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Many of you can remember the preschool drawings you made, or your children brought home, made with navy beans and barley, a lone, stone building on the side of the ride. Kever Rachel. But that view has been obscured for a long time now.

The first time I visited Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem, I traveled on a bus with windows so foggy I could barely make out the scenery along the 30-minute ride from my home in Efrat. This week – a few days prior to Rachel Imenu's yahrtzeit - I returned in a private vehicle, following a new policy by the army to allow visitors to travel there directly. I brought with me a group of my photography students from the Emunah College of Torah and Art who are spending a year in Israel on a unique learning program that integrates Torah studies and art, including photography.

None of the young women had been to Kever Rachel before, so the opportunity was ripe for some fresh eyes and artistic interpretation of this unique and holy place. As the photographs in this essay reveal, the students were taken as much by the environment surrounding the tomb as the activities inside it. Though disappointed that it is impossible to view the exterior in its entirety, once inside they did capture a number of evocative shots.


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Yehoshua Halevi is a photojournalist, event photographer, teacher, trekking guide and writer who lives in the Judean Mountains south of Jerusalem. A self-taught photographer, his work has appeared in National Geographic publications and major Jewish publications around the world. He is also the creator of a weekly photo blog entitled Israel the Beautiful, which can be viewed at http://israelthebeautiful.blogspot.com/ You can view more of his work at http://www.goldenlightimages.com.