Makom believes that there is and should be a place for everyone to learn in yeshiva and midrasha. As yeshiva and midrasha alumni, we recognise the importance of a year in Israel in developing our avodat Hashem, ahavat Torah, middos, and connection to Israel. Having once been in the position ourselves, it breaks our heart to think that some people might assume that this opportunity and Torah itself may be beyond them. Our aim is to support every student to find their makom in the Bet midrash, their place in the world of Torah. For anyone who is willing or interested, we also hope to start a respectful, non-judgemental dialogue with the yeshiva/midrasha world.

We have three main aims:

 

1)To develop a resource with accurate and reliable information about yeshivot and midrashots’ environments and expectations for LGBTQ+(queer???) students. This is gathered from interviews with administrators (hanhalla) and past students to gain a well-informed picture. All meetings and information gleaned are kept entirely confidential and will never be disclosed to anyone besides potential applicants.

This infromation helps to dispel the ‘fear of the unknown’ that may discourages queer students from applying, or makes the process unnecessarily stressful. More importantly, it allows students to make an informed and mature decision about what they are comfortable and not comfortable with before joining any program.

​

2) To provide students with tailored advice in considering what Israel-year program will be best for them. Every person’s needs are unique, and for this reason we will never produce a list of “friendly/unfriedndly” and “recommended/not recommended” places. Rather, we will encourage all students to weigh for themselves what is most important for them to gain from their year in Israel.  Do they want traditional Gemara b’iyun, or would they prefer more experiential learning? Is chesed opportunities a must, or tiyulim and the opportunity to connect to Israel? These things are often as important to a meaningful experience as the kind of environment on offer. This is made easier by the fact that there are now multiple yeshivot and midrashoth sensitive and supportive of the diverse needs and identities (*tricky word for frum crowd?) of students.

 

3) When speaking with institutions, our main aim is to confidentially collect information without judgement or fanfare about what a potential student could realistically expect. We are not interested in pushing policy change, only listening.

However, as yeshiva and midrasha alumni ourselves, we are also happy to be a point of non-judgemental and honest dialogue for institutions that want to understand or discuss things more. We feel that communal conversation in the past has been too caught up in politics and not enough respectful listening. We recognise that these issues are more complex than can be caught in a soundbite- halakhically, hashkafically, educationally and socially. But if you are willing to listen and speak honestly, so are we.