Coming to a close

A Jerusalem yeshiva that nurtures boys with special needs is under threat of closure, leaving the future of its students dire and uncertain.

By NAAMA BARAK
English teacher Alan Simanowitz with student Noam (photo credit: NAAMA BARAK)
English teacher Alan Simanowitz with student Noam
(photo credit: NAAMA BARAK)
Walking through the corridors of Bnei Chayil Yeshiva in Jerusalem, it seems as if the high school is like any other; the sounds of scattering on the stairs, some distant shouting from the basketball court and kids walking hurriedly by.
But Bnei Chayil is no ordinary high school, and its existence has come under threat. Founded 22 years ago by Dr. Simcha Chesner, a psychiatrist originally from Cleveland, Ohio, the yeshiva caters to high-functioning, intelligent children with neurological and learning difficulties who find it hard, if not impossible, to fit into the regular school system.
The school’s 103 students arrive from across the country and from a wide spectrum of religious backgrounds, ranging from the traditional to the hassidic, and find in Bnei Chayil a safe place where they are understood, supported and encouraged to flourish.
The school accepts children with ADHD, learning disabilities, oppositional defiant disorders, Asperger’s syndrome, anxiety disorders and depressive disorders, who are on the borderline between the regular education system and special-needs education.
Bnei Chayil aims to “normalize their high school experience, and allow them to achieve their potential socially and academically,” said Chesner, stressing that his pupils are bright, functioning boys who were thrown out of previous frameworks because of a lack of understanding of their needs.
The school offers students a regular learning experience, with most attaining their matriculation, and almost all going on to pre-army educational programs and IDF service, but structures it in a special environment suited for pupils’ neurological and psychological needs.
The students’ first class of the day, for example, lasts 45 minutes, Bnei Chayil has run on a budgetary deficit of NIS 700,000 this year, but will be unable to reopen next year, leaving its students in a dire situation.
It has filed a petition to the High Court of Justice, and hopes to win its argument based on findings from the Education Ministry-sponsored Dorner Committee, led by recent presidential candidate Dalia Dorner, which in 2009 determined that children classified as having mixed needs, like the ones in Bnei Chayil, should be allowed to receive full funding and be placed in any school desired.
The ministry’s decision was made on a “random, capricious basis, without any real concern for students’ actual needs,” said Chesner, adding that it “seems to violate the laws of special-needs children.”
He hopes the Education Ministry will decide to implement its own committee’s recommendations, but fears that until then his school will not be able to open its doors to the students who so need it.
In response to these allegations, the Education Ministry said in a statement, “There is no basis to the claim that the school is in danger of closing down. The school is continuing to function as usual.” It added that “there is no essential change to from this year to next year,” and that the ministry does not understand the source of these accusations.
“I am happy to see that under the leadership of [Education Minister Shai] Piron, the ministry is now believing in miracles and supernatural events.
Apparently, they have figured out a way to keep the school running without providing funds to pay staff,” said Chesner in response. “However, until that happens, the parents of our school and two other schools similar to ours are in the process of filing a Bagatz [High Court of Justice petition] against the ministry for this blatant violation of students’ rights and the law.”
Regardless of the two sides’ accusations toward one another, in reality the yeshiva is set to close at the end of the school year, and upon meeting some of the students, it becomes immediately clear how much it has done for them.
Noam, a ninth-grade student, chose the word “help” to summarize his experience at Bnei Chayil. He arrived at the school in seventh grade, and over the past two years his self-esteem has grown in such a measure that he plans to attend a regular high school next year, feeling confident that the tools he received here will enable him to succeed.
Ran, a 10th-grader, arrived at the yeshiva last year after leaving a prestigious school where he felt he couldn’t fit in. He described his new school as the only educational institute he knows which “doesn’t treat you like a robot,” but instead understands that each child has his own special needs.
Shlomi, another ninth-grade student, also feels that Bnei Chayil has been the key to his academic success.
“I’ve done better here than in my previous school,” he said. “They [the school] facilitate a lot more. There’s no homework. The teachers know what they’re doing.”
English teacher Alan Simanowitz, who is also responsible for the special program for students from abroad, said the school’s strength is in giving its students “a sense of belonging,” where they are understood and cared for.
For Menachem, a 10th-grade student from Petah Tikva, this sense of belonging was the real revelation at Bnei Chayil. He described his elementary school years as difficult, accompanied by the feeling of being embarrassingly different because of his special needs.
Now, he said, he is someone with “ADD who is very proud of himself.” Obtaining full scores in his recent matriculation exams, he can dream of doing “big things,” which he wouldn’t have felt able to do beforehand. Bnei Chayil offered him a safe, encouraging environment that has truly brought out his fullest potential.
The thought of the school’s students, all bright and eager to succeed despite the hurdles set in their way, being thrown back out into an education system that does not understand and does not have the resources to support them, is absolutely heartbreaking.
The school’s management hopes the High Court of Justice will sort out this affair and that Education Ministry special funding will cover all of their students next year. If not, these boys, along with students from their sibling schools, will this upcoming school year slide back down in their abilities and self-esteem – despite being completely capable, promising young members of Israeli society.