On October 30, 2017, the Mandel Foundation celebrated the graduation of the fellows of Cohort 24 of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership and of three programs of the Mandel Leadership Institute. The ceremony was held 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, the IDF Chief Education Officer, and
Mr. Meir Shimoni, the director of the Ministry of Education’s Jerusalem District.
“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, which was held at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, 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. These fellows completed two years of intensive study in which they explored central issues in education, leadership, and Israeli society.
The ceremony 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 graduates of the Mandel IDF Educational Leadership Program included senior officers from all branches of the Israel Defense Forces. “What the approach of the program and the IDF share is an appreciation of the importance of investing in the development of commanders who have a social-educational approach, as part of the reinforcement of the resilience of the IDF as a national army, an army of the people in a Jewish and democratic state,” said the IDF Chief Education Officer,
Brigadier-General Zvika Fairaizen. Addressing the graduates, he said: “I have confidence in your ability to use wisely the knowledge base you have gained over the last year. We in the IDF expect you to lead and to make a contribution based on what you have learned in the different units in which you serve.”
The ceremony also celebrated the graduation of 20 fellows of Cohort 3 of the Mandel Program for Leadership Development in the Haredi Community, and 20 fellows of Cohort 2 of the Mandel Youth Leadership Program, who are leaders of Israeli informal education organizations.
“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,” he said. "We want to be here helping as much as we can, making Israel a better place for all its citizens, for all time."
