KKL-JNF House Nof HaGalil Holds 2nd Annual Hackathon for Teens

About two years ago, the 8200 [elite IDF Signal Intelligence and Cybersecurity unit] Alumni Association and KKL-JNF launched a joint project to narrow socio-economic gaps and promote equal opportunities for youth in Israel’s outlying regions through education for excellence, entrepreneurship and technology. As part of this collaboration, many diverse activities take place at the KKL-JNF House for Excellence in Nof Hagalil (formerly known as Upper Nazareth): technological experience workshops, coding courses, hackathons with Unit 8200 and visits to leading local and international high-tech companies. The joint goal is to encourage youth to improve their lives and their surroundings, to demonstrate social and community responsibility, and to use their acquired skills for the benefit of their communities.

This year also, from July 7 - 31, 2019, teenagers from Nof Hagalil and the surrounding area participated in the second annual entrepreneurship and application development course led by Unit 8200 soldiers, at the KKL-JNF House for Excellence.

Shimon Abuchatzeira, the director of the KKL-JNF Houses for Excellence project, said: “The entrepreneurship course that took place at the KKL-JNF House for Excellence, in collaboration with the 8200 Alumni Association, was the event that concluded our year’s activities. It was amazing to see youth coming here during their summer vacation to learn and to challenge themselves by participating in meaningful studies and activities that were social values -oriented, which gives us, as a society, greater hope for the young generation growing up here. They are connected within themselves, not just to their cellphones, and they aspire to excel in a way that is social values-oriented.”

The KKL-JNF Nof Hagalil House for Excellence, the first of the ten KKL-JNF Houses planned for Israel’s outlying communities, is designed with an innovative spirit. It includes classrooms, a state-of-the-art computer lab, an auditorium, and a brightly lit open space for social activities – everything needed for the tutorials and academic enrichment activities that take place here during the year for the local youth, so that they can excel and become young leaders.