A Wall in Its Midst
Breaking stigmas and building bridges between Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) and non-Haredi student populations in Israel and providing Haredi students with the help they need to succeed in academia.
How It Works:
The program pairs up a non-Haredi student with a Haredi student.
Each pair meets once a week for 3-4 hours. For the first two hours the non-Haredi student tutors the Haredi student in basic subjects and in the remaining time the pair learns together a Jewish text of their choice, using it as the basis for discussion, the exchange of ideas, and understanding.
This interaction enables the two students to get to know each other on a deeper level, leading to a lowering of boundaries and negative stigmas and even results in true friendships and partnerships.
In addition, all the program participants meet together several times a year for joint activities. The purpose of these gatherings is to enable the participants to meet each other, learn more about Israeli society, open up for discussion the issues facing the Haredi and secular worlds, and create a sense of connection.
Alumni Network:
Beliba Choma has recently begun focusing efforts on the development of an alumni network to support Haredi alumni as they begin to take their first steps in the Israeli job market. The network lists potential job openings and provides much needed mentoring.
The program has been operating successfully since 2010, with outstanding results with regards to lowering the number of dropouts among Haredi students, and generated meaningful personal connections between Haredi and non-Haredi students. The over 1,000 alumni of the program are proof that it is possible to create change in Israeli society.
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About The Project
Beliba Choma came into being in 2010, at the height of the struggle against the “Avreichim Law,” a struggle that came across, at least externally, as “anti-Haredi.” It came about as the result of personal encounters between Haredi and secular activists in Jerusalem. The encounters left the founders seeking a way to bring Haredi, religious, and secular students together on equal footing. The program is founded on the belief that doing and learning together and forging personal relationships with each other is the best way to remove stigmas and create a truly shared society. Only in this way can we ensure the future existence of a strong and united Israel.
At the same time as the program is working to break down stigmas, it is also supporting the growing numbers of Haredim looking to pursue higher education. There are currently over 13,000 Haredi students learning in the various universities and colleges in Israel. These students struggle to overcome two main barriers to success: a gap in their knowledge of basic subjects such as math, sciences, computers, and English; and a lack of familiarity and understanding of secular culture. So acute are the effects of these gaps that nearly 60% of Haredi students who enroll in higher education end up dropping out.
