Yeshivat AMIT Ashdod students spend hours on the computer—along with the elderly residents of the retirement home adjacent to the yeshiva. Ninth graders meet regularly with their neighbors and very patiently teach them basic computer skills in order to turn the computer into a useful tool in their lives. For someone wishing to send a letter to his grandson, for example, students will start teaching at the beginning: how to turn on the computer, how to use Word, how to type and save a document and, finally, how to e-mail the letter.

Students also use these meetings in front of the computer screen to document the life stories of the seniors. Quite a few are Holocaust survivors who are willing to share their stories with the students. The fascinating life stories are typed up, saved and given to the seniors as mementos.

“There is no greater lesson than a session with members of our senior generation, listening to their life stories and learning from their experiences,” said Rabbi Shalom Mallool, principal of Yeshivat AMIT Ashdod. “Students give a lesson in computers and in return get a lesson in life.”