On October 30, 2017, the Mandel School for Educational Leadership celebrated the graduation of the fellows of its 24th cohort. The ceremony took place in the presence of Mr. Morton L. Mandel, chairman and CEO of the Mandel Foundation, Professor Jehuda Reinharz, the president of the Mandel Foundation, Mr. Moshe Vigdor, the director general of the Mandel Foundation–Israel, Mr. Meir Shimoni, the director of the Ministry of Education’s Jerusalem District, and Mr. Danny Bar Giora, the director of the School.
“As a member of the Ministry of Education’s management team for almost a decade now, I have a perspective that enables me to appreciate the impact of Mandel graduates on Israel’s education system,” said Meir Shimoni, director of the Ministry of Education’s Jerusalem District, who represented the Ministry at the ceremony. "I can testify to the fact that many of our very best educational leaders, including heads of educational institutions, directors of local education departments, and leading educational project directors, are Mandel graduates.”
The ceremony marked the graduation of 19 members of Cohort 24 of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership, a joint venture of the Mandel Foundation and the Ministry of Education, founded in 1991. The fellows completed two years of intensive study in which they explored central issues in education, leadership, and Israeli society.
"The Mandel School for Educational Leadership has given me and my colleagues an invaluable opportunity to stop, contemplate, and develop an individual voice and professional practice," said Anat Yona Amedi, speaking on behalf of the new graduates. "Over the past two years, we have been privileged to receive comprehensive and rigorous training that included research and debate, and opened up new horizons. The fascinating encounter with fellows who come from a broad and varied spectrum allowed us to think deeply and intensively about Israel’s educational system and society."
The ceremony, which was held at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, also marked the completion of studies of three programs of the Mandel Leadership Institute: the Mandel IDF Educational Leadership Program, the Mandel Program for Leadership Development in the Haredi Community, and the Mandel Youth Leadership Program.
“The big reward is that we may have helped those of you who are graduating today to be better than you otherwise might be,” said Mr. Morton Mandel, chairman and CEO of the Mandel Foundation, to the new graduates. “We chose not to invest in things, but to invest in people, because of our deep conviction that ‘it’s all about who.’ You are the living proof that my brothers and I were right to commit to investing in people of exceptional quality, and I could not be more proud.”
