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You can find previous episodes of “The Stone Chapel Podcast” at Lanier Theological Library.
“The Stone Chapel Podcast” is part of the ChurchLeaders Podcast Network.
This episode has been edited for clarity and space.
Oliver Hersey
Hi. My name is Oliver Hersey. I’m the president of Jerusalem University College. It’s a privilege to be a part of this podcast. I have been [president] at Jerusalem University College now for five years. I have a wonderful family, a wife and two children. I love all things related to the Bible, especially its context. And so, living in Jerusalem, having a chance to facilitate education on Mount Zion is a privilege where we are constantly in the context of the biblical world. We get to share that with so many people. I am a student also, and I have always loved learning. My PhD is in Hebrew Bible and Egyptology, and so I’ve had the privilege of diving deep into that world, particularly the languages and the comparative backgrounds.
David Capes
Dr. Oliver Hershey, good to see you. Welcome to “The Stone Chapel Podcast.” You’ve been in the Stone Chapel today, so it has already been a great experience.
Oliver Hersey
Yes, it’s great to be here. Thank you for having me. It’s a phenomenal place. And I always learn something new when I visit.
David Capes
It’s a unique place, as is Jerusalem University College. You see that segue? Wasn’t that a great segue! Alright, I’ve been there. It’s an amazing place. The location is right outside the city walls of Jerusalem, near the Jaffa Gate. Just a gentle walk, south from there, are great, great buildings, in a great setting, and a great faculty. Exactly what is the mission of Jerusalem University College?
Oliver Hersey
We’re a school that’s been around since 1957. We are on Mount Zion for the sole purpose of creating opportunities for students to have an immersive study experience in Israel and the surrounding regions. So that they can know God and His Word better and hopefully be equipped for ministry or teaching of some sort in global service.
David Capes
There are a lot of things in the New Testament and Old Testament as well, that knowing the geography, knowing the land, really helps you begin to visualize and think through and understand what’s happening in the story.
Oliver Hersey
So true. There’s an example I used to give all the time from the book of Habakkuk. It’s a despairing moment. Jerusalem is about to get overrun by Babylon, and he prays at the very end. The last words he says to God is, Lord give me sure footing, like the deer to walk upon the heights, which is strange. But when you’re in Israel, all of a sudden you see these deer that have sure footing, and they are on these cliff sides, scampering effortlessly upon these rocks, out in the wilderness. And you think to yourself, ah, this is the image that Habakkuk spoke about. And there are insights like that all the time, where the Bible has this three-dimensional clarity that begins to settle into the mind as you’re there, seeing parts of the biblical world come to life.
David Capes
How did you become president there?
Oliver Hersey
That is a good question. I think it found me, a little bit. We were in Chicago for about 15 years. I went through a variety of iterations of teaching. I was a math teacher for a little while and pastor for a season as I was working on my doctorate. I taught at North Park University. One day while I was a full-time pastor in the area, someone approached me and said, you should apply for this job. And I looked at the application, I looked at the job, and it was President of Jerusalem University College in Jerusalem, Israel. Now that’s fascinating, because it aligned with a calling I sensed back in 2007 that had now been brewing for a couple decades. And that was a calling to help people go to Israel to learn God’s Word in its context.
That was part of the reason I quit my math teaching job and part of the reason I went back to grad school. It’s part of the reason I did a PhD. I had no idea throughout it all that I would end up being appointed to serve as the 11th president of this university that is situated in Jerusalem, facilitating now for thousands of people, holy land, study opportunities. It found me, and I think it found me at the right time, because I think any earlier in my career and journey I would have said no to it. It’s too hard, too difficult, too scary.
And yet I was in a season of life where I read that job description, and thought to myself, wow, this is tailor-made for what I have sensed the Lord calling me to, for all the things that have been preparing me. And when they offered us the job, my wife and I to move there, I remember all of a sudden thinking to myself, well, this is real. This is real now. And I had this this reckoning moment.
David Capes
Had you been to Israel a lot before that point?
Oliver Hersey
I had. We had gone to Israel our first time as a couple in 2007. That was my first time. We’d been married a couple years, and we went with a guy named Ray Vander Laan, an excellent teacher. We went with his high school students. And it was in 2007 that I was standing on the shore of the Dead Sea where I sensed the Lord nudged me saying, hey, you’re not supposed to be teaching math anymore. You’re supposed to teach Bible this way, in the land. And I thought, okay, I don’t know what that means. I have no idea what that journey looks like.
Several times after that, I went back to Israel. I had been back in 2009 and we went back in 2011. Here’s a random fact, since this is “The Stone Chapel Podcast” here, and it’s connected to the Lanier Library. In 2011 we crossed paths with Mark Lanier’s niece, Michelle Hunt. My wife and I went to excavate. We were excavating in the same square at Khirbet Qeiyafa with Michelle Hunt. I had no idea who she was, I had no idea who Mark was. But these connections would come full circle many years later, when I was here in The Stone Chapel, when behind me a voice says, “hey, Oliver.” I turn around and I look, and it’s Michelle. She says I’m here all the time. Mark is my uncle!
David Capes
It’s a small world after all!
Oliver Hersey
Yes, exactly. I hadn’t gone back to Israel since 2011 before we moved in 2021.
David Capes
Okay, you go back to the land [to be president of Jerusalem University College] but you go back towards the tail end of COVID.
Oliver Hersey
And it was a bit unnerving, because it was May of 2021. Some people listening might remember this when Hamas actually fired a barrage of rockets all month long. I’d have to look back at the numbers, but several hundred rockets were fired into Israel in the month before we moved. And I remember thinking to myself, wow, this was not what I was anticipating.
David Capes
Which direction do they come from?
Oliver Hersey
They came from the south, from the Gaza Strip. They’re usually targeting Tel Aviv. So, they’re targeting the coast.
David Capes
Tel Aviv is the largest city. We should say.
Oliver Hersey
That’s correct, Tel Aviv is right there on the coast, and it’s one of the major cities. The rockets from Hamas can’t reach very far, so they would make their way to Tel Aviv. 99.9% of all the rockets were intercepted so we weren’t extremely concerned. But it was one of those moments of, well, I’m moving my two kids and my wife into a world that’s in conflict.
And so, we got there, and obviously we had to rebuild the institution, because the institution really focuses on residence education. COVID just shut that down. So, we had a task before us, and we had got it up and running. In the next two years, by 2023 we were at full steam. We had about 1,200 students coming through. About 100 of those would be our long term in-residence students, three months at a time, or maybe two years at a time depending on the program. Then another 1,000-1,100 would be church groups or academic institutions like Wheaton College.
David Capes
My first trip there was with Wheaton College.
Oliver Hersey
Currently we have partnerships with over 70 schools like Wheaton College, Taylor, Calvin, Houston Christian University. That’s a newly formed partnership. It’s been slowly blossoming. Obviously, all of these things were stalled because of what happened in October 2023.
David Capes
October 7 comes along. It seems like the problems related to COVID are just beginning to let up. You guys have started hitting your stride in regard to the new kind of education you’re offering. And on October 7 everything went sideways. And now you’ve been involved in a war.
