The Yeshivat Bat Ayin Campus
The yeshiva is located in the village of Bat Ayin, in the Gush Etzion area, about 20 minutes south of Jerusalem. The area is quiet and rural with a number of communities and kibbutzim nearby. About 120 families live in Bat Ayin, with its adjacent hills, natural springs, orchards and forest, and, or course, its stunning and panoramic vistas of the Mediterranean coast. Alon Shvut, a larger neighboring community (2-minute ride) has a bank and supermarket, and Efrat, a neighboring town (8-minute ride), offers pretty much everything else. (Map)
The Beit Midrash, classrooms, offices, dormitories, kitchen, and dining room are all located on a beautiful hillside covered with fruit trees and flowers. Students enjoy the beauty and the produce of our organic vegetable gardens and grape vines which grow throughout the campus. The Beit Midrash library contains many English-language books which may be borrowed; Hebrew volumes are all on reserve for reference purposes. Students have access to a fax machine, photocopy machine, student computers, email accounts, wireless Internet access, and have the option of installing a phone line in their rooms.
Accommodations
The Yeshivat Bat Ayin’s residential facilities are a comfortable size. Many rooms have been remodeled in the last year. Each dormitory building has four rooms and a central newly remodeled communal bathroom with a shower. Most bathrooms also have a bathtub. Depending on enrollment size, a student will either have a room to himself or shares a large room with one other student. Rooms include individual closets and shelf space.
(Picture)
For married couples, there are 15 separate apartments, each with its own kitchen and bathroom, salon, and two bedrooms. Many couples grow vegetables and flowers around their residences.
Weather
Winters (November-March) are cool, with average temperatures in the mid 50's F during the day, down to the low 40's or high 30's in the night. Rain, wind and fog are interspersed among cold sunny days and there is an occasional light snow. The summers (June-September) are typically warm, with average temperatures in the high 80’s or low 90’s, dropping into the low-to-high 60’s at night. Our Beit Midrash and classrooms are air conditioned. We have a limited number of heaters and fans available to loan out to students for their dorm rooms. And students can purchase heaters and fans at the local hardware store. Fall and spring are usually exceedingly pleasant, with temperatures in between those cited above.
Local Services
Within Bat Ayin there is a general store and a dairy restaturant. Alon Shvut, a larger neighboring community (2-minute ride), has a bank, supermarket, libraries, and a medical clinic. The town of Efrat (8-minute ride) offers a wide variety of services, with restaurants, supermarkets, a healthfood store, an ATM, a satellite branch of the misrad hapanim, dentists, physicians, optometrists, a dry cleaner, a bookstore, hardware stores, a stationary store, a library and more. (Map)