Project Description

Ofek-"Horizon" is a yearlong course in Jewish Studies at the Yaacov Herzog Center, sponsored by the Jewish Agency and the Government of Israel, for young adults from the countries of the Former Soviet Union. The program is designed to strengthen the participants' Jewish-Zionist identity and provide them with instructional and leadership skills for work as teachers, counselors and community leaders in their home communities in the Diaspora, to which most will return. The curriculum features courses in the library of Jewish classics, in Jewish and Israeli history, in the Jewish life-cycle, in the Jewish calendar year, in modern Israeli culture, and in Hebrew language, as well as workshops and lectures that impart guidance and teaching skills. Alongside the academic learning, students will go on hikes or attend cultural events once a week, and volunteer in Absorption Centers in Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Malachi or Ashkelon.

Need for the Project

One of the problems that resulted from the massive exodus of Jews from the countries of the Former Soviet Union in the 1980s and '90s is that it left behind a vacuum in Jewish community leadership and education. During the years of Soviet suppression of Jewish life, most Jews and their families were cut off from Jewish culture and Jewish life, and in fact were not even acquainted with this culture. Their primary awareness of their own culture was confined to the fact that they were Jews and for this reason also discriminated against. When perestroika made it possible for Jews to leave, most knowledgeable and committed Jews capable of leading and teaching their peers emigrated, leaving those who remained, including the younger generation now coming of age, without guidance with regard to their Jewish identities, Jewish heritage or Israel. There is a need to help this new generation find their own way back to the Jewish people. The Ofek program addresses this problem by training young leaders from the FSU in "Jewish Identity Studies," empowering them in the pluralistic spirit and using the dialogical methods that characterize studies at the Yaacov Herzog Center.

Plans and timetables for implementation

The program runs from October through August. Acceptance interviews for the program are held in May-June. In the first semester, classes in Jewish/Israeli culture and in Jewish history are taught in Russian, while the students begin an intensive study of Hebrew. By the second semester, some of the classes are conducted in Hebrew. In the second semester, some of the classes in Jewish studies are given to advanced students by the Rabbis in the Yeshiva of the Religious Kibbutz, which is located next door to the Herzog Center. During the second semester too, some the classes in Jewish culture and Jewish history are conducted in Hebrew.

Staffing and Academic Credit

The project is coordinated by a Program Coordinator and a Social Activities Counselor. The program will employ 14 teachers drawn from the academic staff of the Yaacov Herzog Center, from teachers in "Machanayim" (a Jewish heritage Center for Russian-speaking Jews), from the University of Bar Ilan and from Hebrew University. The program is being administered by an academic supervisory board from Sapir College, under the auspices of Ben Gurion University.

Core contents of the program

The program contains three main components: academic, experiential, and practical.
1) The academic component will impart a broad and in-depth knowledge in the fields of Jewish culture. The study program will include Hebrew, the Jewish holiday year, life-cycle rituals, Bible, encounter with the classics of the traditional Jewish library, Jewish and Israeli history.
2) The experiential component will feature an unmediated encounter with the landscapes, culture and people of the State of Israel through many field trips, cultural events and meetings with Israelis from different social populations, including the members of Kibbutz Ein Tzurim, an active and creative community.
3) The practical component includes workshops and lectures that will focus on developing counseling, teaching and leadership skills, in order to turn the knowledge that has been acquired by the participants into effective tools for work in the Jewish community. In addition, the students will work as volunteers in local development towns that absorb new immigrants (Kiryat Malachi and Kiryat Gat), a practical generosity that will help prepare them for Jewish community activity.