NEWS! 

 

Since the start of the war in the Ukraine, Aloney Yitzchak Youth Village has welcomed 25 refugee students fleeing the bombing and destruction taking place in their country. These students need a unique type of support. Many of them have arrived without seasonal clothing or school supplies. Each week, the students meet with our social work staff to ensure their integration at the school, and in Israel more generally. Hebrew ulpan and additional academic support is also provided. They are fully engaged in life here at the village, participating in sports, agriculture, music, and a multitude of afterschool activities. Our boarding school staff plans weekly trips, together with all of our boarding school students, to see the land of Israel and connect with their schoolmates.  

 

Part of this is due to two generous annual grants from Ebenezer Operation Exodus of the United Kingdom.  This significantly increased operational opportunities for volunteering.

 

Students as a group selected a year-long, sometimes two year long, project or group to work with -- Holocaust survivors, children with Autism, people with disabilities at a local sheltered workshop, and more, whom they visit at least monthly.  Recently all groups held Hanukkah parties for those with whom they volunteer.  Students clearly understand that in volunteering they gain as much as they give.  During Corona, volunteering continued in steady, meaningful ways, especially with seniors.  

 

Thanks to a grant from Youth Aliyah Child Rescue of the UK, students at the Village is making wine from the Village´s organic grapes (instead of selling them to local wineries!)  Regional Winemaker Rami Bar-Maor is overseeing this initiative.  Students are involved in every phase, from pruning the vines to picking the grapes to the approximately 8 month process of winemaking to creating the label and bottling and selling.

 

Winemaking in this region has a history going back thousands of years.  In fact, in the middle of the Village was discovered an ancient wine-stomping area with holes for the juice to go into the vat.  So the tradition is now being renewed.  Our organic merlot is now available for purchase at the village.

 

95.2% of our 2022 graduates earned full Bagrut (matriculation.).  (The national average is close to 50%.)

 

Almost every year a graduate of the Village is selected:

2020 a student was selected again, but there was no ceremony due to the Corona virus. 

Alex Philin, a 2016 Graduate, Lone Soldier, is the 2018 Outstanding Soldier of the Nahal Division.  

Emile Issekov, 2014 Graduate, is the 2017 Outstanding Soldier of the Golani Division. 

Christina Egernet, 2015 Graduate, is the 2017 Outstanding Soldier of the Air Force.

Graduates received their awards on Israel Independence Day in May, at the residence of the President of Israel, along with only 119 others. 

 

"Chaos", the Village´s first Scottish Border Collie, effectively trained in sheepherding, so impressed that the Village purchased two pups in order to begin a Dog Therapy/ Raising Program.  Each pup was given to a student to begin training -- for the first five months students five times a day the students "meet" with their dogs, who they named "Alpha" and "Arieh."

 

The junior and senior high schools were selected as one of 270 schools to receive the "School of Excellence Award" from the Ministry of Education.  The award is based on Academic Achievement, Values, and Social Cohesion.