The Jewish Life You Didn’t Know Was Thriving at the Technion

I’ll be honest. Before Rabbi Evan and Tova Levine, the JLIC Directors at Technion, walked me through campus, I’d heard the same thing everyone else hears: “There’s no Jewish life in Haifa.”

Obviously, I knew better. I see the reports, I help market the programs, I know what Evan and Tova are building up there. Knowing something on paper and seeing it with your own eyes? Totally different. So when they offered to show me around, I figured it was time to stop relying on pictures and chat updates and actually see what’s happening on the ground.

The train ride up the Mediterranean coast to Haifa is stunning. You’re hugging the coastline most of the way, watching the waves crash against the shore. It’s one of those rides where you almost don’t want it to end. Haifa also has this incredible cable car system that takes students up to campus, gliding over the city with views of the bay below. 

First stop was the campus shul. It’s not tucked away in some corner. It’s central to campus. Evan explained that it runs seven days a week, three times a day, with two full minyanim each for Shacharit, Mincha, and Maariv. I watched students filing in for mincha between classes. This wasn’t a once-in-a-while thing. It was just part of the daily rhythm.

Then we headed to the Beit Midrash in the student life building. The room was packed with sefarim, and you could feel the energy. That buzz of learning happening. Chevrutot working through sugyas, engineering students squeezing in some learning before their next problem set. Students from all kinds of backgrounds, somehow finding ways to fit Torah study into these impossibly packed academic schedules. Some were there for an hour, others grabbed fifteen minutes between labs. But the learning was happening.

Just outside, the student life building, there is a garden planted with the seven species (shevah minyim) and a large succah area for the holiday. Again, not makeshift. Not students improvising. This is built into the campus.

Tova reminded me that all the food services on campus are kosher. Just like at every major Israeli university. Students aren’t scrambling to figure out where to eat or how to maintain observance. It’s just built into campus life.

Evan pointed out two major yeshivot near campus. Nachalas Liviim and Or Ve’Yshuah. Technion students regularly go there to learn. Some make it a daily thing, others go for a seder or two a week. Either way, serious learning is accessible.

Then there’s what JLIC is doing. Last semester they ran Shabbasino. 140+ students from 23 countries showed up. They packed 80+ people into a room for a panel debate called “Does God play dice with the universe?” They’ve done themed Shabbat dinners, holiday celebrations with hundreds of students, a musical Havdalah under the stars that people are still talking about and much more. Every week there are shiurim, social events, and programming that meets students wherever they are.

Walking around with Evan and Tova, I realized where the disconnect comes from. People hear “Haifa” and assume no infrastructure. They hear “Technion” and assume students are too buried in engineering to care about Torah and community. But what’s actually happening on the ground is completely different.

Students are crushing it academically while building their Jewish lives. The community is active, engaged, and thriving.

Most people don’t see this side of the Technion because they never actually visit. Once you do? The myth falls apart pretty quickly.