About Melitz

Effective Jewish education is not about providing simple answers to difficult questions. It is about providing the inspiration to form those questions through which we can interpret our own identities within the framework of a multi- faceted Jewish world.

Melitz programs are carefully designed with the intention of provoking curiosity about Jewish Peoplehood and contemporary expressions of Jewishness. Through the use of interactive and dynamic sources and platforms, Melitz programs aim to enable people to grapple with the difficult issues in their lives and their Jewishness, and transform them into meaningful educational opportunities with long- term impacts.

What is Melitz

Melitz has more than forty years of experience working to develop contemporary expressions of Jewish life. In the Bible, the word ‘Melitz’ is used to mean “translator”, or “facilitator”- a person who forms connections between others with different experiences in order to help them understand one another. Since 1973, Melitz educators have empowered tens of thousands of Israeli and Diaspora Jews to reflect upon their senses of identity and community within the constantly changing landscapes of Israel, the Jewish world, and the world as a whole.

Melitz’s Goal

…is to develop and implement informal educational programs for Jews in Israel and around world, and to:

Empower individuals to assume active responsibility for defining and refining their personal identities, in dialogue with the plurality of Jewish and Israeli narratives which surround us;
Enhance the personal and communal commitment of Jews to the Jewish people, a Jewish-Democratic Israel and an active relationship between Israel and the Diaspora;
And enrich the public debate around major issues of importance to Israel and the Jewish people.

Melitz develops innovative educational programs which enable a meeting between the individual’s personal story and the Jewish people and Israeli society’s collective narratives. Melitz educators embrace a plurality of approaches and offer participants the tools to interpret their own Jewish identities, as well as translate their educational experiences into active commitments.