The Rutenberg Institute

Experience Israel through the Rutenberg Institute

Learn & Study

At Beit Rutenberg we offer all kinds of courses. For years, we offer our ULPAN KAITZ(Summer course) to learn Hebrew and throughout the whole year German courses.

If you want to learn about media, visit our MERKAZ TIKSHORET where students learn about movie production.

Computer enthusiasts can follow their passion in our IGLO by learning about the basics of robotics.

Exchange

Our house is a place of exchenge for people from all countries and cultures. That way we encourage all kinds of discussions and always try to give unbiased opinions and support the intercultural exchange with as many people and organizations as possible.

Volunteer

Do you want to do good and spend time in Israel?

Each year the Beit Rutenberg is looking for volunteers and also supporting volunteers in whole Israel during their services. Please don´t hesitate to contact us.

Take a look

The Rutenberg Institute consists out of several buildungs. Next to the main buildung the institute also has its own:

MEDIA CENTER
IT-IGLO
HOSTELS
GUEST HOUSE

Furthermore shares the institute its ground with several other organizations like:

THE REIDMAN INSTITUTE for eastern medicine
THE HAIFA-BOSTON CONNECTION
The youth organization SHOSHANAT HAMIDBAR

Our latest activities

Community Department

The focus of this department is providing Jewish and Israel content programming for groups of youth and adults. These groups are for the most part from English speaking countries, but also include groups of Israelis and non – English speaking countries. The major portion of the departments’ activities are for youth coming to Israel, but there are also groups of adults coming to Israel and groups of Israelis going abroad.

The department can provide activities of “doing” as well as “meeting.” These range from multi – day seminars of volunteer activity in Israel, to meetings with the varied communities of people living in the country. Working in conjunction with the organizational leadership of the group in providing the activities which will be optimal in fulfilling their goals is the central concept of Community Activity. This will be a program that will allow them to gain the maximum knowledge while with us, and bring this home to their community.

The Institute has a highly developed television/video facility, which can be used to help groups receive training in publicizing their programs and transmitting it to others. Their excellent teaching staff is put at the group’s disposal, and helps provide activities that will best serve the groups’ needs.

Institute facilities not only provide an optimal setting for the groups, but the variety of ongoing activities conducted here allows the group to broaden the depth of its program. The Institute’s location in Haifa, the fact that it has been in existence since 1942, and its long standing contacts with other Institutions both here and throughout the country, assist the group in its program development.

We have both hostels and a guest house that are comfortable, and keep the kosher food service at a high level in our kitchens and dining room; while at the same time maintaining prices that are acceptable to the “havaya yisraeli” programs of the Jewish Agency.

Seminars

The Social and Environmental Justice Seminar

A program that was first developed at the Rutenberg Institute twenty years ago, and has grown to stimulate thousands of young people to not only learn about, but also disseminate these Jewish values to their home groups and communities.

The program not only includes excellent lectures and discussions concerning these very important subjects, but provides actual hands-on volunteer experience on a daily basis. These experiences include a children’s hospital, a day care center for the elderly, a school for children with severe disabilities, and caring for animals at the zoo. In addition, the warm spring and summer weather provides a chance to swim at Haifa’s lovely beaches, and a chance to help clean the coastal area. In other words, the total experience is to stimulate and teach the participants to do good deeds in different settings.

Groups spend from four to eight days with us, so we are able to include many additional activities in addition to the basic volunteer experience. Special visits are set up to meet with groups in, and around, Haifa from different religious and ethnic communities. It is not only to visit the Baha’i Gardens, but to talk to teachers of the Ahmadiim Muslim sect. There is a meeting with the Ethiopian community and Russian community to learn of their aliyah; but we also have a Kibbutz Ironi here in Haifa, as well as the National Museum of Science, Technology, and Space. We try to include the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and Haifa University, each of which provides special insights into Israeli institutions of higher learning and high tech.

