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AMIT’s Vision for 21st Century Learning: An Interview with Shari Safra

As AMIT celebrates its centennial year, Rabbi Aron White sat down with Shari Safra, President of AMIT, to discuss the organization’s remarkable journey from its founding as an agricultural school to becoming one of Israel’s largest and most innovative educational networks.

Thank you for meeting with us! AMIT was started 100 years ago, in 1925. What was AMIT then and what is AMIT today?

Shari Safra: AMIT has always been about education. It was founded 100 years ago by Bessie Gotsfeld. She went to Israel literally with a suitcase of money to buy property to start an agricultural school. That was our origin. We started with agricultural schools, and we’ve certainly evolved tremendously since then. We still have vocational schools, though the vocations today aren’t typically farming – they’ve evolved with technology and time. We have high schools, elementary schools, junior colleges, with lots of different tracks for different types of students. We have secular schools, religious schools, co-ed schools, and single-sex schools. We’ve really evolved to cover every aspect of education. Our tagline is “educating Israel, one child at a time.” Our goal was to create a school for each and every child that needs one.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and involvement in AMIT?

I grew up in New York, attending public school on Long Island. I grew up in a Jewish household, but my AMIT journey and religious journey came later in life when I met my husband. I was introduced to AMIT a few weeks after having my first son. I went to an event where I met an AMIT graduate who had gone into one of our surrogate home schools when he was seven years old. He lived there through high school graduation, went into the army, and when he came home from the army, he didn’t know where to go. Of course, the people at AMIT said, “This is your home, you come back to us.” Having just had a baby, I was deeply moved by the story of a child without a home or family to live with. I immediately went up to him after the event, and we connected.

I started learning more about AMIT around 2008. It was a slow start because I had my son, and then I had another – I have two boys. I was going to AMIT events and had friends who were involved. Then in 2015, I traveled to Israel with AMIT on their 90th mission. That sealed the deal for me. Shortly thereafter, I joined the board and have been getting more involved since then.

I wanted to ask about the model in general, because within the Israeli school system, AMIT now represents a significant number of schools. You have this unique ability for the American community to be directly involved in a tangible way. I’m interested in what that looks like – how people in America are able to affect the education of Israelis in such a real way.

The U.S. board is a little bit different than other U.S. boards of organizations based in Israel because we’re more than a “Friends of” organization. While “Friends of” organizations are typically just fundraising arms – which is very important, I’m not diminishing that model – we are involved in the Israeli operation. We work very closely with our Director General, Amnon Eldar, and his leadership team, and they report to the board. He is remarkable and, in my opinion, the best in his field.

It’s very rare that there would be pushback, but we are in a position where we could push back and have pushed back on certain ideas, because he is a big thinker. He has amazing ideas, and that’s why AMIT has evolved the way it has. But everybody needs to be challenged sometimes, so we end up in meaningful conversations that go beyond “how much money did you raise in the U.S.” We get the opportunity to learn about their research and development in education and their plans for growth – which types of schools they’re looking to develop, what neighborhoods they want to expand into. That is all part of the U.S. board’s purview and creates a very real connection to what’s happening on the ground in Israel.

You mentioned AMIT was founded by Bessie Gotsfeld as part of Mizrachi Women. Even though the schools themselves are for all genders and types, I think it still has this very strong identity of female leadership. Could you speak about that?

Historically, once it spun off from Mizrachi and became a women’s organization, it was exclusively women for many years. A few years ago, we amended our constitution so that men could sit on our board. Society has changed since there was a need for separate organizations. Now, the sexes intersect more than they did 100 years ago. Not being able to have qualified and interesting men on our board really felt like a lost opportunity. The goal is to keep it an organization where women get leadership positions and that still feels like a women’s organization that welcomes men. We have amazing men on our board, from young leadership through seniors, and the breadth of knowledge that comes from opening ourselves up is tremendous.

There aren’t many people who get to have conversations about the overall direction of not just one school, but 90 schools. Are there any specific trends, whether in education or geography, where AMIT is expanding? And how has AMIT responded to the events of October 7th? What challenges have come up?

Regarding trends, recent reports have suggested that Israeli education has deteriorated. However, if we look at bagrut scores, AMIT’s scores have not only not deteriorated, they continue to rise. We’re consistently above the national average in both bagrut eligibility and quality. We have more students taking five-point subjects and more students on the Dean’s List, which I believe means three five-point bagruts with a 90 or above, including math and English.

This success isn’t sudden. About 10 years ago, we developed something called Gogia, which derives from the Hebrew word “pedagogia.” It’s a research and development concept with a physical location where we develop novel ways of teaching, meeting students where they are, and trying to transform the classroom into a 21st-century learning space that’s not necessarily forward-facing with a teacher lecturing from the front. Gogia has become a training center where teachers from our 90 schools come to Ra’anana. We’ve even brought in teachers from other networks, non-network schools, and other countries. We’re really leading in pedagogy and creativity.

Gogia focuses on teamwork, flexibility, and critical thinking, moving away from the traditional classroom model of memorization and regurgitation. We’ve also always had a holistic approach to education – not everything for every student is academic. If they have an interest in music or art, we foster that, because a student who is happy pursuing their passion will be more receptive to other subjects they might otherwise resist. This has been a 10-year undertaking that is now yielding results.

Since October 7th, we’ve certainly stepped things up, and that framework has served us well. We had online content for our students within three days of October 7th. By the 9th, our senior teams were in a war room, strategizing how to keep our students focused and engaged during this tumultuous time. Some schools were able to open, though obviously not in the south. As students were relocating, we had physical schools open within weeks. Until those physical schools opened, we had online content – not heavy academics, but touch points so the students could connect with someone, check in, and see their peers. We learned a lot from Covid; the online component of education enabled us to move forward immediately after October 7th.

Regarding geography, our premise is that we’re in the periphery, but it’s not necessarily geographic – it’s both socioeconomic and geographic periphery. We have many schools in the south, a few in the north, and some in the center, but we tend to go to underserved communities. There’s now a tender process in Israel where you no longer permanently own a school. Every five years, a school is put up for tender, and different networks can bid for it. If you have a school, you get it for five years with the right to extend for another five years if mutually agreed upon. This process has enabled us to think strategically about where it makes sense for us to be, to expand in certain municipalities, and to withdraw from others. Municipalities can now seek us out – they know where we excel and what their needs are. It’s really a win-win for both us as a school network and the municipality, if they have the self-awareness to know their needs. Most often the mayors do, and that’s been very positive.

Because it is the 100th anniversary, are there any plans for celebrating the milestone? And given that you have these 10-year programs, is there anything you’re rolling out for what’s coming?

We’re actually still building a new campus. We have a campus right now called Kfar Batya, and we’re relocating it.

My great aunt was in Kfar Batya when she came as a refugee from Hungary after the war.

Yes, it’s one of the hearts of AMIT. We’re building a new complex that will house a high school and elementary school, a sports complex, Gogia, and the AMIT headquarters. It’s going to be a beautiful new, welcoming campus where we hope to have teachers and students from all of our schools come and experience Gogia. We hope that Gogia will become an even bigger training center for teachers from outside of Israel and educators throughout the world. Construction started right before the war but, remarkably, has been able to continue. Progress is incredible. We’re hoping to open it in the next year or year-and-a-half. The hope is that our 100th anniversary and the Kfar Batya campus opening can combine to be a cause for celebration.