The BINA Secular Yeshiva is the only non-orthodox institute of its kind in Israel today. Young adults study Jewish texts and Jewish culture intensively - for 15 hours a day - from sources ranging from the Bible and Gemara to classic Israeli literature and Zionist history. Students learn with renowned experts from the fields of academia, Jewish scholarship and social activism, and then discuss the texts in “hevrutah” or study pairs. This format fosters a long-term commitment to Jewish study, and encourages students to interpret the sources in a meaningful and personal way.
The Secular Yeshiva is emerging as a spiritual-cultural center in the heart of secular Tel-Aviv. Many general outreach activities are offered to the student and young adult population of Tel Aviv. We coin this important component of the Yeshiva's activities in Hebrew “Saf Beit Hamidrash”, which means “the threshold entering the house of study”. Kabbalat Shabbat and holiday services are often open to the public. We view the Jewish calendar as an opportunity for individual and collective Jewish creativity, and attempt to strike a balance between new elements and repeated ones, between tradition and renewal.
The Secular Yeshiva, established in 2006, has close to 200 students enrolled this year. It operates out of a facility allocated by the Tel-Aviv municipality adjacent to the New Central Bus Station of Tel-Aviv. Situated in one of the most distressed neighborhoods of South Tel Aviv, the Yeshiva aspires to promote Judaism as a basis for "Tikun Olam," or repairing the world. It has embarked upon a ground-breaking public struggle to attain official recognition from the Defense and Education ministries to grant it equivalent status to orthodox Yeshivas in Israel.
Click here to read more on the vision of a new Israeli Yeshiva.
