TAU Hillel Current Programs
Hillel at Tel Aviv University - TAU
While studying at the university, TAU students are offered a variety of options for academic excellence, but they find very few social and cultural venues where they can find a sense of community on this large commuter campus of 29,000 students.
While young Israelis speak Hebrew and follow the cycle of the Jewish calendar, many are disconnected from their Jewish identity, perceiving Jewish tradition to be outdated, inaccessible, or irrelevant. A majority of these Israelis reject organized religion. The result is a “crisis of meaning” among Israeli youth. These young people, on the brink of adulthood, are spiritually lost and disengaged from the Jewish people and their cultural heritage.
TAU Hillel creates a unique environment in which students feel secure to approach, explore, and take "ownership" of their Judaism. Over two thousand students are currently involved in Hillel activities, but much more hard work and engagement efforts are needed to continue to expand this circle.
Jewish Renewal: Learning and Celebration
“Sofer Star” is a monthly book club that offers encounters between students and Israeli writers who come to share their Jewish stories and art.
Coolnoa – Lights, Camera, Judaism brings students together to discuss cult films from a Jewish perspective, creating a connection between pop culture and Jewish texts.
From Eve to Snow White: Eshet Chayil (A Woman of Valor) is a series of cultural events, in partnership with the Conservative movement, that focuses on issues related to gender and Judaism, such as homosexuality, the Jewish wedding, agunot (women denied a Jewish divorce), violence in the family, etc.
Share Your Photography combines the art ofphotography with text study from the Jewish and Israeli bookshelf that focuses on boundaries in our lives captured in photography. Students are encouraged to put together their own photo exhibits.
Yedidi Hashachacta?! - Friend, Have you Forgotten?! is a national program that offers concerts at which popular Israeli musicians perform with paitanim (singers of traditional Jewish poetry), blending their styles to create a new, updated Jewish sound. Students also meet in regular workshops to study the world of piyut (Jewish poetry).
Israeli Shabbat Events offer creative Kabbalat Shabbat programs and Shabbatonim that combine textual study workshops and artistic performances.
Social Action
Guzo (Journey) – Empowerment Project for Ethiopian Students is a student-initiated project that combines an enrichment program on Ethiopian-Jewish identity and history, with year-long volunteer work in the Ethiopian community.
SACH (Save a Child’s Heart) is a program where students volunteer withchildren from developing countries, who are brought to Israel for heart surgery. Both Jewish and Arab students volunteer and learn together in this program.
Respect & Remembrance offers students the opportunity to volunteer with Holocaust survivors, study issues in the Holocaust, and run awareness events on campus.
Jewish Social Leadership provides students with the chance to volunteer in their community and discuss issues such as poverty, equal opportunity and education, and Jewish leadership.
Beit Midrash for Human Rights is a learning program where students discuss human rights issues from a Jewish and humanitarian perspective, as well as volunteer human rights organizations.
Student Engagement and Leadership
AMIT is an enrichment program designed for students that are interested in spending a year as a volunteer shaliach (emissary) at Hillel centers throughout the United States.
Mercaz Yozmot (The Center for Student Initiatives) offers Hillel students the chance to initiate their own program ideas on campus and in the community.
