In the beginning of July, I had the opportunity to visit AMIT’s center for educational innovation, GOGYA, located in Ra’anana, Israel. The name “GOGYA” comes from the word “pedagogy,” and the GOGYA center is where principals and teachers from the AMIT schools gather to reimagine education for the 21st century.
Daniel Silva, the No. 1 New York Times best-selling author, just released “House of Spies,” the next installment of his series featuring Gabriel Allon, the Israeli spy, assassin and art restorer. Silva appeared at an AMIT event and book-signing in New York ahead of its release, and then spoke with AMIT about the new thriller, current events, including ISIS attacks and how he’s able to figure out where they will strike next, his writing process and what he’ll be tackling in his next book, which can be summed up in one word: Russia.
The national average of Israelis passing the matriculation exams is 70%, but as Liz explains, “AMIT sets the standard even higher, by having 85% of our kids pass the bagrut—something that we are really proud of and that we devote incredible resources to, to make sure it happens.”
The Gogya center in Ra’anana, where AMIT teachers learn innovative methods of instruction that inspire their students, is a critical component of AMIT’s success in educating Israeli children.
Francine Stein, a past president of AMIT, believes that the southern Israeli city of Beersheva is one of the best places to witness firsthand the impact that AMIT is having on the lives of Israeli children.
AMIT Executive Vice President Andrew Goldsmith, on “JM in the AM,” describes how “no child left behind” isn’t a slogan, it’s AMIT’s policy.
Our first stop on today’s part of the AMIT Yom Yerushalayim Mission was Mount Herzl, the national cemetery, where we discussed the meaning of the liberation of Jerusalem 50 years ago.
Eliav Batito, an 18-year-old from the northern Israeli city of Afula, is a recent graduate of the AMIT Yehuda High School in that city. During his senior year, Eliav served as the chairperson of Israel’s National Student Council, representing over 750,000 teenagers.
With anti-Semitic rhetoric and acts of violence rising worldwide, it’s well known that more and more families are choosing to make aliyah.
I recently met with a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor. She told me that she survived the war with forged Polish papers which allowed her to flee from Poland to Austria and then Germany, where she worked at various factories and farms.
