In a quiet suburb of the Polish city of Katowice, in an unassuming residential building, is Israel House.
The apartment, kitted out with a small synagogue, a kids’ playroom, and a large dining space, is a little oasis of warm, welcoming Israeli joy.
Before the Holocaust, Katowice was home to a thriving Jewish community of between 9,000 and 13,000 Jews. In 1870, the Jewish community comprised 10% of Katowice’s total population. However, today, it is mainly made up of elderly Polish people and very little infrastructure.
Nevertheless, Katowice’s University of Silesia has a number of Jewish students, as well as around 200 Israeli students, thanks to its medical school, which is partnered with Israel.
But when these Israeli students study there for four or five years, where do they go to feel at home?
Default for Israeli students in Katowice
Avichai Ayubi, whom I spoke to at a café in Tel Aviv, took it upon himself to make such a home away from home at Israel House. Avichai and his wife, Renana, and their three children (now four) arrived in Poland in the fall of 2022 so that Renana could begin medical school at the University of Silesia.
Two-thirds of Israel’s medical students study in Europe, which equals about 5,800 people. The students can study in any of the 15 locations where the university’s medical school has a connection with Israeli hospitals. The biggest cohorts are in Slovakia (600 students) and the Czech Republic (400). Katowice’s is the smallest.
Nevertheless, of the 15 locations in six countries [Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia, Poland, Croatia, and the Czech Republic], only two have Jewish communities.
Avichai and Renana, an Orthodox couple, chose Poland because it had a good school, but they arrived in Katowice to find no Jewish community or institutions.
Arriving just before Sukkot in 2022, it felt natural to them to open up their home to Israeli medical students in the area.
“The first Shabbat, we sent a message saying, ‘Who wants to eat with us?’ and we hosted eight students. On the Sunday it was Sukkot, and 25 students came to us,” Avichai recounted.
“After one month, the default for Israeli students in Katowice was to come to us every Friday and Saturday. Especially on the Friday evening.”
Today, over 90% of the Israeli and Jewish medical students in Katowice regularly participate in Israel House.
While the couple did begin to host religious services, it started more as “Let’s just be together.” That, and the “very good food,” were the big draws, Avichai said.
“Little by little it grew, and I invited more students to our place. And we would hold student nights and Shabbat and Sunday school for the [16] children. And then a lot of people arrived, and we no longer had room in the house. We took the sofas and threw them out.”
Avichai decided to rent a separate apartment for his magnum opus, given that they no longer had the capacity to host the numbers in their family home.
Israel House was born.
Maintaining that vital connection
At this point, Avichai looked around to see if any Jewish or Israeli organizations wanted to take responsibility for Israel House.
“I thought for sure from Israel, an organization would take the place. I went to meet with the WZO, Hillel, Bnei Akiva, Moshe House, the Jewish Agency, ICE, and all of them said, ‘Wow, we want to take part but not take responsibility.’”
Many organizations told him, “We work only with the local Jewish community, and you aren’t. You are students.”
And here lies the issue, Avichai said. Believing the medical students’ time in Europe to be only short term, there is not much investment in building Jewish or Israeli infrastructure for them. But this means that in the several years they spend studying, many lose their connection to their homeland.
“There’s not enough connection between Israel and the students,” he said. “Therefore, a lot of students after their studies go to Berlin or the US [to practice medicine]. Many have the USMLE [American Medical License], so many students do not return to Israel,” he explained.
“I decided to make a kind of community place for the Israelis, where they will come and meet other Israelis, and hold Zionist activities, Israeli activities, [and] Jewish activities.
“If they are spending time together, they will want to return to Israel because they will feel they belong to Israel and not somewhere else,” he added.
Israel House “is a place of unity and Judaism,” Avichai said. “Everyone has their part in Judaism and can find a way to connect,” he stated.
“I never asked anyone to come and complete a minyan. But I made sure that there was a Sefer Torah, so that if students wanted to pray, they could. There is a synagogue to pray in. I also ran a yoga class. I thought if a yoga class could bring people together, then that was what was important. Bringing people together is ultimately what helps us to be better,” he said.
His reasoning is that after six years abroad, the students are more likely to return to Israel. “They can spend those six years talking about Israel, thinking about Zionism, thinking about Judaism, thinking about how we can all be together, and then they will come back.”
It was also essential for Avichai and Renana that everyone had a place in Israel House, Jewish or not Jewish: “The secular, and the religious, the ultra-Orthodox, [and the] gay people.”
There are non-Jewish regulars at Israel House, such as the Druze community. “They come to Friday night dinner; they come to the activities,” he said. “If they can be with me in the army and serve the country, they can also be in Israel House. It is a place for everyone who loves the country.
“It’s beautiful that there really is a place that is Israel. Zionism and Judaism end up being really similar.”
Oct. 7 reverberations
A year after Avichai created Israel House came the Oct. 7 massacre.
“On the Friday evening, we had a huge dinner, and on the Saturday morning I expected to pray alone,” he related. “But then a student arrived, and people were crying. My mother lives in Otef Aza [the Gaza Strip], and we didn’t know what was going on with them.”
