How fitting that at the beginning of this new school year, Audrey Axelrod Trachtman will take the helm as AMIT’s national president. Every four years a new president is installed at AMIT. Along with this change in administration, our board of directors and other boards are also infused with new people who are passionate and dedicated to our mission. The new board and officers officially started their jobs this week and you can learn a bit about them here.
We recently sat down with Audrey and she shared some thoughts about her involvement with AMIT and a bit about how her background is well-suited to assume this critical role.
AMIT: What sparked your interest in AMIT?
Audrey Axelrod Trachtman: It seems like I’ve always known that AMIT helped at-risk kids in Israel but I only really got involved in a serious way when I stopped working about 15 years ago. Up to that point, with three kids and a career in international finance, I didn’t feel I had the bandwidth to devote real effort to a charity even if I valued the cause. Once I stopped working, I went on a finance trip to Israel with AMIT’s senior management as a way for me to find out what AMIT really did and whether AMIT’s values meshed with mine. After five days, visiting 12 schools and engaging in many discussions, I realized that AMIT’s scope and impact was far greater than I could have imagined. Educating 35,000 kids, the majority of whom are from poor communities, was a clear challenge but it didn’t end there. Teachers and principals weren’t only concerned with grades, they were inculcating values, helping the students tackle real challenges in their lives and empowering them to be leaders. My husband, Chaim, and I have always supported both Israel and Jewish education causes and here was one charity that addressed both causes seamlessly with great passion and thought. That was the beginning and I can honestly say that not a day goes by that I don’t think how lucky I am that I get to introduce people to AMIT’s “holy” work.
AMIT: Did your educational focus and career path inform how you will approach leading the organization over the next four years?
AAT: I received an MBA from the Wharton school and spent over 25 years working in international finance, strategy and management. I expect that my experience working in different cultures will help me to connect with our very broad swathe of supporters and that my business background will provide the skills and experience I’ll need to effectively guide AMIT. When you consider that we educate 35,000 students in 107 schools from north to south in Israel, AMIT really is a big business. However, rather than making money for our shareholders, we provide access to the best education in Israel for our students. We are especially serious about providing the kinds of skills that we think are necessary in a global world, how to work collaboratively, think critically and communicate effectively with Jewish values as our foundation. And, in the process, there is no doubt that we strengthen Israel whose most valuable resource is its intellectual capital.
AMIT: Since AMIT began as a women’s organization, Mizrachi Women, what is your take on the importance of educating girls?
AAT: Female empowerment is one area in which I’m specifically interested. We have implemented several high-tech science and math programs around the country for our girls and we have had success. Unfortunately, in the periphery, in the more traditional, lower socio-economic communities, even when girls do extremely well in high school, there is not a strong push for them to attend university. As a result, some incredibly talented young women are forced to take low-paying jobs and cannot climb out of the cycle of poverty. This is an especially difficult issue because it means changing family and community standards. Therefore, we are looking at partnering with municipalities to see how we can address this issue. Will mentoring work? Are scholarships better? We hope to have some pilots operating soon.
AMIT: What do you see as the primary focus during your tenure as president? Where do you see AMIT four years from now?
AAT: I intend to keep doing what we are doing but more and better. We are always interested in growing our network because we want as many kids as possible to benefit from our education. Roughly 90-95% of our schools are religious schools but moving forward, we are looking to take over more secular schools where we can also transmit our brand of ethics predicated on inclusiveness, democratic and Torah values.
We are also looking to build a new educational campus in Ra’anana with a Gogya teacher training facility. We plan to build on the educational successes that we’ve had with the new Gogya platform and consolidate our gains. With the new campus, I’m hopeful that we can raise an endowment fund that allows us to invest more fully in our teachers, enrichment programs for our exceptionally strong students, and more support programs for our weaker and troubled students.
Finally, as a network of religious, secular and haredi schools with employees of all denominations engaging in open and respectful dialogue, I would be thrilled if in four years we are seen as a model of what Israeli society can and should be.
AMIT: What do you think the key ingredient is in the secret sauce that is AMIT?
AAT: I think there are two critical ingredients. One, I believe that AMIT’s heritage as a women’s organization has been a critical factor. No matter how successful we get, we are not afraid to change what we’re doing and try something new. We are the least ego driven organization I know. And two, in the end, AMIT resonates with so many people because people care very much about both education and Israel and AMIT hits both those buckets spectacularly. People respond to our historical and unvarying commitment to the principle that everyone deserves an opportunity no matter where they come from, our religious philosophy that is thoughtful and non-judgmental and our commitment to excellence in everything that we do.
Audrey can be reached at AudreyT@amitchildren.org
