(JNS) With a rising number of young men and women from North America choosing to enroll in universities and colleges in Israel, the Orthodox Union’s Heshe and Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (OU-JLIC) has opened its second campus program in Israel at Bar-Ilan University in Givat Shmuel, in partnership with World Mizrachi.

The program will also serve students who reside in Givat Shmuel and attend Tel Aviv University or IDC Herzliya, where there is already a prospering OU-JLIC program on campus.

Students from yeshiva backgrounds face certain challenges when entering the secular college campus environment, and OU-JLIC Torah educators serve as mentors to help them observe Jewish life, as well as offer social opportunities, Torah learning and Shabbat and holiday meals. The program serves more than 4,000 students on 23 college campuses across the United States, Canada and Israel.