On July 22, the annual “Eshnav” program opened at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This program allows students, graduate students, and young scholars working in the field of Jewish Studies in the FSU to undertake a month’s on-site training in Israel.

The program is implemented with the aid of the the Sefer Center for the University Teaching of Jewish Studies (Director - EAJC General Council Chairman Dr. Victoria Mochalova, Chariman of the Academic Board - EAJC Secretary General, Professor Michael Chlenov) together with the Chase Center of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Talented students and graduate students from all over the former Soviet Union have the opportunity to work in key libraries and archives in Israel, to consult leading experts in their respective areas of specialization, to participate in methodological seminars and tours created especially for scholars in Jewish Studies, future scholars and university professors.

This year, this experience has been timed to the World Congress in Jewish Studies, the central scholarly forum for Jewish Studies which takes place every four years. The participants of the “Eshnav” program will have the opportunity to be present at the Congress and listen to some of the best scholars in Jewish Studies in the world.

The “Eshnav” program has been in place since 1997. Many of its graduates have long since become university professsors and leading FSU specialists in their areas themselves. The programs were organized with the support of such charity funds as AVI CHAI, Genesis Philanthropy Group (as part of the charity program Charities Aid Foundation “Jewish Communities”), and the Russian Society of Friends of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

This year the program will end on August 15.