Bayit LeMidrash ? Community Learning Circles

The Institute for Jewish Studies in the CIS is deeply grateful for the Pincus Fund's ongoing and generous support of Bayit LeMidrash.

The backbone of the Institute's programming, Bayit LeMidrash ("a home for study") creates peer-led learning communities by bringing Jewish knowledge, Jewish identity, and Jewish pride to nearly 200 far-flung and isolated places throughout the FSU. Bayit LeMidrash holds educational seminars for teachers and community activists and establishes and staffs community learning circles. In addition, we create and expand Jewish libraries to provide communities with home-study materials and printed resources, thus forming a supportive educational framework.

Each Bayit LeMidrash group serves as the primary local source for classes and lectures, the distribution point for educational materials, and an informal meeting hall. The centers engage a core group of nearly 2,000 participants each week, and even larger audiences on a more variable basis. The goal is the creation of a popular and attractive communal Jewish space for Jews of all ages and backgrounds.

Most of the Bayit LeMidrash group leaders are volunteer teachers who together comprise a virtual Jewish civil service corps. Since the founding of the program, Bayit LeMidrash has held 12 teacher training seminars to enable the group leaders to expand their own knowledge and improve the quality of the education they are facilitating. More than 200 community leaders have participated in these seminars, which have brought a new sense of purpose to those rebuilding Jewish life in their hometowns.

By giving the Jews of the FSU the materials and training they need, Bayit LeMidrash is working to ensure an independent and thriving Jewish family life and culture, even in the absence of conventional institutions like synagogues, schools and community centers.