Trip Guide
Photos: Check out photos from some of the sites in Israel and Jordan
Forms
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Not yet available.
Tour Accommodations
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Jordan - Grand Hyatt Amman
Jordan - Dead Sea Mövenpick Resort and Spa
Jordan - Petra Mövenpick Resort
Israel - Jerusalem Inbal
Israel - Haifa Dan Carmel
Books
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Non-fiction:
From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman
Married to a Beduoin by Marguerite van Geldermalsen
The Modern History of Jordan by Kamal Salibi
Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor
History of Jordan by Philip Robins
History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani
Fiction:
On the Hills of God by Ibrahim Fawal
Pillars of Salt by Fadia Faqir
The Smile of the Lamb by David Grossman
Movies
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Documentary:
Promises (2000) The documentary looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of seven children in the West bank and in Jerusalem. Although, these children live only minutes apart, the lives they lead and two worlds they live in are completely different.
The Gaza Strip (2002) From Amazon.com: In January of 2001, American director James Longley traveled to the Gaza Strip. His plan was to stay for two weeks to collect preliminary material for a documentary film on the Palestinian Intifada. It was during his stay that Ariel Sharon was elected as Israeli Prime Minister. As violence erupted around him, Longley threw away his return ticket and filmed for the next three months, acquiring nearly 75 hours of footage. Gaza Strip, his first feature documentary, is an extraordinary and painful journey into the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip struggling with the day-to-day trials of the Israeli occupation.The Inner Tour (2002) From Amazon.com: Controversially divisive in the Israeli press for its sympathetic portrayal of Palestinian citizens, THE INNER TOUR is a fascinating and humanistic portrait of ordinary people caught up in one of the most emotionally painful and seemingly intractable national conflicts of our time. Just months before the second Intifada (uprising) began in 2000, Israeli director Ra?anan Alexandrowicz filmed a group of West Bank Palestinians on a three-day bus tour to Israel, where many of the passengers once lived. Their weekend trip becomes an extremely charged journey of deep emotional distances and contradicting realities as the travelers interact with ordinary Israelis and visit places that they feel simultaneously rooted to and alienated from.
Fiction:
Paradise Now (2005) This critically acclaimed film, made in Palestine, won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language film and was nominated at the Academy Awards in the same category. It tells the story of two Palestinians friends, Said and Khaled, who have been recruited by a terrorist organization to commit suicide bombings. The film explores the personal issues which motivate terrorists while emphasizing the importance of peace.
The Syrian Bride (2004) This film focuses on a Druze woman in Israel whose husband-to-be lives in Syria. Because of the animosity between Syria and Israel, she will not be able to return home after her wedding. The film focuses on the lives of ordinary people whose lives are altered by political circumstances they cannot control.
Ushpizin (2005) From Amazon.com: Ushpizin is a heart warming and light hearted look at the daily lives of ultra-Orthodox Jews learning, living and loving in modern-day Israel. Following the story of a family facing hardships, they must rely on their faith for miracles to happen during the holiday season. Inspiring, heartwarming and uplifting, Ushpizin is a critically acclaimed film that regardless of faith or religion, everybody can enjoy.
Walk on Water (2005) From Amazon.com: This enthralling award-winning film by internationally-acclaimed director Eytan Fox explores the motives, strengths, and, ultimately, the humanity of an Israeli assassin sent to rectify a wrong committed five decades earlier. Eyal is a top assassin in the Israeli secret service. He has killed terrorists before, but this time he is sent to eliminate an aging former Nazi war criminal. During his mission, Eyal meets his target?s granddaughter and grandson, who inadvertently help him uncover his own troubled history and face his demons, while they discover the ugly truth their family has hidden from them for decades.
Israel and Jordan Links
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State Department Background Notes: Israel
State Department Background Notes: Jordan
BBC Profile: Israel and the Palestinian Territories
Israel's Official Tourism Website: Israel Wonders
Jordan's Official Tourism Website: Visit Jordan
Sister Cities
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U.S.-Jordan Partnerships (Download)
Article-Ties Between U.S. and Muslim world Grow
Fun Facts about Israel and Jordan
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Which major U.S. city now has the same name as the present day Jordanian capital city had over 2,000 years ago?
Philadelphia. The Greek ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelphus, renamed the city 'Philadelphia? in circa 218 B.C. The city has changed hands many times in its long history, being occupied by the Ammonites, Israelites, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Nabateans, and Romans in ancient times, and by Turks and British more recently.
- Petra has been short-listed (along with 20 other world monuments) by the international public as one of the new seven wonders of the world.
- In 1952 Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel, he declined.
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Some 500 million birds - including 85% of the global white stork population - cross Israel's skies twice
yearly on their way to Africa in the autumn and to Europe and Asia in the spring.
- The Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth at about 1,300 feet (400 m.) below sea level, lies at the southern end of the Jordan Valley.
- The first kosher McDonald's in Israel opened in 1995.
- Cell phone technology developed in Israel by Motorola-Israel.
- Petra, Jordan is also known as The Rose City. Petra's nickname comes from the colors of the rock in which the city's many monuments are carved. The Victorian traveller and poet, Dean Burgon, described the city in his poem 'Petra', with the closing lines 'Match me such a marvel, save in Eastern clime, A rose-red city half as old as time'.