Bridging and Encounters

Study tours, bar/bat mitzvah programs, talks for teenagers and social meetings. In each of them secular and religious Israelis meet face to face.

Study tours

Secular Israelis take a look into the lives of their ultra-Orthodox neighbors. Academics, journalists and professionals are guided through Bnei Brak and other places of social or religious interest: a family home with nine children, a challah bakery on Friday night, a girls' seminary, and yeshiva study at one in the morning.

Bar/bat mitzvah programs

Study programs ahead of the coming-of-age year. Boys learn the laws of the bar mitzvah ceremony, including the Torah reading and putting on tefillin; girls learn about separating challah and the woman's role in the Jewish home. Study trips to holy and historic sites take place with the parents, so the experience is shared.