Nobody required students to show up on Tuesday night to learn halacha. Nobody made them host Torah discussions in their apartments. Nobody asked them to board a plane to Romania on Shavuot.
They just did.
That’s the thing about Torah learning at JLIC BGU. Rabbi Idan and Prielle Rakovsky didn’t build a mandatory program. They built a culture. This year, over 100 students chose to be part of it.
Once a week, around 20 students gathered to learn Yoreh Deah together. Not a casual overview. Deep, practical halacha, worked through carefully, week after week. At the end of the semester, they sat for a final exam.
Seven students went even further and committed to formal halacha study with semester exams.
Nobody was offering extra credit. These students chose to do it because they wanted to actually know this material. That kind of commitment is rare. At JLIC BGU, it’s becoming normal.
Dinner, Then Torah
Every other week, a student in the community opened her apartment.
She cooked dinner. Her friends came over. They ate together, talked, and then learned Torah, led by the women in the room.
That’s Omka D’Liba, the women’s learning chavura. No formal classroom. No outside speaker flown in. Just students creating a space that is warm, serious, and theirs. Prielle helped plant the seed. The students grew it themselves.
What Shavuot Looked Like This Year
On Shavuot night, JLIC BGU was in two places at once.
In Be’er Sheva, the community gathered for a night of Torah and tefillah. Students who had spent a year learning together marked the holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah itself.
At the same time, a group of students flew to Romania to spend Shavuot with the children of Tikva, a home for at-risk youth. They brought food, energy, joy, and presence to kids who needed someone to show up for them.
The students who got on that plane carried a simple reminder back with them. Torah is learned in the Beit Midrash, and also lived through chessed, presence, and responsibility for one another. That’s what Megillat Rut teaches us.
A Year in Numbers
Over 100 students in Torah learning programs. A men’s Tanach chavura. Fifteen-plus Lunch and Learn sessions on campus. Sunday Tanach classes on Zoom. Multiple chavurot running all year.
The numbers matter. The reason they’re possible is simpler. Rabbi Idan and Prielle built a place where students want to grow, and then got out of the way and let them.
Reach out to any of our Directors to learn more about and to support JLIC and our programming.
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