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ADVERTORIAL
EDUCATION IN ISRAEL Yeshivot

STEM Stars Bnei Akiva

Educating Israel's Future
North America

BY
RABBI DR. MICAH HALPERN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
YESHIVOT BNEI AKIVA NORTH AMERICA

very parent and grandparent of a child that lead Israel to success on so many vital Another impressive example is 25 students
in yeshiva day school knows the term fronts – including defense and computers. It is at Yeshivat Bnei Akiva in Kfar Maimon,
ESTEM (Science Technology Engineering not simply US weapons but STEM superiority located a stone’s throw from the Gaza border,
& Math). STEM has taken the Jewish that is essential to Israel’s very existence. who successfully completed a project in
educational world by storm. It is the perfect There are those in Israel suggesting that an collaboration with the Weizmann Institute
model of how federal and private money A be added to STEM, for Arts. This is another of Science. Working together over a two-year
transformed Jewish education in America. educational stream which needs serious period, they built a rocket capable of breaking

Before STEM, Jewish schools did not through the earth’s atmosphere.
adequately prepare students in the fields of
math and the sciences – and certainly not in Girls from Ulpanat Segula are working on a
engineering. Course work expectations were project with RAFAEL, one of Israel’s leading
low and the knowledge base was dismal. defense systems companies; a team from a
The yeshivot were not alone in failing our Yeshiva High School in Modi’in won a silver
children, they simply followed the larger medal at a prestigious international
national trend. physics competition, and some of
Yeshivot Bnei Akiva’s top students
Those days are gone. The trend is
shifting and the curve is lifting. (boys and girls) were invited to CERN,
Jewish day and high schools now the largest particle physics laboratory
offer a full array of science and in the world.
math courses, even stretching as far Once upon a time the most prestigious
upwards as AP (Advanced Placement) divisions in the IDF were pilots,
courses in physics, calculus computer frogmen, paratroopers and special
science, chemistry and biology. There forces. Today there is another group that
are advanced engineering classes and joins those prestigious ranks; the pocket
engineering and robotics clubs. Yeshiva The “Physics Squad” from
students even compete against each other in Yeshivat Bnei Akiva Kfar Maimon protector gang, officially known as Unit 8200.
national competitions. They are the computer geeks. It is the math,
science and engineering nerds that now help
Israel suffered the same fate – a dwindling protect Israel. The unit even recruits Jewish
knowledge base in basic skills in science, STEM graduates from the United States.
math and engineering. Then the government enrichment. Improving the arts will affect
stepped in and opened up its own version every strata of society and, like Rav Kook said, Unit 8200 is now the largest unit in the Israeli
of STEM. The religious Zionist community in the Holy of Holies is attained by transforming army with several thousand soldiers. When
Israel and the Diaspora need not fear studies in everything and making it holy. these soldiers leave their highly elite computer
science and computers. The Lubavitcher Rebbe That said, religious schools in Israel take STEM unit they are snatched up by the private
is quoted as saying that computers are simply to a whole new level. The best of Israel’s sector and IT startups and internet security
boxes we can transform into vessels that help yeshiva students are soaring when it comes companies. And from there they make their
us achieve holiness. to STEM. Together with NASA, girls from the way onto the business pages making headlines

The best of schools always integrated STEM desert development town of Ofakim studying in papers around the world for their innovation
content into their curriculum, now it is taught in Ulpanat Bnei Akiva Ofakim designed and and creativity. STEM changed their world. Now
in every school in Israel. It is science and math launched a satellite that orbited the earth. they are changing ours.
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