AMIT Bienenfeld Havruta Yeshiva & Kollel currently has 136 students in 9th – 12th-grades. All the boys studying here have had problems attending more traditional schools, where their behavior caused them to be labeled as disruptive, uncooperative, or lazy. While many are quite bright, they tended to internalize the negative labels and stopped believing in their abilities to learn.
Left without many options, they ended up at AMIT Bienenfeld Hevruta, which has a unique way of educating them. Rather than force them into existing definitions, the school’s philosophy and educational approach is to nurture its students while facilitating the development of their many intelligences according to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory, and to give them the values, tools and skills needed to live productive and fulfilling lives. AMIT Bienenfeld Hevruta currently has three tracks: music, nature and animals (dog training or horseback riding) and environmental studies (tour guiding). The staff comprises 70 dedicated teachers and counselors, some of whom live on campus and are available for the students at all hours.
There are currently 40 students in the music track. After four years of study they can take the music matriculation up to level 10. The goal is to teach each student the basic areas of music, play one specific instrument of his choice, and to teach them to play as part of a band (Israeli, jazz, or Jewish music ensembles) so they can work in the music world in the future. Practical learning begins with the study of a specific instrument. The students receive private music lessons, as well as classes in composition and voice development. “The music track requires perseverance, training, responsibility and high self-discipline,” explains Meirav Brenner, coordinator of the music track for the last 18 years.
The music students held their end-of-the-year concert in memory of their classmate Yair Elyasaf Maimon, who passed away suddenly during summer vacation last year. After weeks of preparation, the students presented a professional musical evening at the Kfar Batya auditorium on the date of Yair Elyasaf’s first yahrzeit. The students performed a range of music genres including Israeli, Hasidic, jazz, and their own original compositions.
Rabbi Avinoam Almagor, principal of the AMIT Bienenfeld Hevruta Yeshiva, said: “It was exciting to watch our special boys come to the stage and perform complex musical pieces, proving to themselves and to the world that there is no limit to their ability.” The students also produced a music album dedicated to memory of classmate. The lead track is a song entitled “Drops of Light,” which expresses the feelings of longing and memories of a departed friend.
Forty students in the environmental track take the level 5 geography bagrut. For the practical part of their studies, the students go on a weekly two-day trip that requires a great deal of physical exertion and a hike of between 10-30 kilometers. Once every two years, the 11th and 12th-grade students go on a cross-country journey. This past spring, students in the environmental studies track embarked on a 50-day, 1,000 kilometer trek from Eilat in Israel’s south to Mt. Hermon in the north. While the hike is supervised, for 50 days the students must fend for themselves in ways they are not used to: cooking, cleaning up after meals, washing their clothes, to name a few. In addition, the students are challenged physically and mentally as they encounter the trials of nature, weather, living closely with others and the limits of their own endurance. Shmulik Avidan, head of the track, said, “The students acquire two important things in this track, one is a significant improvement in their social skills thanks to the long treks they go on together and the second is deep, physical knowledge of the country of Israel, its landscapes, its nature, and the formation of a strong love for Israel.”
There are 56 students in the nature and animals; they are divided among the horseback riding and dog training courses. The horseback riding course takes place in two locations, a horse farm in Tel Mond and one in Kfar Warburg. Starting in the 9th grade, the students learn horseback riding, as well as training and handling horses. They also study anatomy and physiology and take a level 5 bagrut in those subjects. In the dog training course, the students learn training, protection and guarding. Students in the program study anatomy and physiology of the dog, and how to relate to dogs as faithful companions. They take a level 5 bagrut exam as well. “This track is very beneficial to the students,”says Leah Tal, coordinator of the track. “It creates significant behavioral changes, in relation to themselves, in learning the value of personal responsibility, and in caring for nature and society.”
AMIT Bienenfeld Hevruta is proud of its high IDF enlistment rate, which stands at 92%. About 90% of graduates defer the army for a year or more to attend pre-army preparatory programs or yeshivot. While the IDF must grant permission to postpone one’s military service for one of these “gap year” programs, it is generally willing to do so because the results are recruits who are a year older, much more mature, and better versed in the values of the IDF. Indeed, many Hevruta graduates go on to serve in prestigious combat units and even become IDF officers.
