Hadassah-Israel visited Meir Shfeyah Youth Village, in the beautiful Carmel Mountains near
Zichron Yaakov on May 1st, 2023.
The day started out with coffee, cake, and fruit as we enjoyed visiting with other women from
Chapters throughout Israel. Around 200 women attended.

The Meir Shfeyah Youth Village has been educating & providing a home to refugees, new
immigrants, and Israeli adolescents at risk since 1923 when Baron Edmund Rothschild, founder
of the village in 1888, gave the lands to Henrietta Szold to create a youth aliyah village and to
rescue Jewish children from pre-Nazi Germany. Shfeyah is licensed and funded by the Ministry
of Education and all of the students study according to the national curriculum. Graduates
succeed in their Bagrut exams at twice the national average, almost 100% of the graduates
serve in the IDF and 50% volunteer to do a year of voluntary community service or pre-army
courses before they begin their army service.

Shfeyah serves diverse groups of students from 12-18 years old, including Jews, Druze,
Muslims, Bedouins, and Christians from all parts of Israel; from Ethiopia, the Ukraine & Russia.
There are 351 residential students that they educate and another 300 external students from
surrounding communities.

We enjoyed a performance by the Shefyah orchestra and singers. Afterward,
campus tours were held; visiting the Learning Centers, Beit Knesset, Organic Farm, Dairy Farm,
and a model Ethiopian Village. We returned to enjoy lunch in the Student Dining Hall.
The afternoon speakers, Annabelle Yuval and Barbara (BG) Goldstein gave us an insight into
the history of Meir Shfeyah. Lauren Kedem also was available to explain the makeup of the
village and to answer questions from the audience.

Many of the Members and guests that attended were paying their first visit to the Youth Village.
Hadassah-Israel looks forward to working with the Meir Shfeyah Youth Village.