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"We don't ask why, we ask how - how do you deal with the challenges you face?" says Zuri Levi, Principal of the AMIT Tiferet Gur Arye Pre-Military Technology Junior College.
This is the motto that the young men of The Lewis and Wolkoff Preparatory Air Force Program at pre-military technological junior college live by. This unique school is part of AMIT, Israel's premier educational network, comprising of some 110 schools with over 44,000 students.
"Our goal stretches beyond providing basic education. We have a vision that sees a student, a family man, a professional who is dedicated to the traditions of the State of Israel," Levi said.
The pre-military technology junior college offers a two-year educational program for grades 13-14, specializing in electronics, computers, and information technology. The program combines technology studies and workshops together with studies of the Torah and Jewish history. Graduates of the program receive a Certificate of Practical Engineering and continue on to serve in the Israeli Air Force.
"They leave with a diploma as well as with values and personal empowerment so that after meaningful service in the IAF, at the age of 23, with experience and a profession in hand they can integrate into the workforce, into hi-tech," Levi said. "We provide them with a jumping board to a better life.”
In fact, many of the students at the junior college hail from the social and geographic periphery. This program provides them the opportunity to overcome these challenges and integrate into Israeli society.
As such, Levi said he sees the program as a "process" from youth into adulthood.
"We know that youth at these ages have difficulty in creating stability and deciding what to do with their lives. he said. "In our educational view, we accompany them from the age of 18 to 25 and we try to help at every transition. It is wonderful to see these young men, where they started and the challenges they faced, and then to see them integrate into senior positions in the IAF," Levi said.
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Hi-tech in the IAF
"The IAF is one of the largest hi-tech companies in the Middle East," he added. "Every plane needs a very large technological support team and so our graduates carry a very large responsibility at a very young age and are able to complete their work in the best possible way."
It is this vision that drove Raphi Maimon, Principal of AMIT Hammer in Rehovot to first establish the junior college.
“I realized how limited the options were for graduates of general religious high schools,” he said. “These students, who did not find their place in the classic mechina pre-army programs or Hesder Yeshivot, sometimes found themselves at junior colleges, but felt that by the time they reached their army service, they had limited motivation and had not gained significant values that their counterparts had acquired in mechinot and yeshivot.”
The sense was, he explained, that following their army service, they were not ready to begin real life or build a family.
“The goal of our program is to prepare them not only for their IDF service, but for life. I understood that the time had come to create a new and unique model, combining Torah study, values, vocational education, preparation for life and the ability to sustain themselves and create good careers in the future,” he said.
As such, Dr. Amnon Eldar, Director General of the AMIT Network, said that pre-army technological junior colleges are an “educational start-up” to promote students from Israel’s social and geographic periphery and enable them to serve a meaningful army service, receive significant training for the job market, and, most importantly, build stable homes and families, so they can “contribute to society, realize their dreams and become leaders, prepared for the world of tomorrow.”
“Our graduates work with the very best aircraft, including F-35 planes, on the Iron Dome system, and more, and are involved in saving the lives of Israelis through gaining proficiency in the IDF’s most advanced technologies,” he said.
“The combination of professional training and values-based education is the ideal model to accomplish this goal,” he said. “In this way, we provide students, who are lacking proper preparation and support from their homes, a professional, values-based, supportive environment, paving the way for their future success and helping to change and better Israeli society.”
Today, AMIT operates junior colleges across Israel, in collaboration with various units of the IDF.
Educate to values
The role of the father is to inculcate values, to teach the love of man, but also to the acquisition of a profession," Uziel said.
It is this vision and belief that led him to establish the first academy of its kind some 12 years ago as a “holistic compliment” to the Technology Academy.
"We feel it is right to see a youth and answer all his needs with regards to education, but also with regards to values, leadership, and preparation for a life of meaning," he said.
The Technology Academy aims to provide a holistic educational model that includes practical studies for grades 13-14 in the automotive fields, along with a preparation program for a life of meaning. The 1.5-year-long program places an emphasis on building independence and developing personal responsibility as well as leadership and social involvement alongside strengthening Jewish identity, connection, and belonging to Israeli society.
“The preparatory program aims to train the next generation of commanders of the Technology and Maintenance Corps in the IDF,” said Uziel. “In recent years we have seen the fruits of our investment.”
Indeed, according to Uziel, over 70% of the commanders in the IDF School of Automotive Professions are graduates of the program.
"Our vision is that our graduates will love the people of this land and their country and will continue to engage in technology out of a sense of mission to the people and the State of Israel,” he said.
Next month, AMIT will hold a panel discussion in New York as part of the Jerusalem Conference led by the Israeli Besheva media group, which includes Arutz Sheva and Israel National News. The conference will be held on May 22, 2022, from 4-9 p.m., at the InterContinental Times Square hotel, as part of the "Celebrate Israel" parade, which takes place in New York City each year with thousands of participants.
The conference will comprise both panels and one-on-one interviews with notable leaders, including Israel’s Minister of Immigrant Absorption Pnina Tamano-Shata, Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Minister of Housing and Construction Ze'ev Elkin, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan, Consul General of Israel in New York Ambassador Asaf Zamir, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations CEO William C. Daroff, and UJA-Federation of New York CEO Eric S. Goldstein, Jason Dov Greenblatt Former executive vice president and chief legal officer to Donald Trump and The Trump Organization, Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan, local elected officials, community leaders and more.
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