When AMIT educators talk about what they do, the Hebrew word they often use is shlichut. It is a word with many meanings, but in this context it is meant to convey an expression of their ultimate mission—a full body and soul commitment to transform the lived trajectory of children in Israel. Their students are of various ethnicities, religious practices, and socioeconomic backgrounds. This year, AMIT will be taking a major step to make our shlichut, a mission in which we all share, that much deeper and stronger.
This AMIT magazine is dedicated to the new state-of-the-art educational campus we are building in Ra’anana. Many years in the planning, this campus will be the single unifying address for our headquarters, the Gogya Innovation Center, a model high school, and a multimedia conference center where teachers, students, and visitors from Israel and around the globe can experience AMIT’s educational philosophy and programs firsthand and plan for the future.
The campus will expand the scope of AMIT’s mission on countless levels. I am excited about the plans to ensure that this campus will not be a place to simply conduct “business as usual” in a beautiful work setting. In these buildings, we will leverage the extensive work currently being done to make sure that every graduate of an AMIT school has a strong sense of identity, is motivated to challenge themself to achieve excellence, and adopts values that support involvement in their local and national community. But we will also use the construction of the campus as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop new programs that foster AMIT’s shlichut.
We live in a complex world where frayed social ties and political and economic obstacles to success are common problems. Unfortunately, Israel has not been spared these challenges. AMIT tackles these issues head-on because we strongly believe that every school in our network has a meaningful role to play in reversing these trends. To start the process, we have organized work groups focused on three principal themes: (1) Personal identity and values; (2) Breaking the glass ceiling to advancement, especially for girls; and (3) Innovation and entrepreneurship in education.
When considering personal identity, AMIT schools enroll large numbers of disadvantaged students from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. How do we engender pride in them, even as we acknowledge the challenges they face daily? Regarding values, we have expanded our mission to include secular schools. How can communities with different core values interact productively and avoid polarization and rancor?
As for breaking the glass ceiling, girls are much less likely than boys to take advanced STEM classes, a major ticket to success in Israel. How do we stimulate interest in STEM in girls in the early grades so that advanced classes are about aptitude and not social expectations? In more traditional communities, how do we encourage girls to take advantage of high-level Judaic studies—vital to appreciating our tradition and honing analytic ability—while still maintaining respect for their communal norms?
Finally, innovation and entrepreneurship are the linchpins that ensure an AMIT education is relevant, technology- and skill-based, anticipating the needs of the 21st century, and preparing our students and educators to be leaders.
As president of AMIT, I am so grateful to be serving at this specific moment in our amazing history. I am extraordinarily proud of what all my predecessors and our staff in both Israel and the U.S. have done to get us where we are. Starting from a small, off-the-beaten-track piece of land that Bessie Gotsfeld purchased in pre-state Palestine, AMIT has become the highest ranked and most respected educational network in Israel. If we use this new campus to its maximum potential, it can become an incubator for constructive change in education in the region and the broader world. But Israel is AMIT’s home where we aim to break ground and where we hope to have our greatest impact. Strengthening Israel through education is our deeply felt shlichut, and I am confident the campus will serve as a vital national resource in that effort. It is our investment in the Jewish future.
Baruch ata Hashem elokainu melech haolam shecheyanu v’kiyamanu v’higiyanu l’zman hazeh. Blessed are you, G-d, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this moment.
