Meitarim Inclusive Jewish Education & Community Network

A single string, stretched between two ends, has a sound all its own: distinct, but alone. Only when it is heard alongside other strings does a melody begin, each string adding the exact color that only it can bring.

That is the idea Meitarim was born from. 

In one classroom, a secular boy and a religious girl sit side by side, reading the same text, listening to one another, sometimes disagreeing. Neither is asked to quiet the sound that is theirs, and it is precisely through the closeness to someone who sounds different that each of them comes to know their own voice.

Since 2001, under the leadership of Rabbi Michael Melchior, we have been gently taking down the wall that Israel's education system builds as early as kindergarten: the rigid split between "secular" and "religious." In its place we are raising a generation that knows how to live together without blurring, to hold disagreement without hatred, and to love tradition without fearing it.

Today Meitarim is a home for children, teachers and families across more than 180 institutions and communities, from the Golan Heights to Yeruham:

• 150 kindergartens, where partnership begins on the very first day
• About 50 schools, where children learn to think for themselves and respect the other
• 25 mixed communities, where religious and secular Israelis build a shared life

Since October 7, this question is no longer theoretical. An identity that holds only within its own camp is fragile. An identity forged in a shared life is strong. Israeli society does not need another wall between its parts. It needs a bridge, and Meitarim is building it day by day, one child, one community at a time.

An Israel that grows together is being built right here, right now. Join us as a partner, and add your string to the melody already playing in the classroom, the kindergarten and the community.