48 | AUGUST 18 • 2022

I

n central Israel, the distance
from Kiryat Gat to Shaalvim
is about 50 kilometers (a bit
more than 30 miles). A greater
socio-economic distance sepa-
rates the national religious high
schools in those two locations.
Most of the students at ORT
Gross, a high school for girls in
Kiryat Gat, immigrated as chil-
dren from Ethiopia. Their par-
ents, for the most part, do man-
ual labor or work as caretakers.
The students look forward to
passing high school exams
and graduating before starting
national service or enlistment
in the military, where many of
the students will serve as med-
ical suppORT staff. Although
they attend a national religious
school, many of the students
have relinquished their parents’
commitment to religious ritual.
At Ulpanat Shaalvim, a
national religious high school in
Shaalvim, most of the students
are Israeli natives. Their parents,
by and large, have university
degrees and work as profession-
als. The students aspire to excel-
lent grades on their post-high
school placement examinations,
the Bagrut examinations, lead-
ing to competitive placements
at national service and the mili-
tary, and then at university. The
students, for the most part, have
deep commitments to advanced

religious learning and ritual
observance.
This past academic year, the
Ministry of Education (Misrad
HaHinukh), in conjunction
with a youth group, Ezra
(something like a religiously
committed versions of Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts), initiat-
ed a program to realize several
goals: At the end of the junior
year, three girls from schools
like Ulpanat Shaalvim would
move to Kiryat Gat, and do
their senior year at ORT Gross
in Kiryat Gat. This matched an
existing program for the parallel
boys’ high schools.
The program is named Shelef

(acronym for “Shiministim
leAyarot Petuah” or “Twelfth
Graders for Development
Towns”), so the girls are called
Shelafiot. My granddaughter
No’a Finkelman is one of them.
The three students shared an
apartment in Kiryat Gat, tak-
ing care of their own cooking,
cleaning and laundry, though
the program provided funding
for these household expenses.
The students in the program
attended classes at ORT Gross
each morning and arranged
regular study-partnerships with
their local counterparts.
Each of the Shelafiot had a
special assignment: One provid-

ed suppORT for students with
disabilities and their siblings;
another served as a tutor in
mathematics. The Shelafiot stu-
dents volunteered at an enrich-
ment program for children in a
nearby neighborhood two times
a week, playing with them and
helping with homework. Once
a month, they led holiday pro-
grams for the children in their
apartment building.

THE PROGRAM’S
MULTIPLE GOALS
The Shelef program has inter-
related goals. The students at
ORT Gross in Kiryat Gat get
to know students their own

High School in a
Development Town

ERETZ

Student spends senior year at a
school helping students from a
less privileged background.

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

No’a Finkelman
and a classmate

A group photo
of the students
at ORT Gross.