This summer students from AMIT Kfar Blatt Petah Tikva Youth Village took time out of their summer vacation to pay their respects to Bessie Gotsfeld, z”l, the founder of AMIT. Students marked Bessie Gotsfeld’s yahrzeit in the Hebrew month of Tammuz by holding a memorial service at the Nahalat Yitzhak cemetery in Tel Aviv, where Gotsfeld is buried.
In 1925, Gotsfeld founded AMIT (then known as Mizrachi Women’s Organization of America), an organization that was at the forefront of Youth Aliyah, the rescue of Jewish children from Europe and their resettlement in Palestine. Throughout its history, AMIT has provided a quality Jewish education for the waves of Israel’s immigrants – Jews from North Africa and the Arab countries, Ethiopian Jews and Russian Jews – as well as for children born in Israel.
Dr. Amnon Eldar, Director General of the AMIT Network: “Bessie Gotsfeld had a far-sighted vision. Starting with one educational facility, AMIT has grown into a network of 110 schools with over 30,000 students. Although Bessie Gotsfeld did not have any children of her own, she has provided the foundations for thousands and thousands of children and their families for generations.”
