MECHINA PROGRAM
Meet the Mechinot
Kesher Yehudi works closely with Israel’s secular pre-army academies (mechinot) to deepen their understanding of Jewish identity and what they will be defending when they enlist in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Mechina students are smart, inquisitive, and the future leaders of Israel.
They have chosen to take a year between high school and their mandatory IDF service to invest in developing their leadership skills. Their gap year is a time to deepen their knowledge about Israel and their Jewish heritage, and for many students, the program is their very first encounter with authentic Jewish text and wisdom.
The mechina program was created over a decade ago in collaboration with Col. Gilad Olshtein, Educational Director at the Nachshon Mechina. Participants of this elite mechina have a strong desire to learn, and a partnership was created to adapt Kesher Yehuda’s signature chavruta program to Nachshon’s three campuses.
Since then, the program has grown tremendously, with demand exponentially increasing during the war. Today, we work with 40 institutions – more than half of the 60 secular pre-army academies across the country – connecting more than 2000 young men and women yearly to their Jewish heritage and one another.
Kesher Yehudi is creating connections all over Israel
A Program Designed on Intentionality
Each mechina is connected to an ultra-orthodox community in Israel, and every student is assigned a personal chavruta from that community.
Once a month, the community volunteers visit the mechina and meet face-to-face to study core topics in Judaism. The adopting community also hosts their mechina group for a Shabbaton and for special events around the Jewish holidays.
Our chavrutot engage one another on a profound level. They laugh together, sing, dance, question, search, wonder and grapple. And together, they discover their shared heritage. Even more, they develop deep and enduring friendships.
Sessions of the program are held with great intentionality right up to the final one. In the last meeting, Kesher Yehudi guides each chavruta through a conversation that reflects on the relationship they have built and how they will maintain their friendship beyond the program.
The friendships developed through the program are designed to be sustainable, and 76% of mechina alumni continue learning with their chavrutot on a regular basis.
“I never believed that I could establish a real friendship with an Orthodox “avreich” from such a different background. Within a few short conversations, all barriers disappeared, and we began to communicate as if we’d always known each other.”
Eddie Robertson, 19, Haifa