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.
For most educators, the summer vacation is used for rest and preparation for the next school year. But Rav Yoni Wolf, of AMIT Belevav Shalem Yeshiva High School in Yerucham, decided to use his time visiting IDF bases around the country, and he did it alongside a recent graduate who has not yet enlisted. The graduate wanted to visit alumni from the yeshiva who are now in the army.
The two saw soldiers in Ketziot in the Negev, on the Gaza border, Gush Etzion, Hebron, and training bases. “We sent the soldiers a message with our plans to see which bases we were allowed to visit,” Rav Yoni describes. “In the end, we got permission to visit nine alumni, we planned a route, and we went.”
Everyone who studied in Yerucham knows Alluf, the well-known bakery that most students liked to spend time in. It is a favorite and familiar taste for all, so the visitors brought baked goods and a cooler full of cold drinks for the soldiers, who were very excited and so thankful.
Rav Yoni explained: “Yeshivat AMIT Belevav Shalem is a family. Even when children leave home, they’re still our children. This is reflected in the fact that we accompany them when they are in the army, yeshivot, university, and establishing a family. And leaving ideals aside, what could be more fun during a summer vacation than visiting such beloved students?!”
Aner Leshem, principal of the yeshiva, added: “When you educate with all your heart and students are a part of you for three years, you don’t leave them so quickly. So when you have free time in August, what you do is think about where your students are today and go to strengthen them in the army. This is how an educator for life acts.”
