AFTER PARTICIPATING IN AMIT’S 90th anniversary mission, I understood what it means to be a part of a winning team. Over 130 people from the U.S. and Israel celebrated AMIT’s contributions to Israel, and we saw what AMIT has in store for the next 90! AMIT’s values of academic excellence, contributions to the state, and impact on Israel’s future were evident throughout the trip.
Jews have always expressed themselves in a rich array of art forms that reflect the vernacular culture of the time and place in which they live. While passage in the Torah (Ex. 15:2) decrees that beautiful implements be made to adorn the Torah, another decree prohibits the making of any image or likeness of man or beast. It is presumed that this prohibition refers to objects made for use in worship—but it undoubtedly also restricted the development of visual arts among the Jews.
AMIT Sderot Religious Junior and Senior High School are one of the first schools in Israel to implement an innovative cyber-program aimed at preparing the youth of Israel for the important tasks they will have to fulfill when they enter the army.
When all the other students have already left for the day, a group of ninth-grade girls makes their way to their school’s computer lab, where they will spend the next three hours attempting to master sophisticated computer language as part of a challenging new cyber-program.
This past October saw the dedication of the Wohl Autotech Training Laboratories at the AMIT State Technological High School in Jerusalem. The program, entitled “Autotech Tools for Success,” will also be open to boys and girls from the adjacent AMIT Nordlicht Religious Technical High School. This state of the art facility and program places the AMIT State Technological High School in Jerusalem in the forefront of advanced automotive diagnostic and technological studies. Offering a three-year curriculum in theoretical studies as well as practical, hands-on learning, the Wohl Autotech Training Laboratory and its curriculum are the first of its kind in Jerusalem and only the fourth in the country. The program has been designated as a pedagogical model for high schools across the country to observe and emulate.
A quiet revolution is taking place in the Haredi community of Israel. The huge growth in the Haredi population (estimated at nearly one million today), cuts in government support and pressure by centrist parties for Haredim to “share the burden” in terms of work and military service are creating fundamental changes in both the ethos and lifestyle of this community. The culture of a life devoted entirely to Torah study is slowly giving way to a more pragmatic approach and acceptance of the need to “work.” Forced by the new reality, more and more young Haredi men are entering or seeking to enter the job market. But after a traditional yeshiva education, which excludes secular subjects, and lacking in basic skills, they find themselves ill-equipped and at a considerable disadvantage. As a result, many Haredi parents are seeking a framework that offers both yeshiva studies and formal education in order to enable their children to enjoy the same job opportunities as others. AMIT Chedvat HaTorah in Jerusalem is one of the pioneering institutions that is helping to prepare Haredi youth for the demands of the 21st century.
Anti-Semitism is menacing Britain. It is guilt-free and under no constraints by historical knowledge. Despite the Holocaust is a subject that pupils in the U.K. must be taught, over sixty-three percent of students did not know that the Holocaust claimed the lives of six million Jews and many thought that Auschwitz was a type of beer. Posters at demonstrations that show a swastika within a Star of David have become so commonplace, that people believe the two are equated. With all the obstacles to ignorance being erased, the future for the Jews of England, and Europe as a whole, seems to be bleak.
By Rabbi Doron Perez We are all familiar with the memorable description of the four sons who find themselves at the Pesach seder. This famous paragraph appears at the beginning of the Haggadah narrative and in many ways highlights its central educational message. I believe that determining the identity of the enigmatic wayward son will…
A couple of years ago, when Einat Vallach, principal of the Lehava Ulpana, a regional religious girls’ middle school and high school in this West Bank settlement, began searching for an educational partner that would help bring her school to an even higher level, she received a call from the AMIT network.
Last year, the light shining upon the world dimmed ever so slightly with the passing of a special soul—Ellen Koplow, z”l, a devoted Board Member at AMIT and one of the kindest people one could ever meet.
In the desert town of Yerucham, a group of girls are completing a year of Torah study and community service, while preparing to enter the army for a two–year hitch, the last six months of which will be spent in yet another round of community service. Midreshet AMIT Be’er is a new type of educational institution. While the hesder yeshiva for boys (a five-year program combining Torah studies with military service) has existed for decades, the hesder yeshiva for girls is new. Midreshet AMIT Be’er is one of just four institutions in the country offering this type of program. But what makes this midrasha unique is its emphasis on community service.
