This year’s graduation ceremony of the Mandel Leadership Institute (MLI), held at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, proved to be not only a chance to bid farewell and good luck to graduates of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership and the IDF Educational Leadership Development Program, but an opportunity to address Mandel graduates and fellows about the challenges facing educational leadership today.

The ceremony was honored by the presence of Chairman of the Mandel Foundation, Morton L. Mandel; Professor Ruth Gavison, founding President of the Metzilah Center; Shlomit Amichai, Director General of the Ministry of Education; and Brigadier-General Eli Shermeister, Head of the IDF’s Education & Youth corps.

In her opening address, “Challenges for Educational Leadership that is Jewish, Zionist and Humanist in the 21st century”, Professor Gavison discussed Israel’s education system, emphasizing the importance of clear, vision-led leadership in education in order to maintain and strengthen Jewish and Israeli identity, which, according to Gavison, has weakened dramatically among the current generation of Israeli youth.

In order for Israel to remain a state for the Jewish people, claimed Gavison, it must embed in its educational curriculum issues and topics pertaining to the Jewish, Israeli and Zionist identity, “The educational system cannot and must not be indifferent or neutral to Jewish culture,” she said.

Nonetheless, Gavison stated that strengthening Jewish and Israeli identity among students must be done according to democratic and pluralistic values which enable minority groups in Israeli society to express their own ethnic and group identity. Gavison appealed to the Mandel graduates to be influential forces that will combine striving for a pluralistic, democratic state on the one hand and a Jewish state on the other. “Mandel graduates are those who can found education initiatives which reach out to all sectors of society,” said Gavison.

Contemporary challenges in education were also touched upon by Shulamit Amichai, who spoke to the audience about a new Education Ministry scheme “Ofek Chadash” (New Horizon). This revival plan for the education system aims to improve teacher quality by raising teachers’ salaries, promoting professional development and raising the criteria for acceptance to teachers’ colleges. She too appealed to the Mandel graduates to continue to make a difference within the core of the Israeli education system.

Brigadier-General Shermeister commended the graduates of the IDF Educational Leadership Development program for their diligence, investment and high level of learning, and expressed thanks to Mr. Mandel and the Mandel Leadership Institute for their contribution to the IDF leadership and the State of Israel.

Mr. Mandel, also addressed the graduates and staff of MLI. “We founded the Mandel Foundation in Israel in 1990, and the Mandel Leadership Institute in 1992,” he said. “From this small acorn, a mighty oak tree has grown. I could not be more proud to be able to congratulate you, and to have our family name linked to people of your quality."

"This is just the beginning of your relationship with us. We want to be there for you in all the ways that we can,” concluded Mandel.