Students and staff from Netzach’s Darkei-Sara High School are pioneering a new youth movement for Charedi girls who study in state-regulated Charedi elementary schools in Jerusalem.
Youth movements play an extremely important role in Israeli society, helping to bring together kids from diverse backgrounds and nationalities, and welding them into a productive community of Israeli citizens. It is recognized that being part of a youth movement helps young people to develop leadership skills and a strong sense of their identity as Israelis, including how they can contribute to the society in which they live.
The new youth movement for Charedi girls is called “B’Derachecha”, which means “In the Torah’s ways”. The first group has opened in Jerusalem for girls in grades 6-8 at the Bnot Yerushalayim elementary school and meets on Tuesday afternoons after school hours. The counselors are drawn from grades 10-12 of the Netzach Darkei-Sara High School. They meet regularly with their advisory team, led by their teacher Chaya Rosenberg, to plan activities and discuss the challenges of mentoring younger students, particularly during this very stressful time in Israel’s history.
Since the group opened, they have been engaged in activities to help those affected by the Iron Swords War against Hamas. The girls set up and ran a flower market to help the flower-growers of the Gaza Envelope to salvage some income from their damaged greenhouses at the start of the war. They have been meeting to bake Challot for delivery to soldiers serving on the front lines, and for Purim they are preparing gifts for children evacuated from their homes in Northern Israel.
The visionary school principal and founder of this new movement is Mrs. Hadas Neiman. She explains: “At the Netzach Educational Network, we view the fostering of these values as a crucial part of our educational mission. We aim to give our Charedi students a broad education and encourage them to see themselves as engaged Israeli citizens with the potential to make a difference in wider society. We believe in the importance of helping our students to develop leadership skills for the future.”
Neiman’s partner in the project is Mrs. Adi Bilevsky from the MaMaCh division of the Ministry of Education, responsible for Israel state-run Charedi elementary schools. Other partners include the Jerusalem Municipality’s youth & social activities department (Charedi section) and the Israeli educational inclusion NGO “HaMerchav HaChinuchi HaShalem”. This exciting pilot project will hopefully expand to other Jerusalem neighborhoods and to other cities in future year.
Rabbi Menachem Bombach, founder of the Netzach Educational Network and principal of one of its 15 schools, recognizes the importance of extending the network’s activities into informal education. “Not everything can be learned in the classroom”, he explains. “Youth movements like B’Derachecha and other extra-curricular activities that we organize in all of our schools, are a crucial element of our educational goal to integrate Charedi youth into Israeli society as productive and enthusiastic citizens.”