Students at AMIT Hatzor HaGlilit Jr. and Sr. High School don’t need a class to learn what it means to contribute to society—they are already learning that firsthand from several teachers at their school who have donated kidneys and welcomed foster children into their homes.
Two teachers have donated kidneys to strangers, and four have taken in foster children. One couple that teaches at the school has even done both of those things.
Several years ago, Ariel Solomon, a rabbi and Tanakh and Torah teacher at the school, decided he wanted to donate a kidney to help save someone’s life. He contacted multiple organ donation organizations, but it took quite some time before a potential recipient was identified.
Unfortunately, Solomon turned out not to be a match. “I was extremely disappointed after being notified,” he told Yedioth Ahronoth. “But soon after, acquaintances of ours knocked on the front door, said that they had heard I wanted to donate a kidney, and told me about a woman from a nearby kibbutz who needed an urgent kidney transplant—and this time the shidduch worked.”
At first Solomon kept his organ donation a secret, but then understood the importance of sharing his story and the motivation behind his good deed. There are many people waiting for their lives to be saved, he said, adding that he tells his students the story as well. “Some are very moved by it, and others are less moved,” he said. “But when I stand in front of them and teach them a lesson and giving and chesed, they know that a man who has donated from his own body stands before them, and things come across differently.”
Solomon said he believes working in education requires greater dedication than kidney donation—and it can also be considered a life-saving act. He and his wife, Racheli, who also teaches at the school know that from experience as well—in addition to their seven biological children, they welcomed a foster child into their home.
“When you bring a child into your home, you have an impact on his life,” she said. “In the classroom, you influence children’s lives and also the values on which they are educated. You can’t say one thing and do something else. The students see what I am doing, and this makes a strong statement: I care about others—and about you, too.”
The Solomons’ idealism has rubbed off on other teachers at the school, including Avigail Sivan, an English teacher and junior high school principal, who also took in a foster child. “After our four children were born, I felt that I needed to give a home to a child who didn’t have one,” she said.
D., another teacher at the school, was also inspired by the Solomons. “Two years ago, my wife wanted to do a good deed for others, and we decided on foster care,” he said.
He entered the teaching profession after 17 years in high-tech and two years at the Defense Ministry. “Being a foster parent and teaching are based on the same idea: doing something principled. Just like teaching is more ethical in my mind than high-tech, the decision to take in a foster child also stems from ethical concerns—from wanting to contribute to the greater good.”
D. has also shared that decision with his students. “They see that there are people who live their life not just to make money and travel abroad, but to help others,” he said.
Helping others is also built in to the school’s curriculum. Principal Boaz Yosefi and his staff have made volunteering something that the students do throughout the year. Tenth-graders take part in a class on medical clowning and visit local hospitals. Eleventh-graders and twelfth-graders volunteer with disabled students at other area schools and take part in joint activities with them during the year.
