By Judy Lash Balint
Beit Shemesh, located about 20 miles west of Jerusalem, still reflects its roots as a development town founded in the early 1950s to accommodate the thousands of Jews who flooded into the newborn state of Israel from Romania, Bulgaria, North Africa, Iran and various Arab lands. Since the 1990s, the population in Beit Shemesh, which now tops 105,000, also includes Russian-speaking Jews and a high proportion of Jews with roots in Ethiopia.
Israeli society is well-known for its successful absorption of immigrants, and the AMIT Network of 110 schools has played a significant role in that effort for decades. But teenagers from immigrant families, as well as first-generation teens, can face demanding educational and social challenges.
Over the past few years, the AMIT Dvir Junior and Senior High School for Boys in Beit Shemesh, home to a diverse student body of 350 students, has developed a unique way of helping boys who are in danger of dropping out, many of them from Ethiopian families, and putting them on a path to self-assurance and success.
Dvir Principal Dr. Tzachi Levran explains that the objective of the Cheder Maleh–Alternative Learning Center (ALC) is to develop students’ self-confidence and feelings of belonging, which, it is hoped, will lead to social integration and breaking the cycle of poverty.
Levran explains how the project was born, several years after he took over as principal. The school was in danger of being closed, he notes, referring to many instances of violence in the school and a reputation of being a place for students who couldn’t be accepted anywhere else. “No one wanted to be here,” he acknowledges. Dr. Levran and his staff noticed that there were groups of 14- and 15-year-olds who were dropping out because they felt they couldn’t fit into any existing educational framework. “We decided we had to improve our efforts toward these students and give them stability and a reason to stay off the streets.”
Dr. Levran turned to a young staff member, Tzipi Cohen, who was then in her first year of teaching after graduating from Jerusalem’s David Yellin College of Education. Levran credits Cohen with coming up with the innovative and creative concept that ultimately turned into Cheder Maleh, which now serves 35 boys, two-thirds of them from Ethiopian families. “All I told her was that if we didn’t take 25 of the most at-risk kids and offer them something, that they would for sure drop out. Just make sure they don’t leave, I said!”
In the seven years since that conversation, Cohen has developed and coordinated a program that has influenced hundreds of students, and she has come to a deep understanding of what works to guide the lives of boys struggling to find a place for themselves.
“They’re my kids,” explains the bubbly Cohen, who exudes warmth and acceptance through her wide smile. Cohen no longer teaches in a classroom, but devotes all her time and energy to the ALC boys. The unique program she established takes students out of the regular formal classroom for several hours a day and establishes, with the student and teacher, an individualized goal-oriented plan for each participant. Using one-on-one tutoring, a range of extracurricular activities outside school hours, field trips, evening homework sessions, structured interaction with stronger students and providing access to an informal and exclusive gathering place on school grounds, Cohen says she can “prepare the boys for service in the Israel Defense Forces, to take their place in society, to pay taxes and build healthy families.”
The after-hours informal activities are a key component of the ALC approach, Cohen explains. Often, the students cook dinner together at her home—an activity that demands planning, teamwork and provides a sense of achievement and unity. “It’s all done with no teachers, no pressure and no school uniform,” she emphasizes. For the boys, many of whom may have difficult relationships with parents, it’s also an opportunity to interact positively with adults and feel part of a family-like unit.
Tair Saidoff, who has been on the ALC staff for five years, points out that the most important thing for those working with high-risk students is “to love them. To let them know we care about them and to find a common language with them.” Today, notes Cohen, “the big achievement is that the program is in demand—kids vie to be part of Cheder Maleh,” ’
For kids like Moshe Mekonen, 16, a shy teenager who arrived in Beit Shemesh with his parents and four siblings from Ethiopia in 2002, Cheder Maleh “helps me to advance.” Moshe cites the close connection with the counselors and the informal evening programs, as well as the lessons that are “presented in a more fun way than in the regular classroom,” as the keys to his desire to succeed.
It’s also important for integration and understanding between the majority student body and those from Ethiopian backgrounds. “Youngsters who don’t encounter Ethiopian kids at school and only know about the community from what they hear in the media believe they are all violent and look down at them. In our student body, where the kids are doing activities together and getting to know one another, that doesn’t happen,” Dr. Levran explains.
Dr. Levran is at a loss to explain why the ALC-Cheder Maleh program at Amit Dvir remains the only one of its kind in the country, even after its proven success. How does he measure success? “The boys are staying in school; they’re attending school every day; they have very high motivation to serve in the IDF and they’re achieving good results in the bagrut exams,” he says.
Dr. Levran’s commitment to his students and to Israeli society is obvious to anyone who spends time with him walking around the large Dvir School campus. The boyish-looking father of four with a doctorate in Tanach was an officer in the prestigious Givati Brigade and thought of making a career in the army. By age 24, he had become a teacher and by age 34 he was a school principal, responsible for the education of 350 students. Dr. Levran speaks with passion about his plans for the future. “We are trying to apply the principles of Cheder Maleh to the whole school. It’s hard but it’s possible.
Back in the Alternative Learning Center, Tair Saidoff leans behind the backs of a gaggle of teenage boys who are preparing coffee and notes, “I can measure our success by the light in their eyes.”
