Amal Students Cross the Atlantic to Build a Global Educational Community

This month, a group of outstanding students from Amal Hadera’s multidisciplinary leadership and entrepreneurship track boarded a plane bound for Newark, New Jersey, joined by two students from another Amal school in Zarzir. Together, this joint Jewish-Arab delegation traveled to spend an unforgettable week with the students of St. Benedict’s Preparatory School, one of the most storied and admired schools in the United States. The trip was far more than a cultural exchange: it was a living demonstration of what Amal believes education can be: a bridge between cultures, a training ground for leadership, and proof that young people, wherever they come from, share the same capacity for connection, curiosity, and courage.

St. Benedict’s Preparatory School is no ordinary host. Founded in 1868 and guided by Benedictine monks for more than 150 years, “The Hive,” as it is affectionately known, has become a national model for how schools can transform urban education through community, student leadership, counseling, and experiential learning. Its students are famous for essentially running the school themselves, from morning assembly to daily operations, living by a motto coined decades ago by a beloved teacher: “Whatever hurts my brother or sister hurts me”. It is a place where leadership is not taught from a textbook but practiced daily, in community which is precisely why our team chose it as a partner. Our students didn’t just visit St. Benedict’s; they worked alongside its students on shared entrepreneurial projects, took part in the rhythms of its famously tight-knit community, and built the kind of cross-cultural friendships that stay with young people for life.

What makes this delegation especially meaningful is who it brought together. Amal Hadera and Amal Zarzir sit on opposite sides of Israel’s social map: one a Jewish school, the other an Arab school, yet both belong to the same educational family. Sending their students abroad side by side, to represent Israel and the Amal Network as one team, is not a coincidence. It is a direct expression of who we are: the only public education network in Israel that has formally defined itself as a state-democratic, science-and-technology-leading network, one that places shared living and democratic values at the heart of its mission. When our students stand together in Newark as ambassadors of that identity, they are showing donors, partners, and the world exactly what investment makes possible.

This journey also reflects a strategic priority for Amal: to send as many delegations as possible, of students, teachers, and principals alike, across the ocean and beyond, to learn firsthand from outstanding educators, visit schools built on different models, and forge lasting relationships with educational communities worldwide. Our aspiration is ambitious: to build a genuine global community around the Amal Network, one that partners with any school, anywhere, that shares our commitment to strengthening democratic values and shared life among diverse populations. Every delegation we send and every partner school we welcome in return is a building block toward that vision.

None of this would have been possible without the dedication of the staff members who led the delegation and made this experience come alive: Guy Sharim, Miri Rosenthal, and Tereza Shukcha. Watching our students lead with confidence, form deep human connections across an ocean and a culture, and representing Amal with pride and grace is a source of tremendous strength for our entire network, and a powerful reminder of why this work matters.