“To Kesher Yehudi…for creating a unique platform with an enormous potential for engendering true connections and increasing feelings of unity, identification and mutuality among the Jewish nation.”
Mr. Reuven Rivlin, then president of Israel presenting Kesher Yehudi with the 2016 Unity Prize
Surrounded by enemies, Israel’s national unity is more important than ever
But how do you unify a nation when there’s so much mistrust and hostility?
How do you fight assimilation and the disappearance of our precious Jewish heritage when there’s so much resistance?
Kesher Yehudi was founded to rebuild that trust and unify the Jewish world, two people at a time
“This revolution is profound and stems from our very roots. It has begun a process of inner healing for our nation. It’s time, especially right now, to reach out to those who are far and create together — a kesher Yehudi, a Jewish connection.”
Mr. Moshe Leon, Mayor of Jerusalem
OUR PROGRAMS
For the last 10 years, Kesher Yehudi has been doing the impossible —
bringing together Israel’s secular and religious Jews with astonishing results
The Mechina Program
Kesher Yehudi is actively involved with 24 pre-induction academies (mechinot), in which 1,200 of Israel’s most idealistic secular youth and future leaders commit a year prior to their service in the IDF to deepening their Israeli and Jewish identity.
The Chavruta Program
Kesher Yehudi matches participants from diverse backgrounds, allowing them to gain a deep understanding of their partner, their lives and their belief systems.
“Kesher Yehudi has given us a gift — the opportunity to finally experience something that we’ve all been wanting but had no avenue to access.
And that is, a connection to and friendship with our brothers and sisters who seem so different from us.
KY restores the family bonds that have frayed.”
Esther Wein, Jewish educator
Thousands of Israelis are already deeply connected to one another because of Kesher Yehudi’s unique programs
KY’s programs are designed to achieve three important goals
To Connect
participants from diverse backgrounds through consistent one-on-one learning sessions
To Build
deep, long-term friendships founded on mutual respect and understanding
To Empower
participants to one day lead Israel with more understanding of the “other.”
Kesher Yehudi is creating connections all over Israel
Kesher Yehudi in Numbers
Chavrutot
Mechina students
Annual events
Adopting communities
Shabbatonim
Mechinot
Years of groundbreaking work
“Kesher Yehudi has discovered the formula for drawing Jews across the Israeli religious spectrum closer to one another and to their shared inheritance of Torah: the creation of deep, ongoing, one-on-one relationships to explore that which binds us all together.”
Jonathan Rosenblum, author and columnist
