Beliba Choma (A Wall In Its Midst)
This project aims to break down the barriers that separate the Haredi segment from other respective segments of Israeli society, by providing assisted study programs for Haredi students that have chosen to enroll in academic studies.
About The Project
How We Began?
The program is designed to work as 'one on one' assisted study sessions, in which Secular and national religious students provide assistance to Hareidi students in secular study subjects.
The program aims to address inherent adjustment difficulties into the Israeli academic study environments that are experience by the Hareidi students, which have caused the extremely high dropout rates among the Haredi students (between 50 to 70 percent).
The program was established toward the end of the year 2010, in the middle of the campaign against the "Torah Scholar Law" which was outwardly portrayed as "anti Haredi" form of legislation. Secular activists in Jerusalem took upon themselfes to lower the hatred rate in the society, by encouraging the increasing trend within the Hareidi community to enroll in academic study programs.
Our plans for the future
Additional Details
Our plans for the future include the expansion of the project during the next three years to accommodate for additional 1500 students, while promoting the national expansion of this project.
We intend to offer professional training programs to the Haredi graduates in order to provide them with additional occupational opportunities, and to create a program for Secular students to better understand their Haredi partners, while addressing issues relating to the tensions of religion and state in Israel.
The counseling program is made up of Hareidi, Secular and National Religious students that meet together each week for three hour sessions. In the course of each session the counseled students are provided with assistance in subjects such English, Mathematics, Computer Sciences, Physics, Economics, and etc. In addition to its' academic aspects, the program also allocates one hour out of the three, for conversation and study of Jewish learning subjects. This, in order to help the students to get know each other's world of values, way of thinking, and to poromote a beneficial dialogue between them.