This has been a very weird Purim. In a crisis, you appreciate kindness just a little more. And in ways big and small, people are somehow managing with a little help from their friends. As I listen to the Megillah, I will pay attention to Esther and Mordechai’s conversations about communal responsibility in an age of danger and try to remember the same lesson today.
The core of any educational system is its teachers. They are the frontline soldiers in the battle for students’ brains. But the principal is the general who is responsible for the infrastructure, motivating and empowering teachers and students, and mobilizing forces. The principal makes or breaks the school.
Last week I visited Menorat Hameor, a Haredi high school that AMIT operates in Petach Tikvah. This is the only Haredi school that AMIT operates. With us were three alumni from the school, two who serve in Haredi intelligence units in the army and another alumnus who is in a junior college computer program.
AMIT is about encouraging kids to dream and help them reach the stars. Poor kids from disadvantaged homes often don’t know how important it is to have dreams. Disadvantaged kids also rarely have role models for success. And when it comes to girls, professional role models are even fewer and their opportunities are even more limited. Let me tell you about three AMIT programs that encourage our female students not only to dream, but to develop purpose, confidence, and skills to turn those dreams into reality.
I am on a van returning to New York after accompanying our amazing AMIT student ambassadors on a three-day, gala-thon. The trip confirmed all of my best hopes about our supporters and students. They are amazing. I discovered from talking to them that most lay leaders do a lot of good work in their own communities, but still find the time for AMIT because they believe that educating kids with Jewish values, innovation, and concern for every individual is the best way to keep Israel strong.
It can be very hard to define Jewish values in a short statement. One definition that always resonates with me is Hillel’s dictum – to treat your neighbor as you would want to be treated. At AMIT, we see that Jewish value expressed daily as our teachers and students live it every day.
In June, the AMIT “Kipa Bots” robotic team from our high school in Modi’in were among 80 teams from around the world taking part in an international robotics competition in Australia. The competition was the culmination of a year of work in which the students developed a robot that independently solves complex tasks on a special task board.
