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Encouraging Jewish Study: Informal Jewish Study
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| The alienation of secular Israelis from Jewish culture and study continues to preoccupy the Foundation. A healthy Jewish society depends on all of its communities to engage in the development of its cultural life. Tragically, a significant part of secular Israel has relegated Judaism to the religious. AVI CHAI aspires to encourage Jewish study and literacy among secular Israeli Jews so that they can become active and knowledgeable partners in the shaping of Jewish life in Israel. The Foundation continues to focus on three primary areas of support: (1) encouraging Jewish study programs for secular adults, primarily in informal frameworks; (2) promoting Jewish culture in the media, especially television; and (3) enhancing Jewish studies in the state (non-religious) school system.
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Alma Hebrew College
Alma Hebrew College is a liberal arts center in Tel Aviv for the study of Hebrew culture and contemporary Jewish identity. The core of Alma's program is the School for Applied Hebrew Culture, which in 2008/09 includes: a two-year fellowship program with 49 participants who have demonstrated the potential to influence others through their various professions; an additional 27 students enrolled in one of four professional tracks (editing and translation, creative writing, group facilitation, and the arts), designed to enrich the professional life of participants by deepening their understanding of Hebrew culture; ongoing batei midrash for popular singers and artists, who are expected to become agents of change and influence in Israeli Jewish culture; and various courses open to the public. Altogether, a total of about 170 students are studying at Alma's School in 2008/09.
http://www.alma.org.il |
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AVI CHAI Siddur
A user-friendly and readable siddur, developed by AVI CHAI, and published in two volumes for the home and Shabbat, for Israelis with little or no background in its contents or prayer. The siddur is now in its 5th printing and has sold over 20,000 copies. In addition to publication of the AVI CHAI Siddur, the Foundation has funded professional development courses for teachers, run by the Center for Educational Technology, on the traditional siddur, with a special focus on the AVI CHAI Siddur. .
The Siddur online |
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BaMidbar
A center of Jewish study and celebration in the Negev. Since its establishment in Yerucham in 1996, BaMidbar has grown into a significant Jewish cultural center that attracts the region's diverse population (including recent immigrants). BaMidbar programs span a wide spectrum of activities, including a creative beit midrash for BaMidbar's leadership, a beit midrash for children, various study programs for high school and post-high school youth, a program on parashat hashavuah, a dance midrash group, a program of Jewish studies for workers in nearby factories, and community-wide events. During 2008/09, BaMidbar operates 17 different educational programs, most meeting on a weekly basis, as well as one-time activities for more than 4,000 participants - children, youth, adults, and seniors. BaMidbar also offers programs of study and an excursion for groups from Israel and abroad that wish to learn about Judaism in the desert landscape. Tzav Pius supported BaMidbar for six years since its inception; since 2002, AVI CHAI has been a significant supporter.
http://www.bamidbar.org/ |
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Bayit
A pilot program initiated by AVI CHAI together with the Israel Association of Community Centers, which aims to develop community centers of excellence in the field of Jewish study and culture. Bayit (an interim name) proposes to transform a select number of centers, already committed to Jewish study and culture, into an elite group of community institutions, which embrace Jewish values as central to their activity, and offer an array of high quality Jewish programs that attract the broad spectrum of residents they serve. To achieve this, Bayit will define standards of excellence, work with centers to achieve these standards, and provide recognition and continuing support to centers that meet Bayit's standards.
Bayit community centers will be expected to: offer a range of high quality Jewish programs, such as study groups, discussions, and celebrations; attract a growing number of residents (reflecting their community's diversity) who participate in activities; encourage and enhance the involvement of residents in planning and programming; collaborate with other local groups and institutions to promote a Jewish cultural agenda; and foster communities that give concrete and ongoing expression to the Jewish values of respect and caring for others.
Bayit is expected to commence as a pilot program in 2010 with five to seven centers during its first year, and the possibility of adding three to five centers during the second year. If successful, we envision the development of a voluntary group of up to 30 community centers within six years, representing one-fourth of all centers that serve Jewish populations - and a critical mass that can impact the entire community center network.
