Matan Environmental Education Garden

Matan has been providing higher level Torah studies for Jewish women since its inception almost 30 years ago, through its Advanced Beit Midrash Scholars’ Programs, continuing education, and community programs. Matan’s students and graduates are on the cutting edge of Jewish education, innovating, creating and enriching Jewish studies curricula for students from diverse backgrounds and with a wide range of Jewish knowledge and skill sets. Matan strives to take every woman at least one step further on her road to fulfillment through Jewish learning.

Matan is committed to bringing the values of Torah outside the walls of the Beit Midrash. They achieve this through their innovative range of community and online learning programs, with thousands of participants in Israel and around the world.

Matan HaSharon is completing a purpose-built center for Torah studies for the women in the center of Israel, following the model of the current Jerusalem center, which was established in 1988. This will allow them to expand the programs that they offer beyond the current learning programs to programs for the whole being. The new center will include a Center for Creative Arts from a Jewish perspective and will contain a studio for dance, yoga and movement, as well as for the plastic arts and recycling. The center serves all age groups, from girls learning before Bat Mitzvah, through to retired women, looking to enhance their Jewish learning.

It is essential that the educational programs address modern issues facing society. They believe that environmental education is a cornerstone of Jewish life which has been overlooked for many years, despite the rich source material found in ancient Jewish texts. They feel that learning about the environment, in an outdoor classroom setting, and not merely via textual study, will be a uniquely different, and far more effective, educational tool. Accordingly, Matan has planned to build a unique outdoor classroom set in flora native to Israel and to the Bible, for this purpose.