(Courtesy of AMIT) Ariel* was alone at his home in Sderot the morning of October 7, 2023. His mother and sister had stayed overnight in Tel Aviv. They were finally able to reach him on Sunday and evacuate to Eilat together.
Shira* woke up on October 7 to chaos. After harrowing hours locating all her family members, they evacuated to Eilat for many months. There they faced a new reality of makeshift study spots and cramped hotel rooms.
Fast forward an extremely difficult year and a half: Ariel is back at school in AMIT Mekif Klali in Sderot, playing drums in a band performing for a group visiting from the U.S.. At home, his drums are set up in the safe room, part of his therapy as he works to reclaim his old self.
Shira is back at Mekif Klali Sderot as well, telling her story of October 7—in English!—along with another two girls, to an AMIT group from the U.S.. As the girls speak, their identical braids with yellow hair ties are visible on their shoulders. That afternoon, just a mile away, hostage Agam Berger was released from Hamas captivity and girls nationwide wore braids with yellow hair ties to mark her release. Agam is credited with braiding the hair of other hostages who have come home.
These moments reveal a resilience that is inspiring. It’s rooted in who we are as a people and nurtured by an incomparable community of caring professionals at AMIT. AMIT’s network of schools is one of the largest in the country, educating 40,000 students in 88 schools throughout Israel. Three of those schools are in Sderot, ground zero on October 7, which spurred AMIT’s quick action on behalf of its students. AMIT set up a war room and established four remote learning locations, thus reassuring students they would be cared for even as they were uprooted from their homes. Evacuated students gained a measure of stability as they tried to maintain some semblance of their previous lives. The staff offered private tutoring to augment classes, giving students the extra support they needed for distance learning.
At the same time, AMIT’s leadership swiftly tackled the pervasive emotional trauma. Each student was paired with a mental health professional whose daily check-ins were vital in ensuring students were coping with their new reality. The launch of AMITTV provided access to resilience programming and resources. The newly created mental health hotline logged 23,700 hours of therapy calls in 2024. Staff and students alike felt the warm embrace of the AMIT family.
Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi said, “AMIT was here for our students before the war, during the war wherever we were, and is with us now as we not only recover but grow stronger.”
While this incredible response was being implemented in the northern and southern parts of the country, AMIT schools in the center tried to continue as normally as possible, incorporating additional chesed initiatives and maintaining their high level of academics.
Meaningful service to the State of Israel is part of AMIT’s philosophy. An incredible 98% of its graduates go on to serve in the IDF or national service, many with distinction. Its motto of quality education infused with Torah values came to life outside the classroom this year, as students saw hundreds of AMIT staff members—from teachers to principals to coordinators—serve multiple rounds in reserve duty, leading by example,
driven by their profound commitment to Israel and its people. But that desire to give for one’s country has resulted in the terrible loss of 58 alumni in the current war, leaving the AMIT family mourning too many of its own.
Despite this challenging year, AMIT continues to implement its unique holistic approach to the whole child, transforming the educational landscape in Israel. Dynamic programs like Learning Management System, Tatzam, 24/7 and Ecosystem enable students to tailor their learning to their needs, ensure the mental well being of students and teachers, encourage healthy interests outside of school and prepare students for the future by exposing them to real world environments. These programs were a core part of an AMIT education before October 7, and they have been integral to AMIT’s response during the war. This remarkable innovation and creativity will shape the future of every AMIT student and, by extension, the future of the country. From an outlook point near Sderot, the fence the terrorists broke through the morning of October 7 is visible in the distance—but not that far away—and yet families have returned to the city. In fact, the population of Sderot has grown this year. Children are back in school, smiling again and on the road to healing. AMIT is proud to be a part of this story of recovery and is deeply grateful to its donors for the generosity and dedication that led to these magical moments.
To learn more about AMIT, visit https://amitchildren.org/
*Names have been changed.
