At an education crossroads

It may not be immediately obvious, but education and antisemitism – two of the main challenges facing the Israeli government today – are related. At World ORT, the global network driven by Jewish values, we are perfectly placed to meet these challenges.

Our mission has been to bridge gaps. In Israel that is a two-fold mission – to bridge gaps between different communities within the country, and to bridge gaps between Israel and the rest of the world.

This country stands at an education crossroads. The route Israel chooses to take will have a huge bearing on the country’s future success.

According to the OECD, in 2015 Israel was fifth from bottom in ranking students’ mathematics, science and reading levels. For expenditure per child at the secondary level, Israel fared even worse: fourth from bottom.

It is putting great strain on hard-working educators to expect them to produce skilled and knowledgeable students when no investment – either of money, of faith or of confidence – is made in their education.

Many students find themselves in extremely difficult life situations: unemployed or underemployed parents, language barriers, recent arrival in a new country, frightening security situation, living in the periphery and suffering from a lack of government investment in general.

Effectively, the Start-Up Nation will lose its reputation unless its education improves. To reverse the trend, meaningful and well-directed investment is needed. Of course, the government must take chief responsibility for this. But philanthropy must also play its part. This is where World ORT has a crucial role to play. Since our establishment in Israel 12 years ago, we have