“All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.”
- Baruch Spinoza
The Abarbanel Summer Seminar is a three-week academic summer program for intellectually ambitious high school students based in Leiden, the Netherlands. Participants explore Judaism and the Challenge of Modernity through small seminars and extensive site-based learning.
Two morning seminars—“Jews and the Making of the Modern World” and “Baruch Spinoza between Judaism and Philosophy”—are supplemented by excursions to historic sites, curator-led visits to museums and library special collections, guest lectures, interaction with the local Jewish community, and an art-making program.
The sample itinerary below is based on previous years. Time for reading, sports, and relaxation is not always noted. Details are subject to change.
Day One
Group flight departs from a New York City airport. Students may also arrange independent travel to Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands.
New York City
Day Two
Land at Schiphol Airport and head to Leiden, where we will settle into our accommodations at the Hotel Rapenburg. After lunch, we’ll pick up our bikes and play the Schnipseljagd, a treasure hunt through Leiden. Welcome dinner and party.
Leiden
Day Three
Morning seminars on Spinoza’s Ethics and Jewish history in the Dutch Golden Age. Afternoon visit to the Museum de Lakenhal to learn about Leiden’s role in the international cloth trade and the first studio art session with artist-in-residence Michelle Palatnik. BBQ dinner and a “Survival Dutch” class.
Leiden
Day Four
Morning seminars. After lunch we head to The Hague to visit the spectacular Mauritshuis Museum, where we will get to discuss masterpieces like Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius. We’ll then climb some trees at Haagse Klimbos followed by a make-your-own-pizza dinner at Chabad and discussion of contemporary Jewish politics in Holland with a member of the Dutch parliament and an officer of the International Court of Justice.
Leiden - The Hague
Day Five
Morning seminars. After lunch, we’ll visit the Boerhaave Science Museum where students will climb a seventeenth-century anatomy theater and look through an early microscope. Art making or sports in the afternoon before preparing for Shabbat. Kabbalat Shabbat and dinner at the historic Leiden Synagogue with members of the Leiden Jewish community.
Leiden
Day Six
Shacharit at the Leiden Synagogue followed by lunch with the local Jewish community. Lazy afternoon for reading and boardgames. Shiur followed by Seudah shlishit, singing, and Havdalah.
Leiden
Day Seven
Morning train to Antwerp, Belgium. Our first stop is the Plantin-Moretus Printing Museum where Jewish scholars joined with Christian printers to produce the Plantin Polyglot Bible (1568-1573). After lunch at one of Antwerp’s many kosher restaurants, we’ll visit Antwerp’s Gothic cathedral and then explore the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood — including Heimisch Kosher Bakery.
Antwerp
Day Eight
Morning seminars. Afternoon visit to Hortus Botanicus, one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world, and art-making session. In the evening, try to escape from Rembrandt’s atelier at Escaperoom Leiden.
Leiden
Day Nine
Leiden - Rijnsburg - Amstelveen
Morning seminars. We’ll then bike to the beach with a picnic lunch. On the way back, we’ll stop in Rijnsburg to visit the Spinozahuis. In the evening, we head to Amstelveen, a Jewish suburb of Amsterdam, for dinner with students from the Maimonides High School.
Day Ten
Morning seminars. After lunch we’ll visit Leiden University Special Collections to see highlights from their collection of Hebrew manuscripts and early printed books. Afternoon art-making and a pick-up soccer game with Jewish students from Maccabi Netherlands. Dinner, gelato, and karaoke.
Leiden
Day Eleven
Morning seminars. In the afternoon, students will have the option of stand-up paddleboarding through Leiden’s canals or heading to Haarlem for a private viewing of Dutch Master drawings at the Teylers Museum. Picnic dinner.
Leiden - Haarlem
Day Twelve
Morning train to Amsterdam. We’ll then meet with Rachel Boertjens, curator of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, who will show us some of the library’s Jewish treasures. After lunch aboard a cruise through Amsterdam’s canals, we’ll tour the Esnoga, the seventeenth-century Portuguese Synagogue. We’ll then have time to rest and change at the Hotel Park Centraal before heading to Kabbalat Shabbat at the historic Gerard Dou Synagogue and dinner with Rabbi Dovi at Chabad.
Amsterdam
Day Thirteen
Shacharit at the Art Deco Rav Aharon Schuster Synagogue followed by lunch with the local community. Rest back at the hotel, with an option to visit the Van Gogh Museum. Late afternoon boardgames, Seudah shlishit, and Havdalah.
Amsterdam
Day Fourteen
Amsterdam - Ouderkerk - Amstelveen
Morning visit to the Rijksmuseum to see Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. After lunch at a kosher restaurant, we’ll head south to Ouderkerk to visit the old Portuguese Jewish Cemetery. We’ll then have dinner at a kosher pizzeria in Amstelveen before returning to Leiden for a chill movie night.
Day Fifteen
Morning seminars. Afternoon private curator’s tour of the Leiden Pilgrim Museum, followed by free time and an art making session. After dinner, members of Holland Baroque will join us for a private concert of Baroque Jewish music.
Leiden
Day Sixteen
Final morning seminars. After lunch, students will have time to work on their final projects. We then head to Delft, Vermeer’s hometown, for a picnic dinner and ramble around town.
Leiden - Delft
Day Seventeen
Free morning to visit the Leiden Market along the Rhine and purchase last-minute souvenirs and gifts. After lunch, students will have time to pack and put final touches on their final projects. An evening canal cruise with borrel (Dutch appetizers) followed by dinner and project presentations.
Leiden
Day Eighteen
Leiden - New York City
Time to say goodbye to Leiden. Drop off bikes and head to the airport for our flights back to the States.
