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Multicultural Activities | Diversity and Inclusion The Hebrew University

Multicultural Activities

  • interfaith study group

The Interfaith Study Group

The Interfaith Study Group is designated for students and is active during the academic year. The students meet once a week (twenty sessions, 2.5 hrs. each). The group has two facilitators, one Jewish and one Christian or Muslim. It is a heterogeneous group of students: different religions and different level of religious observance, varied gender identities and sexual orientations. The sessions include learning in pairs, in small groups and all together, and they deal with basic human issues and questions of living in a shared society. Among the topics: The creation of human beings in God's image and the belief in God, the treatment of the Other, the tension between religious renewal and keeping the tradition, the place of women in the religion.

  • students group

Jewish - Arab Students Group in Safra

A student-initiated Jewish Arab group at the University’s Safra Campus (Exact Sciences) meets several times over the course of the year, and organizes various cultural events for the student community at large in this campus.  The group has coordinated a wide variety of activities, from theatre events to sports, to appeal to and include as many and diverse students as possible.  The group’s recent ventures range from movie screenings to Iftar dinners, the evening meal Muslims break their daily fast on during Ramadan.  The purpose of these events transcends cross-cultural learning, and understanding of the Other.  It enables students of the Jewish Arab communities to get to know one another as individuals, in easy-going contexts, like the natural and spontaneous interaction involved in team sport.

  • end of semester event Maayan Bamidbar

Language Excahnge: Maayan Ba-Midbar

For many Arab students the language challenge is a major barrier to realizing their academic potential. For many Jewish students, learning Spoken Arabic has been a long time wish. The language exchange framework invites Arab and Jewish pairs of students to meet weekly for 2-3 hours on an equal basis. The Jewish students help the Arab students with their Hebrew: they support editing their papers, might help with a difficult article in Hebrew or review notes of a class. In the second part of the meeting the Arab students teach their peers Spoken Arabic.  In addition, sometimes there are group frameworks in which students get together at a certain time and place and choose to discuss a certain topic. Part of the discussion is in Hebrew and another part is in Arabic.  In 2019 almost 250 pairs of Jewish and Arab students participated in such language exchange programs throughout the University in different models.  The pairs of students often create relationships well beyond the language exchange program and the whole group meets for special events such as holidays and tours. The language exchange programs are special in that both sides share their strengths and receive what they need.