The Jerusalem Tolerance Museum held on Thursday evening, January 29, the Fifth-Seed Conference of Mitzpeh Ein Prat for leadership. The event was attended by female and male students from a range of ages and backgrounds, who gathered in the museum halls to discuss issues of Jewish leadership, identity, and ethics. During the conference, sessions were held with student participants, teachers, and researchers, addressing Jewish thought and contemporary moral challenges, connecting historical study with current questions.
The conference was dedicated to the ideological heritage of Prof. Eliezer Shevid, one of Israel’s leading thinkers, and highlighted the ongoing relevance of his ideas to questions of identity, morality, and ethics in Israeli society. Sheved saw Jewish identity and Zionism as a process based on ethical commitment and belonging to a shared story, demanding responsibility, moral courage, and ongoing ethical choice.
Aras Ashkel, founder of Ein Prat: “We dream of reality. Look at the students — varying ages, different genders, sitting together and wanting greatness. They are not here for money or credit. They are here because they want depth, responsibility, and the ability to be something beyond. Such a thing does not exist in universities. Not in Israel. Not anywhere. And yet — it happens here, every Thursday.”
The Ein Prat yeshiva regularly conducts study days at the Jerusalem Tolerance Museum, within programs supervised by the Museum’s Civic Discourse School. These study days offer students of the yeshiva an in-depth experience in the fields of leadership, ethics, and civic engagement. The Shevid conference was built on this foundation and created a space that combines historical study, value discussion, and active learning.
The students, many of whom are in their late teens or early twenties, brought with them personal experience and a willingness to engage in meaningful learning. Yael, 19: “The main reason I chose Ein Prat is that it felt strange to me that I don’t know my religious brothers. I come from a secular family, and it was very strange to me that I didn’t really know religious Jews.”
Their words reflect the Jerusalem Tolerance Museum’s vision to strengthen dialogue among different groups in Israeli society. The collaboration with Ein Prat Yeshiva enables a meeting between female and male students from diverse backgrounds and contributes to joint engagement with identity, heritage, and questions of society and citizenship, while encouraging open and respectful dialogue among different cultural and religious perspectives.
Nitzan, another student, reinforced this feeling: “I realized that I miss learning itself a lot… I want it to take place in a meaningful way. Ein Prat is one of the few places where that is possible. As Aras said — they offer both reality and dream. This knowledge is mine now. No one can take it away from me.”
The collaboration between the Jerusalem Tolerance Museum and Ein Prat Yeshiva created a framework for joint learning and discussion, dealing with questions of identity, responsibility, and leadership. The conference emphasized the importance of connecting knowledge, values, and action as part of training the next generation of Jewish leadership.