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Elul
An institution that promotes the joint study of classical and modern Jewish texts by religious and secular participants. Elul, one of the pioneers in this field, currently runs 3 different batei midrash programs (a core beit midrash, a beit midrash for writers, and a beit midrash for storytellers), and trains and provides guidance to other learning communities throughout the country. Elul currently runs 30 learning communities, which draw more than 400 people who regularly study texts together. In addition, hundreds more attend special study events sponsored by communities across the country. AVI CHAI is a major supporter of Elul's activities.
www.elul.org.il |
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Journey to Jewish Heritage
A program to acquaint and connect Israelis to their common Jewish heritage via the study and recording of Jewish historical sites in the Diaspora. The program brings together university students from various disciplines over the course of six months, beginning with four two-day preparatory sessions, and culminating in three weeks of study and preservation work in a Diaspora community. Initiated by AVI CHAI and under the project auspices of the Zalman Shazar Center, the program has sent abroad more than 290 students in ten delegations (to Turkey, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania [twice], Greece, India [twice], Georgia, and Hungary). Plans for 2009 call for two missions: one to Bukhara, Uzbekistan, and one to Tzcernovitz, Ukraine. Some 60 students are expected to take part in the program this year.
www.jewish-heritage.org.il |
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Kfar Blum and Hakhel Jewish Culture Festivals
The study and celebration of Israeli Jewish culture for large, diverse populations via two annual festivals. The Hakhel Festival, held annually for the past ten years during Sukkot, and the Lo Bashamayim (Not in Heaven) Festival, which completed its ninth year at Kfar Blum last July, represent two large-scale public events, which attract between 4,000-5,000 participants each. The festivals are valuable to the foundation as cultural events that explore the manifold connections between Jewish and Israeli identity and that convey the clear message that Jewish culture is relevant to all.
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MAPAT
A framework of programs for Russian-speaking families based on themes of Jewish identity and Israeli society and history. MAPAT Family Programming (MFP) was established in 2004 with the help of the New York Federation to address the generational gap that exists between the vast majority of Russian-speaking parents, who are disconnected from their Jewish heritage, and their children who are continuously exposed to it in Israeli schools. The core of the program revolves around eight family clubs throughout Israel, all in cities with significant Russian-speaking popluations. Typically, parents and children meet separately during two of the monthly meetings (the parents attend lectures while the children participate in their own activities), and gather together for family workshops during the other weeks. In addition to the weekly meetings, the family club program also includes excursions to places of Jewish interest, large-scale holiday programming, and a family summer seminar as part of MAPAT's annual summer camp. MAPAT family's programming, which rests on MAPAT's wider network of after-school centers of education established in 1999, also incorporates training for the club coordinators (typically select teachers from the after-school centers) and for young madrichim from the Shevach Mofet school (who participate in an intensive leadership training seminar before integrating into the summer camp and weekly programming). During 2008/09, 300 families (around 500 individuals) attend weekly programming; 200 took part in the summer seminar; a total of over 1,000 people participate in some part of MAPAT family programming.
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Melton Maftechot
Development of a two-year course on Jewish literacy for secular Israeli adults. Inspired by the success of Melton mini-schools in the Diaspora, The Gandel Institute for Adult Jewish Learning, which operates out of The Melton Centre for Jewish Education of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is developing a suitable Israeli curriculum and framework for teaching secular, university-educated adults the basic concepts of Judaism. A first -year curriculum on "time" and "place" was developed and studied in 2006/07 by seven groups. In 2008/09, thirteen groups opened, of which five are new, mostly in northern Israel but also in other areas of the country. In parallel, AVI CHAI is supporting the development of the second-year curriculum; the first unit, "Circles of Affiliation," was completed during 2008, and the second, "Ethics and Morals in Judaism," will be completed during the 2008/09 academic year.. A total of some 200 students are enrolled in the program in 2008/09.
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Pirkei Avot
Publication of a new commentary of the classic Jewish text, relevant to contemporary Israelis. Encouraged by the surprising popularity of the AVI CHAI Siddur, the Foundation has engaged the Siddur's editor, Professor Avigdor Shinan, to develop an accessible, stimulating, and attractive version of one of the most important works in Jewish literature. For centuries, Ethics of our Fathers, with its insightful aphorisms, has helped shape Jewish views of an exemplary way of life. For most contemporary Israelis, however, the text's rich allusions and interpretive potential are inaccessible. Pirkei Avot-An Israeli Commentary is intended to encourage Israeli Jews to adopt Avot as a basic household text. The publication is to include a contemporary commentary, supplemented by a wealth of background information and perspectives, including: biographical information on the sages cited; illustrations, such as manuscripts, maps, works of arts, and comics; discussion of traditional commentaries; excerpts from literary works, primarily modern Hebrew literature; references to similar sayings found in Jewish or world literature; citations of scholarly research of interest; and folk art, humorous passages, slang, and other light touches. The multiple perspectives are intended to engage the interest of diverse readers and enhance the text's significance in Israeli cultural discourse. Publication of AVI CHAI's Pirkei Avot is expected during the first half of 2009.
