When Shabbat and Coding Meet: Inside Yavneh’s First-Ever Shabbaton Hackathon
Every year, thousands of college students compete in hackathons. They pull all-nighters, build things from scratch, and walk away with new skills and new friends. For Orthodox Jewish students who observe Shabbat, there has always been a catch: most hackathons run straight through the weekend, from Friday night to Sunday. For a long time, observant […]
When the Mamad Becomes the Beit Midrash: How JLIC Communities Are Showing Up
Note: This post highlights a sample of what’s been happening across JLIC’s Israel communities. It is not a complete picture of everything underway. What’s been happening inside JLIC communities across Israel over the past few weeks is not a story about cancellations and pivots. It’s a story about showing up anyway. The People Running These […]
Where Graduate School Meets Real Life
One night in Los Angeles, a young couple showed up to dinner with a baby finally asleep and an exam waiting Monday morning. They had every reason to stay home. Instead, they walked into a restaurant after Shabbat and exhaled. Graduate school pushes students to their limits. Marriage does too. So does rent. So do […]
A Siyum in the Dining Room
At Columbia and Barnard, men are about a quarter of the Jewish student community. So when one of them finished Shas Mishnayot in the middle of the semester, his rabbi’s living room filled up fast. Guys packed around the dining room table and pulled in extra chairs wherever they fit, balancing plates of sushi wherever […]
Manghal Monday: The Highlight of the Week
Monday nights at the JLIC Valley Hub smell like charcoal and chicken fat. Rabbi David Kashani started the Chabura two years ago. Small group, serious learning, the kind where you actually have to prepare. He and Rebbetzin Shana would set up their dining room table, put out some takeout or whatever she made that night, […]
Strengthening Small Businesses in the Western Galilee
Small Businesses Found Support Through Real Connection Students arrived ready to work at a moment when help was urgently needed. In the Western Galilee, participants from the JLIC Technion and Bar-Ilan University communities weeded fields, cleared olive orchards, and harvested lettuce alongside farmer Dor Pintel, who faced overwhelming volume and time-sensitive work. The students stepped […]
Creating Space for Torah and Community at NYU
On a weeknight in downtown Manhattan, a group of NYU JLIC students gather around tables filled with sefarim, food, and conversation. They come from different backgrounds and levels of learning, but they share one commitment: to make Torah learning a real and consistent part of their college lives. This is the NYU JLIC Kollel, a […]