About The Program

The reality in which we live invites new challenges toward the Torah world, which gives us new opportunities for deepening and revitalizing our religious discourse. Using the language of the Ari Z”l, Rav Shagar aptly described the situation today when he said: ‘I really think that nowadays there are a lot of new souls out there. This is one of the signs of Bi’at Hamashiach… during Galut there are no new souls, everything is recycled from the old stuff… today, thank God, there really are new combinations, innovations, in the original and deepest sense of the word’. These new combinations give us hope for revitalization and for forging new paths in the Torah world and its connections to all of those parts of Israeli society most concerned with action and creation, in order to speak and to listen.

The ‘Tzerufim’ leadership program has made it a goal for itself to allow individuals with spirit and drive to grow spiritually, personally and in their learning into being community leaders. The aim of the program is that its participants will spend two years of learning and joint work on personal growth, will develop a broad and contemporary spiritual lexicon, will develop and refine tools and abilities of leadership so that they can go on to lead communities in the future. This ‘Leadership’ can manifest in many fields such as education and Halakhic psak, in the arts, culture, and other endeavors - social, economic and so on.

The participants in the program are of 24 years of age or older, who have completed their spiritual ‘conception’ and are on firm grounds in such matters. These are men of action, men who have done a thing or two in their lives prior to enrollment in the program, and hold within them a yearning for growth and rejuvenation - for them personally as well as for all of Israeli society.

The Program is a full year in length and is held four days a week. The Program is centered around a Beit Midrash with a wide range of options under the guidance of the Rabbis of Yeshivat ‘Siach Yitzhak’. In addition, there are workshops in writing, motion and group dynamics, as well as lectures from a wide range of guest speakers from different fields (past lecturers include Prof’ Haviva Pedaya, Prof’ Asher Cohen, Prof’ Ron Margolin and Yoav Sorek), as well as enrichment lectures in varying subjects and meetings with a diverse cast of prominent figures in Israeli society. In the following year, those of the group who have shown themselves to be suited for the program will participate in a second year and receive support and guidance in creating a personal project.

The Program began in 2014 and has been the birthplace of many projects over the years.

The head of the Program is the Rosh Yeshiva of ‘Siach Yitzhak’, Rabbi Yair Dreifuss, with Rabbi Ori Lifshitz as deputy.