Study Tours
The Cohen Center’s study tour program offers experiential learning through travel to significant sites in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Each study tour typically includes pre-departure education (discussions, lectures, and readings), experiential learning abroad (museums, educational tours), cultural experiences (engaging with food, art, and people), and opportunities to share aspects of the experience with local or state-wide audiences upon participants’ return home. The target audience for these trips includes educators, community members, elected officials, KSC alumni, faculty and staff, and others.
Jewish Refugees and Aboriginal Rights in Australia: Intertwined Histories
January 12-23, 2026 | Melbourne and Sydney
The Cohen Institute is now enrolling travelers for the 2026 Study Tour to Australia. This study tour will examine Jewish immigration and refugees to Australia during the Holocaust (and their legacies today) as well as the past and present struggle for Aboriginal rights in Australia. These two histories are entwined and we will delve into how the relationship between these communities developed on the trip.
Focusing on Melbourne and Sydney, in each city the current itinerary includes sites highlighting Aboriginal culture and Jewish life. In Melbourne, we will take a private tour of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum with a Museum leader, enjoy a river cruise hosted by a local Koorie guide, and hear a lecture from a scholar from Monash University. In Sydney, we will have a private Indigenous cultural experience at the Sydney Zoo, visit the Three Sisters, and take a guided tour of the Great Synagogue. Along the way, we will also visit cultural sites and highlight unique Australian experiences, such as the Sydney Opera House, Bondi Beach, the Penguin Parade on Philip Island, and the Blue Mountains.
The group itinerary will begin in Melbourne on Monday, January 14, 2026 and conclude in Sydney on Thursday, January 22, 2026. Including travel, participants should expect to depart from the United States no later than January 12, 2026 and return home no earlier than Friday, January 23. The trip package includes great accommodations, group activities, ground transportation in Australia, one domestic flight from Melbourne to Sydney in Australia, the full-time services of a group travel director (who will handle all logistics), and more. The Cohen Institute will also coordinate optional pre-departure educational opportunities such as special lectures, a book group, and/or other offerings based on the group’s interests. The target audience for this trip is educators, community members, elected officials, alumni, and KSC faculty and staff.
Please email coheninstitute@keene.edu if you have any questions about this study tour or are interested in enrolling.
A limited number of partial scholarships may be available to educators and other people who have ideas for how their participation in the trip might be shared in high-impact ways with their schools and/or communities. Please email coheninstitute@keene.edu if you are interested in learning more about funding.
Past Trips
- 2010 Study Tour to Eastern Europe (led by Dr. Paul Vincent and Dr. Hank Knight)
- 2017 Study Tour to Bosnia and Herzegovina (led by Judge Patricia Whalen and Dr. Hank Knight)
- 2024 Study Tour to Germany and Poland (led by Dr. Dana Smith and Dr. Kate DeConinck)
- 2025 Study Tour, International Human Rights in the Wake of the Holocaust, to Nuremberg, Strasbourg, and The Hague (led by Dr. Phil Barker and Dr. Kate Gibeault)
