About the center

WJC- World Jewish Community Center, a center for strengthening Jewish identity by learning about Jewish communities in Israel and the Diaspora.
WJC Center operates in conjunction with Elah, an organization that raises Jewish awareness among immigrants and Israelis through lectures, symposia, and classes in Torah and Judaism around the country. Elah, founded 18 years ago at the beginning of the mass immigration from the Soviet Union, is recognized by the Ministry of Education.
For the past five years, WJC has been developing countrywide: in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Zichron

Ya’akov, and elsewhere.

The Center offers seminars, symposia, and Shabbat programs on the Jewish people in Israel and abroad, the bond with Eretz Israel, and the Jewish communities. Each course concludes with tours in a religious atmosphere with academic tour guides following in the footsteps of the community that we studied.
This program opens windows to the world of Jewish culture as it evolved in various communities around the world, strengthening ties with Diaspora Jewry, and enriching our Jewish identity here in Israel.


Goals of the Center

· To strengthen Jewish identity and enhance knowledge and understanding of Jewish culture
· To cultivate a bond with the Jewish people among teenagers—immigrants, children of immigrants, Israelis, and Diaspora youth
· To create an attachment to Jewish history as a basis for Jewish identity
· To document and preserve personal narratives of settlement in Eretz Israel, Jewish

history in various parts of the world, Holocaust memoirs and testimonies.

Areas of Activity

· Conferences, symposia, seminars, and lectures on the Jewish people in Israel and the

Diaspora, Jewish History, culture, education, , philosophy, literature, music and theater

· Seminars for youth from abroad about Jewish history and identity and the Israeli experience. These seminars include trips throughout Israel and meeting with Israeli youth and prominent figures .

· Shabbat programs focusing on Jewish communities, leaders, exemplary figures, and issues of concern to the Jewish world in the past and present.

· Development of curriculum units, such as programs in connection with the “A Different Journey” project, programs for those who will be taking part in trips to Poland, programs on Jewish identity and the Jewish people to be conducted by teachers and educators.

· Research on various aspects of Jewish communities: music, literature, synagogues, the Holocaust

· Documentation of personal narratives of members of different Jewish communities

and Holocaust survivors

Publication of books and articles about Jewish Communities, prominent figures

Production of documentaries about Jewish communities- Jewish life before' during and after the Holocaust

Trips following Jewish Communities

The trips organized by WJC focus on Jewish life; the world of Torah, Jewish culture, music, art and literature.

WJC Center organized trips to Italy and to Spain and trips are planned for other Jewish Communities : Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Prague, Budapest, Greece, Morocco, Russia ,Romania and more.

The trip to northern Italy, led by Professor David Cassuto focused on synagogues of the cities of Torino, Florence and Venice. The trip to Spain followed the footsteps of the great Rabbis (Sages) of Spain from Toledo to Granada. The trip to Lithuania and Belarus- "From Vilnius to Volozhin"

followed the footsteps of the great Torah Scholars/

These trips were very successful and received very excellent feedback.


About the Center
Staff
First-rate lecturers, consultants, researchers, and facilitators, including Prof. David Cassuto, Prof. Hanna Yaoz, Rivka Aderet, Tamar Machado,Dr. Mordechai Fridman, Dr. Helena Rimon are involved in the activities.

Director of ELAH: Rabbi Shmuel Abramovsky

Director WJC Center: Dvora Mann

Dvora Mann has a master’s degree from the Hebrew University and is currently doing further graduate work in Jewish literature. She has many years of experience in formal and in-formal education. She worked in the Youth Department of the Ministry of Education and in Jewish-Zionist educational institutes as an inspector, facilitator, and writer of educational programs. She has conducted research on the Holocaust and interviewed survivors for a Holocaust research center in New York and for the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. She was in charge of Educational Projects for the Holocaust Education Center at Michlalah–Jerusalem College. At present she develops curriculum units on Jewish communities at the Dahan Center at Bar-Ilan University.

WJC- World Jewish Communites Center
A Center for strengthening Jewish Identity

Tel.: 972-4- 639-9489Fax: 972-4- 639-6720Cell: 972-54- 200-0297
P.O. Box 23, Zikhron Ya’akov, 30900, Israel

Email: mdvora@013.net
-----------------------------------------------------------------
ELAH

9 Beit Hadefus St. Jerusalem, 95483, Israel
Tel:972-2-6527031 Fax:972-2-6521301
Email:elah1@bezeqint.net