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THE ISRAELI SCENE
Tel Aviv’s Secular Yeshiva – The First of Many
Almost a half year after opening in south Tel Aviv, the first secular yeshiva continues to draw attention, from the media [see links 1 +2] to curious “walk-ins,” and students who are already signing up for next year. An anomaly on the Israeli scene, where the word yeshiva conjures up a crowded room filled with black coated young men bent over ancient tomes, it is no wonder that people are curious about the idea of a secular yeshiva. Its location in the south Tel Aviv neighborhood surrounding the new central bus, an area inhabited by foreign workers and the poor, underscores its main distinction: the motivating concept behind the yeshiva is the complement between action and study. “It is a two-way street,” explains yeshiva director, Tal Shaked, “one reinforces the other.”
The brainchild behind the yeshiva is BINA: The Center for Jewish Identity and Hebrew Culture, sponsored by the United Kibbutz Movement. “It is very difficult to get young secular Israelis interested in studying Jewish texts. They are either indifferent to Judaism, or adamantly opposed to any involvement with it. So for the past five years we have been running a program in south Tel Aviv that combines social action, volunteering in various programs, and learning. In the yeshiva we have simply made learning a more intensive component,” explains Eran Baruch, head of BINA.
The secular yeshiva’s 150 students are divided into three tracks. One is for 18-19 year-olds, fresh out of high school, who are full-time students and volunteer. They volunteer twice a week in various programs, such as the after-school program for children of foreign workers and the social action program, Tav Hevrati, which promotes businesses in Tel Aviv that pledge to honor fair employment practices and provide accessibility for the disabled. The rest of the time is spent in intensive, round the clock study. The men and woman come from all over the country and live in a commune in south Tel Aviv. After their first year, they will be going to the army, for the full three years. However, like some Orthodox yeshiva students, they will take a year off to study in the middle of their service. Baruch and Shaked hope that the Ministry of Defense will grant their program official status and funding.
Another track is for post-army young people aged 22-26, who are already studying or working. They come twice a week to learn and many of them volunteer as well, but not as a group. Some of them have moved to south Tel Aviv to be closer to the yeshiva and their volunteer projects. The third track is the beit midrash for the general public.
Two students, Noam Meinart and Tal
Wolfson, wrote a letter to the editor in response to a feature
article about the secular yeshiva, "Because Judaism is Not a Dirty
Word," which appeared in Haaretz’s weekly supplement on January 12,
2007. [link number one] They wanted to correct the impression that
the yeshiva students were not rebelling. “Establishing the yeshiva
is a significant landmark in the revolt against the hegemony of
religion over Judaism. We are Jews, and we retain our possession of
our cultural sources even though we do not accept the authority of
halakha. Our yeshiva also constitutes an alternative to the consumer
culture that is dominant in our times, and we are the proof of the
fact that it is possible to maintain and create a modern secular
Jewish culture that is not superficial. We would like to emphasize
that the rebellion of the younger generation does not come only in
the form of extremism, violence, spiked hair and loud music, and we
believe that our enterprise will contribute to change in Israeli
society.” Yeshiva director Tal Shaked reported that the general public has shown a great deal of interest. “We are looking forward to expanding our activities. And we hope that ours will be a model for future yeshivot that will be set up around the country,” she said. “When that happens, we will give our yeshiva a name.”
2. http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/11155/
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