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.