Students of the Mei HaShiloach Yeshiva High School in the Jordan Valley, together with leading scientists, are researching new possibilities for growing strawberries - on 15 dunams of land.
Mei HaShiloach is the first scientific/agricultural yeshiva high school in Israel. It is located in Hamra in the Jordan Valley, less than ten miles east of Shechem (Nablus) and about halfway between Jericho and the Sea of Galilee.
Leading agricultural researchers, among them Dr. Nir Dai, a world-famous biologist of the Agriculture Ministry's Vulcani Agricultural Research Organization, work with the students to choose their field of research and relevant experiments. The scientists then check the students' research, and even plan to use it for their own work if feasible.
At present, the students are investigating the effects, both qualitative and quantitative, of seaweed-produced hormonal materials on strawberries. The strawberry season began this month, and will continue until May.
Mei HaShiloach was granted 15 dunams of area (nearly four acres) on which to carry out their experiments, such that they are not limited to laboratory conditions. "We have a special advantage," says Mei HaShiloach's Director Gilad Yisrael, "in that our studies take place in nature's laboratory. The experiments are affected by natural phenomenon such as changes in weather, bugs, and more - things that cannot easily be checked in a lab."
Because this is the Shemittah year, when the land is Biblically required to lay fallow, the strawberries are raised inside special bags of gravel, well above and not touching the nylon-covered ground. School principal Shimshon Rafael explained to Arutz-7 that the hope is to develop this manner of raising strawberries even in non-Shemittah years. "In the meantime," he said, "this gravel has the advantage of being more airy than dirt, but also the disadvantage of having to be watered more often."
In addition to high-level agricultural and science studies, the yeshiva also offers an intensive Torah studies curriculum. A natural outgrowth of the combination is an emphasis on the agricultural precepts of the Torah and Seder Zera'im [the agriculture-related Tractates] in the Talmud. "The Jewish people were always an agricultural people," Rafael said, "very connected to the ground, weather and nature - and therefore also with G-d. We hope to revive this culture once again... Agriculture most certainly has a future in Israel."
The yeshiva can be reached at telephone 02-586-2335, or +9722-586-2335 from abroad.
Alternative Medicine in Otniel
In other yeshiva high school news, the high school in Otniel has announced that it will be offering a course in alternative medicine. For information, call 02-996-0182 (from abroad, replace leading zero with 972).