What does the Hebrew word "limmud" mean? The dictionary tells us that the definition is "studying, learning or acquiring knowledge". But for many Jews around the world today Limmud has come to mean the organization which was founded about 30 years ago in the United Kingdom in order to increase the scope of activities connected to Jewish identity in all aspects, including religious, secular and national issues. Limmud has spread around the world since then, and the conferences are festivals of Jewish learning and culture, which celebrate Jewish life.

Limmud activities are currently held in 47 different communities around the world, including annual conferences in Australia, held in Melbourne and Sydney on alternate years. The Limmud Arava project was initiated by enthusiastic participants in Limmud Oz who are also members of the Jewish Agency's AAP (Arava-Australia Partnership) group of volunteer activists in Melbourne. They suggested establishing Limmud Arava, which could also include neighboring Partnership 2000 regions. The goal would be to strengthen the Jewish identity of the participants, and the main model for building the program would be Limmud Galilee, which has already been running for about six years, according to the International Limmud guidelines.

Three Partnership activists are leading the process in the Arava: Esther Porat, Drora Negev and Dror Shalev. As one of the first steps towards establishing the Limmud Arava project Drora and Dror attended a Limmud Galilee conference, and Drora and Esther attended a Limmud UK conference. They were hugely impressed by the wide range of activities offered, particularly in the UK, which included concerts, jazz, performances, puppet shows, rock performances, films, yoga and Kabbalah workshops in addition to the study groups held throughout the day. They were greatly energized by the conferences and reported that veteran participants had told them that Limmud had changed the quality of their lives and had given them a wonderful feeling of belonging.

The Limmud Arava project is already underway, with well-attended meetings held on Moshav Idan and Moshav Hazeva. Each meeting was led by a different facilitator, and the aim is to create a regular Limmud group, which will meet once every two or three weeks. Esther Porat noted that she is particularly pleased by the number of young people attending the meetings, and says that the Arava group is now looking to contact all Australian immigrants to Israel, in the hope that they will take part in the project.

Esther Porat and Drora Negev at Limmud UK