MAKING SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE ACCESSIBLE TO ULTRA-ORTHODOX JEWS

In the past decades, demographic and cultural changes are reshaping the Israeli society: It changed from a society constructed of a clear majority and minority to a society that is constructed of four central sectors: secular Jews; national-religious Jews; ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arabs.

"Israeli Hope in the Academia", the academia has an essential role in shaping the "new Israeli order". The aim is to base the campuses as spaces for creating shared Israelite society that enables maintaining the unique identity of each group, to express the talents and excellence of the Israeli society, to promote a united vision of partnership in the universities and colleges.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews society is known in Israel as a society that studies Torah in a way that deals less with science. In order to make scientific knowledge accessible to ultra-Orthodox Jews society in an experiential way as part of the "Israeli Hope in the Academy" program, this year the project "Together to Illuminate the World" was conducted jointly by the Unit for Social Involvement in the Dean of Students at HIT and the "Bnot Menahem" Elementary School in Holon.

As part of the project, female students from the Holon Institute of Technology came to the school to teach girls (girls only, studies in separation) in the third grade. Among the topics studied in the project: What is energy? What are the transformations of energy? Ways to generate energy and create an electric circuit.

At the end of the project, the students visited the Institute and conducted experiments at the Center for Excellence in Renewable Energies and the Smart Grid in the Faculty of Engineering. They listened to lectures on science and discoveries, green energy and also visited the 3D lab.

The goal of the project was to show that there is no contradiction between religion and science. The product of the project was a solar menorah that every girl received. The menorah is a religious holiday symbol - Hanukkah, customary in Israel. The menorah is lit by solar energy, green and non-polluting.