Israel has a long history of boarding schools (pnimiyot), which could not be further removed from the infamous austerity of British boarding schools. In June the ESRA Five Towns branch was invited to visit the Alonei Yitzhak Youth Village in Givat Ada, to meet the students and to experience a little of what this remarkable school offers.
Established in 1948 to absorb children who had survived the Holocaust, today it teaches 675 children, of whom 275 are boarders, coming from Ukraine and Russia, North America, South America and Western Europe. The 400 day students (7th to 12th grade) come from the immediate area encompassing Givat Ada and Binyamina.
The marvellous rural setting is the backdrop, informality is the style. A wide range of extra mural activities is funded by charitable donations from all over the world, from agricultural activities and music, to sports and computer sciences. The access to additional facilities makes Alonei Yitzhak Youth Village one of the most sought after high schools in the region.
The guests from ESRA were welcomed by Yaakov Benbenisti, Village Director (incidentally a graduate of Alonei Yitzhak), followed by a talk by two of the older students, one from Ukraine and one from Russia. They are here without family and plan on staying and serving in the IDF and Sherut Leumi.
This was followed by an art class, as explained by the teacher, exactly as would be given to the new students, and the group stayed to join the children for lunch in the dining hall. A very far cry from Charles Dickens' fictional Dotheboys Hall.