The staff of the television/video facility of the Institute can spend a few hours with them, and train them to bring the message to their community; and understand how they can use correct skills in television, i-phones, posters, and other resources to get to the individuals and groups at home.
Preparation of Israeli Groups Going to Programs Abroad

A variety of groups from different parts of Israel whose youth are prepared for programs in varied settings abroad:

At present the department is working with the youth preparing to go to the summer program for youth conducted by Brandies University. Youth from various parts of North America and abroad participate in an intensive month long learning program at the university . These Israeli youth are selected and prepared for this experience.

A different setting for specially selected Israeli youth is the Sarvaz Camp conducted by the Joint Distribution Committee in Hungary. In addition to the participating youth from Eastern and Western Europe, there are participants from India, South America and North America. The Israeli participants have the role of not only representing themselves, but providing for a strong Israeli presence during many of the two week camp sessions.
Adult Groups from Abroad that want to come to Israel for special individual and community purposes

The aim here is to develop and assist in providing the program for the adult group that fulfills these purposes. Examples of these programs are:

The Boston – Haifa Adult Group that Assists in the Schools is an example of this type of group. People from Boston come to Haifa to help teach English in the schools, from elementary through high school, under the supervision of the head of the school’s English department. They have, over the years, developed warm bonds with the schools, and have made a very positive impact on the pupils. During their time here they travel to various parts of the country, and have a chance to strengthen their ties with Israel; all of this happening for a period of a month, and at their own expense. The program is conducted by the Boston – Haifa Connection office in Israel, and is under their supervision; which has maintained a long standing development of other Boston – Haifa programs both in Israel and Boston.

The Confederation Israelite of Brazil Leadership Project in Israel is a continuation of their leadership program in Brazil. A group of specially chosen individuals, ranging in age from their late twenties to fifties, spent two weeks in Israel on a very intensive program of visits and lecture discussions throughout the country. A guide accompanies them from their arrival to departure. The Rutenberg supervisor arranges and follows the program for its entire stay, and meets with the group when they return to the Institute between visits. These included places such as the Ghetto Fighters Museum, Acre, Safad, The Hulah Bird Sanctuary, Tiberias, and the Golan Heights in the upper north. The Druze community at Dalyat El Carmel, Ethiopian and Brazilian youth programs in the Yemin Orde Religious Youth Village, Arts at Ein Hod Artist Village. Arab Christian and Muslim communities in Haifa and Abu Gosh; The Technion, Haifa University, Tel Aviv University and Beit Harfutsot Museum of the Jewish People ; Jerusalem’s Ultra -Orthodox and Reform Jewish communities; The Israel Foreign Ministry and their South American specialists, as well as the Jewish Agencies leadership and South American specialists; Special visits to the south that include Midreshet Ben Gurion, an IDF Air force base, as well as towns and Bedouin settlements. This program also includes a few hours of television instruction, activity, and discussion at the Institute of how they can publicize their programs in Brazil.

Limmud Haifa is a project that is part of the world wide Limmud program, and takes place on the institute campus. Jewish communal leaders from the Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and secular communities arrange the program for its various evening meetings during the year that attract dozens of people from these communities to learn about Judaism. In addition there is a half day seminar that attracts hundreds of people to participate, and includes rabbis of all denominations, guest lecturers, and an entertainment segment.

The Rutenberg Institute’s non – denominational status in accepting groups of all faiths, makes it a perfect site for all groups coming from abroad, and participating in Israeli programs.

Media Center

The Media Centre of Beit Rutenberg is responsible for the institute´s technical support, but also a place for young students in Haifa to get into the world of media. Within three years they learn about the theory of filming and editing, practise their knowledge with the institute’s professional equipment and have the chance to produce a 15 minutes documentary for their finals.

Next to this, the staff of the institute works in mission of the ministry of education, which asks for several movies a year from educational institutions, like kindergardens and schools in Haifa and other cities.

To manage all the work the Media Centre also has a volunteer working 5 days a week, who’s helping to prepare the classes, manages the equipment, cuts and edits movies and supports the teachers during the classes.

Students' Projects

Every year the students that will take their finals in “media” have to produce a documentary movie about 10-15 minutes. They can choose their topic by themselfes and also the way they film. They get equipment from the media centre, including the camera, a tripod and microphones. The following movies are excerpts of the final products of the last years to show what young students are able to produce.