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Sefer Ha'aggadah
Sefer Ha'aggadah represents an anthology of almost 8,000 midrashic and aggadic passages from rabbinic literature, carefully selected and organized according to a range of topics by poet Chaim Nachman Bialik and author Yehoshua Chana Ravnitzki,. Almost a century has passed since the book first appeared, and sixty years since the most recent edition. AVI CHAI is working now to produce with Kinneret Zmora Dvir Publishing House a new modern edition of Sefer Ha'aggadah within five years. The AVI CHAI version, edited by Professor Avigdor Shinan, will feature a new introduction, enhanced indices, and perhaps additional rabbinic texts discovered in the past sixty years. In addition, it will provide a completely new set of explanatory notes, intended for contemporary Israeli readers, clarifying difficult words, elucidating the original context of the aggadic passages, and updating the texts in light of the scholarly discoveries of the last century.
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Small-Grant Initiatives for Olim
AVI CHAI has undertaken an internal effort to identify and develop initiatives that enhance the opportunities of Russian-speaking olim to engage in activities related to Jewish study and Israeli Jewish culture. In past years, AVI CHAI has provided small grants for selected ideas with the potential of evolving into meaningful educational programs for Russian-speaking olim. For example, a pilot initiative in Upper Nazareth eventually led to a more significant ongoing AVI CHAI grant (Olamot). Another example has been the partnership between Radio Reka radio station and the Open University since 2004 to broadcast multiple series of lectures on Jewish and Zionist content to Russian-language radio listeners. Beyond the live broadcasts, the bulk of the lectures are available as audio files on the Open University website and some are available in the form of compact disk sets, which are distributed free of charge throughout Israel and the former Soviet Union.
AVI CHAI staff is now focused on identifying relevant educational programs for a younger audience, including young families. The programs are expected to reflect Russian cultural sensibilities while exploring Jewish texts and culture. Initial grants have been made to the Hillel Bein Hashurot program at Hebrew University, a project that provides Russian-speaking students with opportunities to explore their identity and study Jewish sources via a theatre group, creative writing seminar, and an intellectual trivia competition and to Limmud Ashkelon, a two-day festival of Jewish culture and study attended by 1,500 Russian-speaking Israelis. The Foundation is currently reviewing other initiatives in this area.
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Speaking Poetry
An Israeli Jewish culture program for university students, centered around piyyut and midrash. Piloted at Hebrew University in partnership with Beit Hillel during 2002/03, the program expanded over the years to four additional campuses: Tel Aviv University, Ben Gurion University, the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, and the University of Haifa. The program comprises monthly public events for the general student population, alternating between study and song sessions devoted to piyyut and midrash for 50-100 students, and larger public concerts that feature first-rate paytanim (piyyut singers), popular singers, and student interpreters of Jewish texts, which regularly attract hundreds of participants. Hillel's vision is to transform this dimension of Jewish culture into an integral part of general cultural activity at Israeli universities.
Speaking Poetry also inspired a new initiative, led by performing artists who after three years of exposure to the world of piyyut in the Speaking Poetry project requested the opportunity to study more systematically the world of Jewish culture in general, and piyyut in particular. The result: a course for leading singers and composers, now in its second year, that attracts 20 leading artists for eight intensive days of study of Jewish history, texts, and piyyutim. Most of the artists have begun to include the piyyutim they have studied in their own performances and compositions.
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Zayit
Zayit: an acronym for "Jewish cultural identity," refers to a community-based initiative in the area of Emek Hefer (near Netanya) that aims to nurture a rich and full Jewish life in the region, based on study, celebration, and social action. Zayit began as a small grant initiative in 2006, when an entrepreneurial resident lamented the void of Jewish activity in the area; with a small budget, he partnered with the regional community center to develop four circles of activity: study groups for adults; activities for families relating to holidays and the life cycle; programs for youth; and large-scale public events. Zayit's efforts are guided by a steering committee that comprises regional representatives, Jewish culture professionals, and local residents, and rests on a core of passionate activists. During 2008/09, Zayit plans to more than double the number of learning communities to 17, with 265 projected participants (who represent the project's committed core); initiate nine study series for 400 participants; begin programs in collaboration with area schools (e.g., batei midrash and training seminars for teachers); train current and new activists; and promote community events on a regular basis (e.g., Kabbalat Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh), as well as large-scale one-time events for the region.
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