Ulpanat AMIT Alei Zahav is the winner of the 2020/2021 AMIT Network Education Prize this year.
The nominating committee explained that the school was chosen because it fully implements AMIT’s values of Torat Chaim, academic excellence, and commitment to the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Furthermore, it is undergoing an in-depth cultural change that touches upon academics, social, emotional and values-based issues.
In preparation for the Jewish High Holidays, 10th and 12th grade students attending AMIT Wasserman Junior and Senior High School, Beer Sheva, volunteered to organize food packages for 500 families spanning the city.
As the Sukkot holiday draws near, AMIT Network’s “AMIT Builds Sukkot” project is once again underway. Using social media, AMIT students invite those in their communities in need of assistance putting up a sukkah to contact them. Teams of student volunteers are then dispatched to build sukkot for those that have requested help. Their goal is to ensure that throughout the city everyone experiences a joyous Sukkot holiday.
A major part of an AMIT education is the values that our schools instill, and serving one’s country is one of our core values. It is in the best interest of both the young person–who has a significant service role and gains marketable skills that will help when entering the employment market–as well as the…
Recently, a very special siyum of a masechet of Gemara was held in Ma’ale Adumim. The siyum was held at the “Makom BaLev” Orthodox Union Youth Center by students from AMIT Eitan High School for Boys in Ma’aleh Adumim. The students, alumni of the center and recent high school graduates, were the founders of the shiur. This is the second year of the shiur led by Rav Ayal Mamon, counselor at the youth center, and he explained: “This isn’t just another shiur that you come to pass the time.
The Ministry of Education’s list of outstanding schools was published August 19, 2021, and sixteen AMIT schools “made the grade.” The ratings are based on the schools’ academic and values-based achievements. Academic accomplishments examined include bagrut eligibility rates, percentage of excellence on bagrut exams, percentage of eligibility for high level bagrut certificates, and degree of improvement compared to achievements in the previous year. The social values on which schools were rated include enlistment rates in the IDF or national service, dropout prevention, and inclusion of special education students.
AMIT’s Technological High Schools are “the last stop” for many students. The kids attending have not managed to create a path to success for themselves anywhere else, and they arrive after bouncing around from school to school. Along those lines, you might think they would be the last students who would assume leadership positions, taking on more responsibility than necessary. At AMIT Fred Kahane Technological High School in Ashkelon, you can see this is precisely what starts happening.
Neoray Kaholy, a rising 9th grader at AMIT Florin Taman High School for Boys in Tzfat, has been a counselor with Krembo Wings for the past two years. When asked who inspired him at AMIT, he replied: “Rav Eldad, who is my homeroom teacher, really inspires me. I grew up with the idea that serving God was all about learning, learning, learning. Rav Eldad, with all his energy, taught me that you can also serve God through doing, and always being happy. To be happy from nothing and everything.”
How does a schoolteacher convey a values-based education? Subjects such as math are governed by indisputable numbers, equations, and figures, whereas a lesson in values requires a different approach. We have been focusing on students and how they implement AMIT’s idea of chessed and community during their summer vacations, by volunteering in many different capacities. But where are they learning their values? One answer is by watching their teachers act as role models, in and out of the classroom.
“We’re on the way to the hospital to deliver games and breakfast, and to bring some joy.”
For nearly all of us and in one way or another, Covid devoured the last year of our lives. Incorporating chessed, or care and concern for community is a principle of education at AMIT schools that had to be adjusted to fit the environment in which we all now live.
