When Israel’s Ministry of Education and the Ashdod Municipality realized that the city’s state religious high schools were stuck in a chronic downward spiral of low standards and loss of students to secular schools, they turned to AMIT. The mission: to take over management of Ashdod’s two-state religious comprehensive high schools and to further bolster religious education in the city by establishing a yeshiva high school for boys.
One thing a Shul Rabbi has to accept is that his personal life is on public display. Everyone notices the Rabbi’s neckties, car and most of all, the Rabbi’s family. I do not envy the Rabbi’s family, since they never asked into this. In fact, there is something known as “PK Syndrome” – which stands for “Preacher’s Kid” or “Pastor’s Kid.”
AMIT Bienenfeld Hevruta Yeshiva and Kollel at Kfar Batya has more than 140 students grades 9 to 12. A yeshiva boarding school, Hevruta, is, literally the last chance for boys who would otherwise end up dropping out of the Israeli school system. The educational approach at this special school is based on “Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory,” which posits that a person’s ability is comprised of many intelligences – not just the ones’ traditionally emphasized in Western-style education. Thus Hevruta offers majors in music, sports, environmental studies, animal therapy, subjects that are optional extracurricular activities in other schools. Hevruta puts the student back at the center of education and the Annual Tiyul (“The Ultimate Trek”) helps to reinforce the boys’ strong points and build positive self-image.
It is hard to believe that nine months have passed since I was standing in Ben Gurion Airport anxiously awaiting the arrival of the 2011-2012 class of Midreshet AMIT. Young women from communities throughout the United States and Canada chose to spend the year at Midreshet AMIT, focusing on Torah study, acts of chesed, and an unforgettable Israel experience. Now that the academic year has come to a close – in the blink of an eye – it is clear that our students’ hopes and dreams were fulfilled.
“Why do we celebrate Yom Yerushalyim?” — Jerusalem Day — Daniella Malasa asked the 18 sixth-grade boys seated in pairs in her classroom at the AMIT Yeshiva Kfar Ganim in Petach Tikva.
While a few hands flew up in response, other students shouted out the answer. They recalled how, in 1967, Israeli troops captured the eastern part of the city, including the Old City, from Jordan, and discussed how Israelis celebrate the milestone today.
This past December, AMIT leaders from across the country had the opportunity to get a firsthand look at the impact AMIT has on the children of Israel. This year’s Leadership Mission was both educational and enriching, and it provided our leaders greater insight into the vital role AMIT plays in Israeli society. The 2011 Mission was themed around the central area of the country, making it possible for the delegation to visit the network’s newest schools in Givat Shmuel, Or Akiva (near Caesarea), as well as schools in Rehovot, Beit Shemesh, Mateh Yehudah and Haifa.
Long before Ariel Horowitz, now 21, graduated from high school he knew he wanted to serve in the Israeli army and study Torah. So Horowitz began looking into hesder yeshivas – post-high school programs that enable religious students to serve their country and, when they’re not in the army, to engage in full-time Torah study.
“A people is not reborn in a single day,” remarked a young Rahel Yanait Ben-Zvi with determining sobriety. The idealistic, 23-year old woman who had arrived in the Land of Israel barely a year earlier in 1908 could have been speaking about her own astonishing life and career which would unfold over the course of the next seven decades. She was a member of Israel’s founding generation, a collection of brave and visionary men and women who connected their moral beliefs to political action. Because of the profound sense of purpose, she found in the cause of Jewish national revival, Rahel Ben-Zvi realized her own potential and helped countless young women (and young men) realize theirs.
he Seder night is a time of order, the word seder means order, and on this night everything is ordered. We begin the night with the declaration of the stages of the meal, kadesh, urchatz, karpas, yachatz, etc., the focus being that each step has its own name and its own moment. Why is this night so regimented? Why so structured? Why didn’t our law allow for more subjective choice, why not give principles and allow for each of us to apply them differently?
