This past academic year, foreign students of Beit Hillel at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem participated in a successful pilot program called Bein HaShurot (Between the Lines). The multi-faceted project gives Russian-speaking immigrant students several outlets for expressing their creativity within an Israeli framework. Designed by Beit Hillel Director Heli Tabibi and Project Coordinator Vicky Aharonovich-Roitman, Bein HaShurot includes three workshops: theatre, creative writing, and the popular Russian trivia game, Chto? Gde? Kogda? (What? Where? When?)

Bein HaShurot theatre participants.

"FSU immigrant students are familiar with these creative outlets," explains Rabbi Yossie Goldman, director general of Hillel Israel." "So they feel comfortable coming to Beit Hillel to explore issues that interest them, with other immigrant students and with professional workshop leaders."

The idea for Bein HaShurot was created after Tabibi and Aharonovich-Roitman recognized the need for local immigrants to preserve their cultural identity while still being encouraged to assimilate in Israel. For many Russian-speaking students, expressing oneself in a new language and new country can be challenging, frustrating, and discouraging. Bein HaShurot is an outlet where students can overcome those feelings.

The project, which is generously supported by the Avi Chai Foundation, includes weekly workshops, special events, and Jewish holiday celebrations for immigrant students.

Bein HaShurot theatre participants.

Student theatre participants recently prepared a major theater production, Sholom Aleichem's "The Jackpot," in which they explored the Jewish story of their characters and compared them with their own personal Jewish journeys.

"The workshop helps them develop their personal identities as Russians, Jews, and Israelis in one harmonious combination, showing them that there do not have to be contradictions between the various components," says Rabbi Goldman. 

Tabibi is pleased to report that, "As the year progressed, students began to give of themselves 'from the heart,' sharing their talents, experiences, and questions in ways they hadn't anticipated when they signed up for the workshops."

One trivia group, Tabibi explains, participated in a contest with elderly Russian-speaking immigrants and hosted a national "Jerusalem Cup" contest for dozens of other teams who were faced with Jewish-topic questions for the first time. Participants in a creative writing group never imagined that they would be reading their original poetry in front of well-known authors. Theatre group actors found themselves parading around the campus in Purim costumes and distributing mishloach manot (gifts) as invitations to join in a Purim Shpiel experience.

"We hope that Bein HaShurot will eventually be replicated at other Hillel centers," says Rabbi Goldman. "So that it continues to allow immigrant students to explore their Jewish heritage and deepen their ties to the Jewish people and to Israel."