Beit Midrash Elul, with the support of the Sapir Center for Jewish Culture and Education, conducts a program of Beit Midrash study for Russian speakers in Jerusalem, out of an aspiration to enable the participants to strengthen their Israeli-Russian-Jewish identity. The program has been running since 2023.
The program took place in two formats:
The first format – a Beit Midrash for the Russian-speaking Sambation Community in Jerusalem. The Beit Midrash consists of intellectual activists with a deep connection to their Jewish identity and to Israel, who engage in questions of Jewish-Israeli-Russian identity during routine times, and, all the more so, during wartime when questions of identity, belonging and fraternity become existential. There are two cohorts of fortnightly Beit Midrash sessions during the year with a joint Shabbat, aimed at bolstering the sense of belonging and to clarify the pertinent questions of identity.
The second format – Zoom sessions for a wider Russian-speaking audience. This is an initiative of Sembation Community members who realized that Russian speakers around the country need enrichment meetings during wartime that provide a broad cultural perspective on relevant topics (war and polemic in the Talmud, zealots during the Second Temple period, war in the teachings of Rabbi Nachman, and more). These meetings attracted hundreds of people thirsty for a topical and intellectual connection in their mother tongue.
n 2025, the project expanded to Sambatyon’s Jubilee program, in which veteran Russian-speaking members of the Sambatyon community became facilitators for wider audiences and for young people who immigrated from Russia and Ukraine in recent years.
This expansion gave expression to the commitment and curiosity of Russian speakers toward Jewish culture, the leadership that emerged from the established beit midrash, and the need of Russian-speaking youth for meaningful figures who can mediate Jewish-Israeli culture in their own language.