The European Cup basketball finals ended with Maccabi Tel Aviv’s incredible victory. But the wave of euphoria that swept the country skipped over the 15 students of the Secular Yeshiva in Jerusalem. These friendly young people, who spend four months living in dormitory conditions while they learn about Judaism and Israeli culture, preferred to spend that exciting May 18 evening focusing on their Jewish traditional Lag Ba’Omer feast bonfire and engaging in a critical, interpretive examination of the holiday’s sources.

“I was actually being updated on the score every so often,” says Ariel Levinson, one of the program’s three founders, “and the students kept giving me strange looks. Not one of them was interested in the game.”

The students, on the other hand, try to mute the impression that they’re a bunch of squares. “It’s not a choice between basketball and Judaism. We’re not cut off from the world,” says Gal Cohen, a 22-year-old female student at the yeshiva. “I’m not necessarily the kind of person who is only interested in Jewish history or philosophy.”

Another student, Ori Ben Shalom, claims that I am idealizing them: “I also flop down in front of the TV to watch 'Game of Thrones.' We’re normal people.”