Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah is proud to be working toward an open and engaged Religious Zionist community. In order to maintain the values of Torah Va’Avodah, we focus on three broader issues:

Strengthening Tolerance and Openness in Religious Zionist Education

Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah works closely with educators, parents, and activists to reinforce the dual values of Torah and Avodah in the Religious Zionist education system. Our activities promote social responsibility, gender equality, and the integration of general and religious studies. Our efforts span a number of different fields:

·Recruitment and placement of formal and informal educators: identifying talented educators, accompanying them, and finding them suitable placements; training and cultivating tolerant and open leaders in youth movements and on campus;

·Revitalizing communities around integrated and moderate religious schools: working closely with schools to find funds for higher-quality programming while building a community around the school, thus creating a socioeconomically and demographically integrated educational framework;

·Research and lobbying to combat extremism in religious education: conducting research and, based on that research, working to cultivate schools that are tolerant and offer a first-class education. This includes:

  • ensuring that school counselors and psychologists are equipped;
  • balancing the resources available to public and private schools so as to give all children equal opportunities;
  • reviewing education materials to ensure that they reflect a variety of views, promote critical thought, and present a progressive view of women;
  • reviewing curricula to ensure that they reflect open, tolerant, and engaged religious values;
  • reinforcing the study of English, the sciences, and the humanities; and
  • stemming the tide of gender segregation.

The Modern Orthodox Voice in the Public Sphere

Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah promotes the presence of Orthodox voices in the media—on education, religion and state, women’s rights, religious pluralism, and other subjects.

·De’ot: a scholarly journal encouraging discussion on the complex issues faced by the Religious Zionist community.

·NTA Spokesperson: representing the moderate Religious Zionist worldview, often overlooked in the mainstream media, and keeping NTA on the map.

·Web Presence: creating an open and wide-ranging dialogue about the Religious Zionist community, its future, and its issues (on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and TheMarkerCafe). Our “Yomi” app gives people easy access to daily learning, prayers, and information on religious life.

·Eitza Laderech: publishing booklets for young leaders on the complex issues involved in Religious Zionist values.

·Conferences and Seminars on topics in Religious Zionism.

The Communal-Democratic Model: Religion and State in Israel

Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah creates a framework that offers all Jewish Israelis the opportunity to live according to the religious lifestyle that speaks to them.

·Developing mechanisms that allow communities to shape their own religious guidelines and services.

·Effecting change in the administration of religious sites, institutions, and services. This includes efforts to decentralize the problematic mechanisms governing Kashrut in the country.

·Sitting on government committees and composing bills for presentation at Knesset on the topics of Shabbat in the public sphere, Kashrut, and the responsibilities of the local authorities.

·Raising awareness amongst Members of Knesset, government officials, lay leaders, rabbinic figures, and the general public about the need for a religious framework that is more democratic and open.

·Raising awareness amongst the general public about the alternatives to the current state of affairs vis-à-vis the administration of religious services.

·Constant vigilance and immediate responses to all attacks on the democratic nature of the State of Israel.

שבת נתע 2016 אגרון