Our Partners & Cooperations

Currently we are in cooperation with:

- Goethe-Institut TelAviv
- ConAct in Wittemberg
- Pressenetzwerk in Bonn
- Jugendamt Paderborn
- INI-Institut Neue Impulse e.V. für Kooperationen im deutsch-israelischen Jugendaustausch
- DIV (Deutsch-Israelischer-Verein in Gießen)
- ZWST (Zentralwohlfahrsstelle der Juden in Deutschland e.V.)
- DRK (Deutsches Rotes Kreuz Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
- Fachhochschule Frankfurt
- Ehrlich Reisen und Event GmbH
- Schule Berufskolleg Ostwest Datteln
- Pädagogische Hochschule Karlsruhe
- Evangelische Kirche Rheinland
- Diakonie Mitteldeutschland
- "Lidice Haus" Bremen

Former cooperations:

- Jugendamt Saarlouis
- Bläserensemble e.V. Riesa
- Katholische Hochschule für Sozialwesen Berlin
- Israelstiftung im Kreis Recklingshausen
- "Die Brücke" – Haus internationaler Begegnung und Völkerverständigung
- Evangelische Kirche Deutschland Bremen
- Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf
- Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat Baden
- Bayerisches Pilgerbüro

Language Teachers at Beit Rutenberg

Our institute is also in cooperation with local language teachers. For more than 10 years we offer our ULPAN KAITZ , a summer Hebrew course for people who want to imrpove their language skills.

Furthermore, we also have a collaboration with a local German teacher, who´s giving classes in our main building and prepares motivated learners for everyday situations as well as for their exams.

NOTE: For upcoming courses, please check our starting page or follow the news on our Facebook page.

Malka

She began teaching Hebrew in 1988 to immigrant children. For the past twenty years she has been teaching Hebrew (beginner to advanced levels) to adult immigrants: many of whom are from the former Soviet Union and/or tourists from all over the world staying in Israel for other reasons. Malka holds a bachelor’s degree in Hebrew Linguistics and Arabic Literature and Linguistics as well as a teaching certificate qualifying her to teach high school children, both from Hebrew University in Jerusalem..

Nava

She is a Hebrew teacher for modern Hebrew and one of our teachers for the Ulpan Kaitz

Lena

Lena is a teacher for German in various levels. She is giving several courses throughout the year in our house.

Our Website´s Progress

~ 60% done

Currently we are still working on:

Translating the texts to Hebrew & English

Inserting the translations

Creating short profiles for the staff

Linking to partners and friends

Convincing the coder to make a tablet-layout

Trying to forget the former websites...

Finding & killing the bugs

Bringing our FB-page back to life

Finishing the mobile layout

Enjoying the sun

Making the website as fast as possible

Going down in (your browser´s) history

That´s what we already realised:

Creating a proper responsive layout for desktop and mobile devices

Stepping back from being "just another Wordpress site" and working mostly on the client side. Therefore, we could could change to the creation of way more dynamic content

Drastically minimizing the pages size by ~85%

Proper embedding of external contents, like Facebook or Youtube

Downloading and casheing most content at once to improve the UX

Editing, seperating and reorganizing the text and media content to improve the UX and UI

Raising our programmer´s need for coffee by 242%

Giving a fresh tone of color to the page. We took the colors mostly from the logo and tried to implement them in one way or the other, like in the markers and click effects

Improving readability - especially our mobile design got a huge makeover to make it easier to read text on you smartphone with "flow-text"

Inviting the programmer for a hot tub to relax his body from typing in his little working cube for 10-12 hours almost each and every day and converting caffeine to code for us

Making the website as fast as possible by limiting the server requests to a minimum and thereby giving you the requested content almost instantly

Not only finishing most of Beit Rutenberg but soon we are going to finish also the new deisgn for the Molada Guesthouse

Experience Israel through the Rutenberg Institute

Learn & Study

Exchange

Our house is a place of exchange for people from all countries and cultures. That way we encourage all kinds of discussions, always try to give unbiased opinions and to support the intercultural exchange with as many people and organizations as possible.

Volunteer