Found their voice

Kol Hadassa offers a breath of fresh air for girls who don’t fit into mainstream schools.

By ATARA BECK
Students (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Students
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
‘I think there’s a big problem, not just in Israel, but every - where, in that individual learning styles aren’t respect - ed or even recognized, and that society as a whole has a negative attitude toward teenagers,” says Rebec - ca Aminoff, director of Kol Hadassa, an alternative high school for religious English-speaking girls in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
This experimental school, which seems to be filling a void in the community, completed its first year of operation on June 30. The curriculum is based on the Penn Foster online high school program, which is also used for home schooling. Graduates receive an internationally recognized American high-school diploma, and those with suitable grades, coupled with a good psychometric score, are eligible to attend an Israeli university.
Ten girls currently attend Kol Hadassa, and enrollment has doubled for the coming school year. Notwithstanding its success, the location of the school, which is at the local community center, could change due to space availability and financial constraints.
Kol Hadassa students have had difficulty fitting into the mainstream Israeli school system for various reasons, including learning disabilities, illness or family dysfunction.
“Every single girl here would agree that she didn’t fail the system, but that the system failed her,” Aminoff states, citing the lack of individual attention available at most educational institutions. “The majority have been in multiple schools.”
According to Aminoff, whose master’s degree is in educational leadership, teenagers are often viewed as “troublemakers or potential troublemakers, and more so in Ramat Beit Shemesh, where they’re very visible. There’s nowhere for them to hang out – no bowling alley, no skating rink. I don’t have statistics as to whether it’s worse here than elsewhere, but my gut feeling tells me that it is.”
She cited a local organization, Hakshiva, which “does amazing things, but I think that in general, and not just in Ramat Beit Shemesh, the attitude toward teenagers is that we have to keep them busy so they don’t get into trouble.
“I think teenagers have tremendous potential to make the world a better place. They have so much energy and so much passion. If we have a negative attitude toward them, it reflects badly on us. But if we find them opportunities to do great things, they’ll jump at them.”
Aminoff is careful not to pin the blame on parents when problems arise. It’s “a combination of things.
One could have great parents, but sometimes you’re fighting against the system.”
When I entered the classroom, they were discussing Jewish thought from a Torah perspective. Books such as Lord of the Flies , by William Golding, and George Orwell’s 1984, were brought into the conversation.
“We try to encourage them to read,” Aminoff says.
“I’m telling them how good the Hunger Games trilogy [by Suzanne Collins] is, as an example of a dystopian society, so that they’ll read it instead of just going to see the movie.”
A couple of students discussed their personal history with The Jerusalem Post Magazine . Sarah (not her real name), the second of four children from a Chabad family in northern Israel, is boarding in the neighborhood. The family made aliya from America two years ago.
Sarah began regular high school, “but it was too hard for me to study in Hebrew. I came in ninth grade.
School was from eight till four, learning nonstop. I couldn’t handle it.”
She has a learning disability – audio-processing – and has always required tutoring.
“I was very behind, even in the States,” she says. “I kind of gave up at the beginning of the year. I was in a dorm and left after two weeks. I arrived here after Succot, and everything changed. I started getting into a curriculum and felt comfortable with my teachers and friends. School has been amazing since I came here. I’m excited waking up every morning. There’s nothing negative I can say about this school. I’m learning. I’m optimistic.”
Sarah was dressed respectfully, although not according to Orthodox standards. Her parents would prefer that she follow a stricter dress code, she concedes, but they don’t push it. They’re also completely supportive of her decision to study at Kol Hadassa.
“I’m not a rebel. I’m not wild. I don’t smoke or drink... and I still consider myself Chabad,” she says.
After completing high school and national service, she hopes to train professionally in a gymnastics- related field.
Leah (also a fictitious name), 18, grew up in Jerusalem in an American family. She missed out on 11th grade, having refused to continue at her previous school, and is now catching up.
“It didn’t work out. It was really uncomfortable for Americans.... It was really bad. We were brought up differently.”
She suffers from attention deficit disorder, and it was “hard to focus. I was bullied.
Classmates would make fun of my low grades. I was supposed to get help for my ADD, but it never happened. I don’t know why.”
At her current school, “it’s a breath of fresh air, really. I love Kol Hadassa. I really do. I feel so much better. Because I wasn’t in school last year, I was getting depressed and becoming anti-social. Kol Hadassa has opened me up. “In Israel, if you have a learning disability, they send you to a school with problem kids who are into all kinds of bad things,” she says. “I’m not like that.”
Leah, who will likely graduate in December, is now averaging 95 percent and plans to study business management at university. “Then I’d like to go to a school that teaches cosmetics and maybe open up my own salon.”
In a telephone interview, Leah’s mother concurs: “We’re olim, and it’s been hard, educationally, finding the right place for her. Language acquisition didn’t come easily for her. Kol Hadassa was the yeshua [salvation] we had been waiting for.”
She’s also thankful that her daughter didn’t end up on the streets, having been out of school for so long.
But Leah is “a very creative kid. She made herself busy.
She sews and she’s artistic, and the [current] school encourages creativity. And she’s actually quite smart.
It’s sad and it’s strange to say, but I never realized it before. She’s getting very high grades now. I hope the school succeeds for [the benefit of] future students.”
Teacher Tzipporah Moskovitz moved here from New York eight years ago. She has a master’s degree in special and general education and has been working with teens for seven years.
“Honestly, it’s been incredible here, seeing each individual grow in maturity, self-esteem and academic skills,” she enthuses. “I can tell you that each one has gained tremendously here.”
The fact that most of the students are immigrants adds to their challenges, Moskovitz acknowledges. It helps that the staff is composed of olim from English- speaking countries.
“Very often a girl with a learning disability would adjust better in her native language. It’s such a crucial time to leave your environment. There are different rules, different societal norms, especially in Ramat Beit Shemesh. For instance, a girl riding a bicycle or wearing a denim skirt – who in America would notice?” As for the academics, “we help them learn the material; we help modify it,” Moskovitz explains. “It’s very hard to learn on your own, so I’m tutoring them.
They’re doing really well. It’s amazing to see a girl who failed in her previous school attain a 95% average.
There isn’t anybody here who isn’t progressing.”
Moskovitz is impressed with the capabilities she sees in her students and believes that each will succeed in her career path, whether academic or vocational. And if some decide to be stay-at-home mothers, “they’ll do an incredible job.”
Social worker Ilana Hiller, who moved here from America two years ago, provides group sessions twice weekly as well as individual therapy for those who need it.
“They talk about what’s on their minds,” Hiller says. “All of the girls have really blossomed since the beginning of the year. I feel that they’re a lot happier now in their own skin. I’m able to be an adult in their lives while not judgmental or critical. It frees them up to be who they are.”
Each girl has her own challenges, but they all “need to wrap their minds around the fact that they’re worthy and lovable just the way they are, and that they don’t have to fit into a mold.
“Every topic always comes back to developing that core self-esteem,” she stresses. “They learn to recognize their own strengths and talents.”
A Kol Hadassa brochure says “Find Your Voice!” Indeed, the school name was inspired by the biblical story of Esther, whose Hebrew – and “hidden” – name was Hadassa. As the literature explains, “the hope of Kol Hadassa is to strengthen this inner voice so that the girls have the confidence to be true to themselves.”


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