Vision
There is an acute need to empower and change the negative perception of the younger Israeli Ethiopians and the Israeli public about the Israeli Ethiopian community. Efforts to integrate young Israeli Ethiopians have been partially implemented. The military service data is dramatically different from their relative proportion (1.5% of the Israeli population) to the population.
The mechina’s activities will address the students’ difficulties of integration.
Activity
The Derech Avot Mechina was established in partnership with the Bnei David-Eli Educational Institutions whose mission is to prepare students to serve in the IDF.
Studies in the preparatory yeshiva include Talmudic studies; Jewish law and jurisprudence; and study of the classics of the Jewish ethical literature. In addition, we give our students rigorous training on issues of philosophy and religious faith. They also engage in activities such as navigation training, physical fitness, and basic military discipline. Career officers are invited as guest lecturers to share their army experience and counsel our students regarding religious and ethical dilemmas that arise in military life. Bnei David also rounds out its students’ education through exposure to Middle Eastern studies, media and public relations, economics, and foreign affairs. Our goal is to raise a generation of public leaders qualified to carry Israel forward in the modern world.
Derech Avot will replicate that model and will focus on affirming the students personal, Jewish, and Zionist identities. It will do so by connecting them to the traditions of their ancestors and creating an environment of authority figures with similar backgrounds with whom the young men can identify.