“The taxi driver is not your friend,” seminaries inform students. “It is not part of the chavayah to engage him in conversation.”
“I was a madrichah in a seminary for a year,” echoes Batsheva. “It’s beautiful to see how years later, many of them point to the lessons and role models of their year in seminary as a pivotal influence in their lives.”
But the year away from home also presents unique challenges. In a foreign country, far from parental guidance, and independent for the first time in their lives, students may face difficult or awkward situations they feel unequipped to handle.
Many girls (and their parents) mistakenly assume that Yerushalayim is inherently safe.
“This naivete,” says Mrs. Chana Rabinowitz, staff social worker at Darchei Binah, “can sometimes backfire. There’s stranger danger with frum Jews, too. That’s why we spend hours talking about this during orientation.”
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