Let’s go Morocco: Melbourne school has a different vision for its students

In November, as students dealt with the cancellation of trips to Israel and Europe in the wake of the October 7 attacks, Melbourne’s Bialik College Year 10 had a different disappointment. A cohort of around 80 students was scheduled to travel to Morocco before going to Israel.

“We’re the first school in the world to send a whole year to Morocco; we’re pretty proud of that,” said Brad Rychter, the school’s head of Informal Jewish Education.

While the trip - like so many others - had to be called off last summer, Bialik's plans for Morocco are a striking example of a move to broaden Australian Jewish students' sense of history beyond Europe and the Holocaust. The trip will not go ahead this year but Bialik still plans to revive the idea in years to come.

Why Morocco? “We are always looking to expand our students’ horizons and to push our educational offering. We were looking for a country with a rich Jewish history, with a uniquely different community to our own, and for a country which would allow our students to grow beyond their comfort zones,” Rychter said.

The students were scheduled to spend almost two weeks in Morocco, then almost four weeks in Israel. “We see the trip as a holistic journey into their Jewish identity. Although Israel is the proverbial jewel in the crown of Chavayah [“Experience”, the name given to Bialkik's Year 10 trip], we see Morocco as an integral part of the journey on both an educational and social level,” he said.

“As a pluralistic school we also attempt, as much as possible, to engage with all forms of Jewish life and practice. As Australian Jews, our interactions with the Jewish world are often through an Ashkenazi lens; we feel Morocco provides a wonderful opportunity to learn about the Sephardic Jewish narrative and community.”