End of Year Campaign 2023

Help Polis keep growing!

Our achievements over the last twelve years

Since the founding of Polis in 2011, thousands of students have learned to speak both ancient and modern languages in our classrooms. Acquiring local modern languages is a necessary contribution to mutual understanding in the region, while mastering ancient languages opens a window to the founding civilizations of our world.

Notably, Polis has played a major role in revitalizing the languages of the Bible. Over two hundred people worldwide today speak Biblical Hebrew, Koine Greek, or both because they have studied them at Polis. Many of them have become teachers themselves creating a ripple effect. This makes Polis a global hub from which these languages are disseminated around the world.

Check out 12 more major achievements of Polis by clicking on the button below!

Other achievements

Growth of the student body

The number of students in our language courses in Jerusalem has steadily increased from 200 in 2011 to some 660 during the last three years. Due to the impact of the Covid pandemic, however, enrollment stopped growing. Furthermore, the ongoing uncertainty caused by the current regional conflict has negatively impacted the present semester’s registrations.

Graduate programs also saw a significant annual growth from 10 students in 2013 to 40 in 2020. Again, the growth was halted by the pandemic. Anxieties over the current security situation have impeded our ability to recover our growth trajectory.

Aim of the campaign
Polis is a non-profit organization devoted to the promotion of languages and Humanities. Our dream is to foster peace through better mutual understanding and a deeper knowledge of the Bible and of the ancient world. To achieve this vision, we are launching an End-of-Year campaign with a single request: Help Polis keep growing!

Ways to contribute

Click on the four icons below to explore the four goals of our campaign that you can contribute to:

General Needs

Your donation can contribute towards Polis acquiring library resources, improving facilities, and implementing a new registration system. These are essential for our continuous development.

BUDGET: 50 000 EUROS

PROGRESS: 19 300 EUROS

38.6%

Fostering peace: communicating in Hebrew & Arabic

At Polis, the study of Modern Hebrew & Spoken Arabic contributes to greater communication and understanding among students, faculty, and staff. Based on this vital reality, we want to invest in accrediting more teachers of both Arabic & Hebrew to multiply the effect of mutual understanding.

With your donation, you contribute to:

1. Supporting with scholarships qualified candidates to programs focused on Hebrew or Arabic, and to the program on Second Language Teaching Methodology.

2. Creating Hebrew and Arabic versions of our successful text book for learning Latin “Unus, Duo, Tres.”

3. Publishing a book on coexistence, “The Names of Jerusalem,” written by three scholars from different linguistic backgrounds, which champions the vision of Jerusalem as a multi-cultural and multi-religious city.

BUDGET: 60 000 EUROS

PROGRESS: 6000 EUROS

10%

Deepening the understanding of the Bible

At Polis, hundreds of students have increased their understanding of the Bible after learning Biblical Hebrew or Koine Greek. We want to upgrade the number of students in order to multiply the impact of these languages on Biblical Studies.

With your donation, you contribute to:

1. Supporting with scholarships qualified candidates for programs focused on Biblical Hebrew and Ancient Greek.

2. Publishing the unique text books developed over many years by Eyal Nahum, our dedicated teacher of Biblical Hebrew, which present this ancient language as a spoken one.

3. Publishing a book, currently under works, by Prof. Christophe Rico that addresses the difficulties of understanding the problematic passages of the New Testament through a correct philological explanation.

BUDGET: 90 000 EUROS

PROGRESS: 6000 EUROS

6.7%

Endowment

For those who wish to make a lasting impact, consider donating to our endowment fund. You can contribute to our general endowment fund or the specific one dedicated to scholarships. To explore this option, please contact us at [email protected] or by filling the contact form underneath.

This is a long term project and is not limited to this campaign. The aim is to have a general endowment of 1.5 million Euros to continuously support the general needs of the institute and a 2.5 million Euros fund to provide scholarships to students coming to study at Polis.

GENERAL FUND - BUDGET: 1 500 000 EUROS

PROGRESS:

0%

SCHOLARSHIPS FUND - BUDGET: 2 500 000 EUROS