BINA: The Home Of Israeli Judaism

Last weekend, BINA Center community leaders from across Israel gathered on Mount Carmel for a leadership seminar titled, "Great Is Learning That Leads to Creation."

The seminar offered an opportunity to come together as a team, step back from the day-to-day demands of our work, and explore how Jewish-Israeli learning can become a creative, meaningful, and relevant experience within our communities.

Throughout the weekend, we engaged with the theme of Shabbat through memories, flavors, scents, songs, and traditions; studied the upcoming summer holidays in hevruta (paired learning); and transformed our learning into new programs, workshops, and creative initiatives for BINA Centers across the country.

A heartfelt thank you to all the community leaders for their passion, creativity, and partnership. We left inspired, energized, and full of new ideas for the journey ahead.

Special thanks to Asaf Bar Yosef, Director of the BINA Centers' Network in Israel and Worldwide, and Aviram Siani, Content Coordinator in BINA’s Community Division, for leading and facilitating this meaningful seminar.

Join us for a storytelling, music and food chat:
Parashat Korach
פרשת השבוע – קרח
(ה"א) “Imperfect “he

Chevrutah with Orly Dabush – VP of Strategic Planning & Development BINA, and Ran Oron.

Free admission with advance registration:
https://bit.ly/3Q2Ttrk

In days when reality is filled with so much uncertainty, it is encouraging to be among the partner organizations at the OLAM Conference, working to create a better reality and extend a helping hand in Israel and around the world.

The conference concluded with a moving, inspiring, and deeply heartfelt conversation with Jonathan and Rachel Polin, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered while being held captive by Hamas. Their words gave profound meaning to the phrase: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Thank you to Dyonna Ginsburg and the OLAM team for a meaningful and thought-provoking conference.

OLAM

There is a surreal beauty in people scattering across the globe and still, somehow, lighting the very same bonfire.

This year on Lag BaOmer BINA communities around the world did exactly that. 🔥
In Hanoi (Vietnam), Puerto Viejo (Costa Rica), Dharamshala (India), and Pokhara (Nepal), they came together to celebrate.

With foil-wrapped potatoes, marshmallows over the fire, and conversations with children about the customs, the Bar Kochba revolt, and baseless love.
There was also a quiz and a thoughtful discussion about the story of Lag BaOmer, between Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and Zionism. Because if you’re lighting a bonfire, you might as well add some depth, not just carbs.

Together. Tradition. Community.
All around the world. 🔥
בתי בינ"ה בעולם- הבית של היהדות הישראלית

The Jewish calendar offers a steady rhythm that grounds us and helps us reflect in a turbulent world. Each holiday invites us to gather, eat (or fast), and learn together.
This Yom Ha'atzmaut, amid war and uncertainty, we turn to the words of Israel’s Declaration of Independence.
We know the five megillot - Song of Songs, The Book of Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and The Book of Esther - each read at a different moment in the Jewish year, each helping us interpret our past and present. In Hebrew, the Declaration of Independence is called Megilat Ha’atzmaut, the Scroll of Independence, our modern sixth scroll.
What vision of Jewish identity and democracy does this sixth scroll weave? And what might it ask of us today?
As we approach Yom Ha’atzmaut, we offer this short video for reflection and conversation: “Where is God in Megilat Ha’atzmaut?” by BINA senior educator Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg-

בינה הבית של היהדות הישראלית 1 like. "Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg, Is God present in Megilat Ha’atzmaut?"

Holocaust Memorial Day Around the World

Even far from home, the memory feels closer than ever.

This week, at BINA centers around the world, communities came together - Israelis, locals, travelers, and residents - to pause, to remember, and to be together on Holocaust Memorial Day.

In Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, in a small group, a powerful moment unfolded. Claudio shared for the first time his family story, a story of escape, hiding, and human courage. Around him gathered a diverse group of people: Jews and non-Jews, Israelis and locals, and others who discovered their Jewish identity only later in life. Together, an intimate and meaningful conversation emerged about memory, identity, and what it means to tell this story here, far from home.

The moment a previously untold story is shared for the first time is a moment in which memory continues to live.

In Pokhara, Nepal, in a small living-room gathering that felt like home, the voice of Hadassah Hamburger, a survivor of Auschwitz, was heard through a recorded testimony. In the silence and attentive listening, larger questions arose: What do we take from this testimony into our lives today? How do we continue to choose life, resilience, and the responsibility to remember and to remind?

And in Hoi An, Vietnam, dozens of participants of all ages and backgrounds - recently discharged soldiers, families, and those who have chosen to build lives far from Israel - sat together for a “salon” of remembrance. The testimony of Sara Peri opened a deep conversation about the balance between memory and future, between pain and hope. The evening continued, as it sometimes does in moments of real connection, into the night with shared singing that held both sorrow and life.

In times when reality in Israel is complex and painful, these gatherings remind us that memory is not only a look backward, it is also a choice in the present.

A choice to be together.
A choice to listen.

At BINA Center in Hoi An, Vietnam, preparations for the holiday are already underway, they’ve even started making matzah!

Making matzah is no simple task. From the moment water touches the flour, the dough has just 18 minutes to be in the oven. It needs to be rolled out super thin to come out crisp, with the perfect holes so it won’t puff up.

A big thank you to everyone who came, and special thanks to Dudi from the Israeli House for hosting us in the restaurant and managing the oven!

Looking for a place to celebrate the Seder? There are still a few spots available at BINA Centers around the world! Check the “Registrations” highlights and sign up!