United Synagogue, Jewish Agency Sponsor Solomon Schechter High School in Israel

The establishment of a Solomon Schechter High School in Israel beginning with the 1971-72 academic year was announced by Dr. Morton Siegel, executive director of the United Synagogue of America and Dr. Abraham P. Gannes, director of the Education and Culture Department of the Jewish Agency-American Section. Limited for 1971-72 to 25 students who are now in their freshman year at one of the thirty-six Solomon Schechter Day Schools throughout the United States and Canada, and other Jewish Day Schools, the group will take their sophomore (tenth grade) year in Israel. The school, which will be located at Yemin Orde, on the slopes of Carmel, ten miles south of Haifa, will be administered by a North American Jewish educator who will direct a faculty of Israeli and United States teachers and specialists. The year of study will be preceded by a three week ulpan. Although the Jewish Agency, through its Department of Education and Culture, has previously sponsored secondary school education programs for Americans in Israel, this new Solomon Schechter School will differ in that it will mark the first time an American educational system has set up a branch school of its own in Israel. Aside from the regular tenth grade program, the school will provide for a “Peace Corps” dimension to the year in Israel, which will include intensive study tours, as well as cultural, social and athletic activities in a religious environment.