The students sought comfort in one another and a space where they could grieve safely.
The Polish government, sensing the potential tensions the Israel-Hamas war could create on campus, sent security to outside Avichai and Renana’s home. Then for a full month, they had a security guard inside their house.
Following the Amsterdam attacks on Israelis in November, the Polish government sent security to the house once again.
“After Oct. 7, I went to the head of the university and said, ‘You have to show that in your university, you protect Israelis.’ And that is what happened. He sent letters and brought the police to the campus. That’s why Israel House should be on other campuses – so that there is someone who will take care of the students,” Avichai asserted.
While in Israel there is the Diaspora and Combating Antisemitism Ministry, Israeli students abroad don’t have such organizations.
“[The Diaspora Ministry] cannot protect Israeli students abroad without an organization like Israel House that is physically present,” he said.
Avichai and Israel House have been successful in engaging the Health Ministry, the Immigration and Absorption Ministry, and the Diaspora Ministry, as well as Jewish partner organizations such as the JCC, the Yael Foundation, and Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich (whom Avichai thanked for his support and hard work).
Life’s mission
Avichai and Renana, along with their three daughters and son (who was born in Katowice), returned to Israel this October. Avichai’s best friend, Hillel, his wife, Osnat, and their children have gone to Katowice to take their place.
While Avichai ran Israel House alone while his wife studied, the organization is Hillel and Osnat’s “whole mission.”
“Their job is to build it up. I was alone, as my wife was studying, and now our goal is to build an Israel House in every location where Israelis study. In Czechia, in Slovakia, in all these places where there are 5,800 students with no Jewish community. We want to give them the option to come back, to think about Israel, to stay with Israelis, and to speak about Israel.
“In Israel one year before the war, everyone was fighting with each other [as a result of the judicial reforms]. And in Israel House in Katowice, we argued too. But we argued around the same table, and someone brought chasers or some hummus. We became better Jews and better Israelis,” he said.
Back in Israel, Avichai’s focus is on rallying support and making sure Israel House is set up in every university where there are Israeli medical students.
“Our vision is to establish Israeli homes and Zionist centers across Eastern Europe and to ensure a continuous connection between expat students and the State of Israel.”
Part of this is also increasing collaboration with European schools and Israeli hospitals so that students are constantly exposed to the working practices of their home country.
Next year, Avichai expects to open two Israel Houses, one of which will be in Slovakia. This forms part of a four-year plan, whereby he hopes to organize seven centers by the end of 2028. He is also working to provide scholarships to the medical students, something that does not yet exist for Israelis studying abroad.
“This is my life’s mission,” he declared.
The writer’s Shabbat at Israel House
While in Poland at the beginning of November of this year, I decided to spend Shabbat at Israel House in Katowice.
The buildings in the suburb are square and slightly officious, but inside Israel House it felt as if I were at a sunny Mediterranean get-together back in the Holy Land.
The food, as Avichai promised, was fantastic, and the alcohol was plentiful. The children were running around and playing, and I heard multiple languages being spoken, such as Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, Polish, and English.
The students were from diverse backgrounds. One was a qualified vet, who was not Jewish, while another, a Druze student, had spent time studying dentistry in Rome. Both switched to medicine. Another started as a paramedic.
While a minority of the students there were religious, it was clear that they all felt equally at home. The setting was that of a religious meal, but there was no pressure to pray or say blessings, and mostly it was about good food, arguing, and telling stories. Students had their cellphones with them, and it was not an issue.
I found the diversity of Israel House – even in such a small gathering – extremely moving. While a Jewish Shabbat meal in a Jewish space will likely attract only Jewish students, Israel House has created a space where members of all facets of Israeli society feel comfortable spending time together.
To have a space where a Druze student can sit next to an Orthodox Jew and an atheist and, quite literally, break bread shows that Avichai has succeeded in his mission to recreate Israel in Poland.
Israel House’s new hosts Hillel and Osnat regaled me with some amusing stories. Hillel makes weekly visits to the local wine shop, where for some reason they stock a small amount of Israeli wines. Every week, he goes there to buy them. The man in the shop, after a few weeks, asked him with curiosity why he didn’t buy wines from other countries, trying to guide him toward other alternatives.
“I’m Jewish, and these wines are kosher,” Hillel told him.
While there have been incidents of antisemitism at Polish universities – for example, when ‘Gas the Jews’ was spray-painted on the walls of Krakow’s Jagiellonian University in October – most of the students didn’t recall specific incidents of antisemitism.
This is due in part to the fact that many of them do not say they are Jewish. The university, including the medical school, has a significant student body that is from Pakistan and Iran, so some Israelis are reluctant to reveal their nationality.
At Israel House, at least, everyone is equal. In fact, Israel House does a better job at diversity than some institutions in Israel. As a microcosm, it felt like a true testament to existence, love, and togetherness.
While Avichai’s endeavors will certainly help to solve Israel’s lack of sufficient doctors crisis, above all his mission is succeeding in reminding Israeli students of where they come from, who they are, and why they should not forget their home.
For further details about Israel House, contact Avichai Ayubi at Israelglobalhouse@gmail.com