Will they care? Will they commit? Will they give? These are questions every Jewish organization is asking about today’s Generation Y (See “NextGen Donors: The Future of Jewish Giving,” a major study issued in early August that has generated much attention in the press and elsewhere).
Between Israel’s eight-week summer vacation and the Yom Kippur through Simchat Torah break, students at the AMIT Hatzor Haglilit complex of schools, like other Israeli kids, didn’t see much of the inside of a classroom until the end of September.
“Herod the Great: The King’s Final Journey,” currently showing at the Israel Museum, seeks to reexamine and contextualize the history and legacy of King Herod (73 BCE – 4 BCE), who ruled Judea from 37 BCE until his death. This is the largest architectural exhibit ever undertaken by the Israel Museum, which seems appropriate: Herod was one of the great builders of all time; his structures – which include Masada, the Second Temple in Jerusalem, the Herodium palace, and the town and port of Cesearea – form the backdrop of seemingly every storyline of 1st Century Judea
Should we determine for ourselves what is right and wrong, or should we ask society to do it for us? Most of us probably would immediately vote for the former. We highly value our autonomy and personal freedom and do not want others making these important decisions for us. And yet, without laws that embody a sense of right and wrong, we would have chaos and anarchy. How are we to balance the needs of the society with the rights of the individual?
Looking back on the last six years, the AMIT family can take great pride in the incredible growth of Midreshet AMIT. Starting with just 18 students in 2007, we are now at full capacity, with nearly 50 students both this past year and registered for the upcoming school year.
By the end of the school year, not many high school students have the desire to sit and study in a classroom while the sun is shining outside, but the six young men learning about the Israeli economy in a bright classroom at Yeshivat AMIT Kfar Ganim in Petach Tikva were fully focused on their teacher just three weeks before the start of summer vacation.
This year, on Shabbat Parshat Beshalach, we celebrated Tu b’Shvat, which the first Mishnah in Masechet Rosh Hashana calls the “New Year for Trees.” While the holiday of Tu b’Shvat might be agricultural in nature, our Rabbis have always connected trees to spiritual growth. One such example is found in Parshat Beshalach where we find a tree playing a critical role.
ETTI LAREDO, THE PRINCIPAL OF AMIT ATIDIM JUNIOR and Senior High School in Or Akiva, was wearing a proud grin. In her office was Dana Maman, a student who only three years earlier rarely attended school. “I would sleep all day and I just didn’t care about school. When I did come, the kids would give me a standing ovation,” Dana said, biting her lip in embarrassment. Dana, now 18, is about to join the army. A film she co-produced with two other students while enrolled in the exceptional film studies program at AMIT Atidim, was chosen to compete in the International Film Festival in Hollywood.
When Abraham Moise was a young man, he sailed from France to the West Indies, where he became a trader and a merchant. There, he met a beautiful woman 26 years his junior, a native who lived in an affluent Jewish community. They married and established themselves on a small plantation in San Domingo in what is now Haiti. Soon, the slaves in San Domingo began to revolt, and violence broke out against the French aristocrats. The colony began to collapse, and the Moise family was forced to leave their possessions and sail to America. Abraham and Sarah Moise arrived in Charleston in 1791 – one of the oldest Jewish communities in America. Charleston was a natural port, and its location attracted merchants and traders from all over the world. At the time, there were 53 families in the congregation at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, and the sizable Jewish community convinced Moise to stay. The family lived in a house on Queen Street, in the heart of the peninsular city, and sold cloth and tea from their home.
Every week 10th and 11th-grade students from AMIT’s two high schools in Tzfat make their way to the city’s new Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Medicine in the Galil. There they hear lectures on anatomy, cardiology, physiology and nutrition, learn modern techniques of examining the human body and even observe operations. They are part of an innovative three-year youth medical program entitled Pirhei Tzfat LeRefouah – literally “Tzfat Buds of Medicine.” The program was launched in 2011 in conjunction with the much-awaited opening of Israel’s newest medical school.
