A boy’s bar mitzvah and a young man’s military service are important rites of passage for an Israeli male. Entering manhood, first as a bar mitzvah, and then later serving in the IDF, are sources of real pride in a young Israeli man’s life as he journeys into adulthood.
But growing up and making transitions is not always so easy. It may be good to know what lies ahead.
AMIT Dvir Junior and Senior High School in Beit Shemesh offers its students innovative programs to help them move smoothly and confidently as they grow into the next stage of their lives. Through these programs – a boot camp training program for upper classmen and a bar mitzvah program for middle schoolers – AMIT Dvir is helping take their students from boys to men.
To familiarize the 11th graders, AMIT Dvir recently gave its students an experiential, week-long taste of the army. They took part in the Gadna, the government youth movement that trains teenagers ahead of their mandated army service.
For their training, they arrived at the Tzalmon Gadna base in the lower Galilee where they were joined by other students from throughout Israel who were to become acquainted with the basics of service in the Israel Defense Forces. Donning army fatigues, they learned about the army’s hierarchy, discipline, and what it is like to work under a tight schedule. They also tried their hands at field craft and the shooting range.
The students also experienced some of the more challenging parts of basic training, including disrupted sleep, kitchen duty, and military rations (manot krav).
By week’s end, the students from AMIT Dvir in Beit Shemesh said the challenging and unique boot camp experience motivated them for their future service to the country.
In fact, of all AMIT graduates, 97 percent go on to serve in the IDF or perform national service. This statistic is not only a source of pride for the AMIT network, but underscores the Zionist values that are at the core of AMIT schools, which encourages its students to contribute to the state through their military service and beyond.
“As part of our educating toward contributing to the state and its citizens, it is important for us to prepare the students for significant army service, and to know they will get there from a place of motivation and strength,” said Erez Bar On, principal of AMIT Dvir.
Several years before its young men graduate high school and move onto military service, AMIT Dvir Beit Shemesh prepares them for their future in other ways by giving them a grounding of who they are religiously and where they come from through a special bar mitzvah program.
As part of Dvir’s bar mitzvah program, the 7th grade students went on a special trip to Jerusalem recently. Accompanied by teachers, parent escorts, and guides, the student got a chance to tour the most notable landmarks of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. They learned about the building of city throughout the generations, the wars that took the city away and then reclaimed the city, and the heroism and humility of King David, among other things.
For the students, the Jewish history lessons of their classroom came alive during the tour.
The middle school students also got a chance to experience the fascinating underground tour of the Western Wall Tunnels. They were excited to see the engineering genius of its construction many millennia ago when there was no modern technology to aid in its building. The students also were able to see the most sacred corner of the tunnels, an area adjacent to the “Holy of Holies” on the Temple Mount.
AMIT Dvir Beit Shemesh draws from a population that is on the socioeconomic periphery. By offering the special bar mitzvah program to all its bar mitzvah boys, including the meaningful trip to Jerusalem, the students not only get the extracurricular attention they may not have at home, but by connecting the youngsters to their history and the history of Israel, the school exemplifies AMIT’s mission of infusing Jewish-based and Zionist values to its students.
Dvir educators said that for the students, the tour of Jerusalem is an experience they will recall way beyond their bar mitzvah year.
