גלנט בשומרוןמיכאל דמינשטיין, לע״מ

Education Minister Yoav Galant (Likud) and the head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, attended the event marking the inauguration of a yeshiva high school building in the community of Bruchin in the heart of the Samaria region.

The event, held according to Health Ministry guidelines, was also attended by the deputy head of the Regional Council, Davidi Ben Tziyon, various officials from the Education Ministry and the Amit educational network, community leaders from Bruchin, and the dean of the new institution, Rabbi Yair Shtebun.

Speaking at the event, Minister Galant said: “I am delighted to be here in order to celebrate the inauguration of this new building for a yeshiva high school in Bruchin, together with my good friend Yossi Dagan, who has done so much to develop Jewish settlement in the Samaria region and specifically to advance the educational network here. This new building will serve all the students of the local communities and neighborhoods that have been established in the area in the last few years.”

Galant added that, “I am deeply committed to promoting Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. As Education Minister, I will continue to do all I can to further settlement here, just as I did when I was Housing & Construction Minister – and, indeed, as I have done throughout my life. It’s time that we settled the entire Land, from the Jordan River to the sea. I hope that the students who come to learn here will be able to commence their studies this winter,” he said.

יואב גלנט
יואב גלנטצילום: נתן ווייל, לע"מ

Speaking after him, Regional Council head Yossi Dagan noted that until recently, Bruchin had been an “unrecognized” settlement that suffered from frequent power outages, with residents housed in mobile structures. Now that it has had its status regularized, construction is booming, with hundreds of housing units going up in a short span of time, providing residents with a higher standard of living.

“Bruchin is flourishing, and we now have the responsibility to ensure that the community’s young people are provided with educational institutions in which to study,” Dagan said. “My prayer is that this institution will produce some of the future leaders of Samaria and indeed of the entire Jewish People.”

Dagan thanked all those present for their assistance in getting the project off the ground, and also the high school’s staff. He also noted the contribution of his deputy, Davidi Ben Tziyon, the high school’s dean Rabbi Shtebun, the rabbi of Bruchin Rabbi Meir Hilevitz, and the teaching staff in the Amit network, headed by Amnon Eldar and Yuval Elimelech.

The new high school will have a total of 12 classrooms during the first stage of its opening, and during the next stage, which will hopefully be reached during the current academic year, another 12 classrooms will be built. Altogether, the building will have room for 800 students to learn in “the best conditions possible,” Dagan said.

The head of Amit in Bruchin, Rabbi Yair Shtebun, thanked Council head Dagan and Education Minister Galant for their investment in the project, and noted the contribution a yeshiva high school makes to the community, saying: “We believe that when a community builds a yeshiva, this leads to the strengthening of the community itself.” He noted the specific challenges posed to both yeshiva staff and the students by the regulations of the “coronavirus era,” and said that the teaching staff was committed to fostering a close connection with the students, enabling them to grow and flourish.