Visitors to Yeshivat AMIT Amichai, a combined junior and senior high school in Rehovot, are always struck by the positive vibe emanating from the colorful hallways, the sound of students engaging with their lessons and the sense of purpose among the staff. The student body of 425 reflects the heterogeneous mix of the city, with families from across the socioeconomic spectrum. There is no violence in the school, and the boys speak of feeling a sense of belonging within the family-like atmosphere.
The yeshiva focuses on academic excellence along with love of Torah, Israel and one’s fellow man, and strives to install a religious Zionist identity in its students. The results are impressive: a 95% bagrut rate and a large percentage of students learning for qualitative-edge bagrut, with level 4 or 5 studies in physics, math and English. The yeshiva offers in-depth Gemara studies with 10 extra weekly hours for boys who want to do a level 5 bagrut in the subject. While most high school students do level 3 bagrut studies in Bible, AMIT Amichai students do level 5. Boys can also elect to study computers and cyber technology, biology, communications and Arabic.
Yeshivat AMIT Amichai was an early participant in the Gogya Center initiative, AMIT’s hub for educational innovation, and has implemented many new learning methods designed to increase student engagement.
Field trips deepen the boys’ connection to the Land of Israel and stories of the Bible. The “Kodesh (religious studies) by Choice” program offers an optional beit midrash session one evening every week, where the boys supplement their traditional text learning by examining the writings of a host of historical and modern Torah commentators. A partnership with a local school for boys on the autism spectrum began with Amichai students volunteering there, and has led to eight special-needs students studying several days a week at the yeshiva, putting AMIT’s value of inclusion into action in a very tangible way.
Students in the yeshiva’s science excellence program were recently selected to participate in the flagship program of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space, and are helping to prepare the launch of a joint Israeli-French satellite. The yeshiva also won the Ministry of Education’s top educational prize in 2016.
