Colonel Yarden Shukrun Makes History

Amal Educational Network is proud to celebrate a graduate of Amal Ramot High School in Be’er Sheva, Colonel Yarden Shukrun Yifrach, who this week was appointed commander of the newly established Arbel Brigade in the IDF Home Front Command. Yarden will become the first woman ever to command a brigade in the Home Front Command. On October 7, she fought in Ofakim and at the Urim base, and later became the first battalion commander to cross the border and lead her soldiers into the Gaza Strip.

Colonel Shukrun’s achievement reflects an educational vision that Amal has upheld for years that excellence and leadership must be cultivated equally in every student, and that a graduate’s path forward should be shaped by ability and character, not by gender or background. This commitment is reflected in concrete outcomes across the network. Half of Amal’s students enrolled in technology tracks are girls, and the network itself is led by a female CEO, Karen Tal, alongside a leadership team in which women hold central roles. Amal views this reality as both a professional value and a civic one, made possible by Israel’s democratic character, which enables every young woman and young man to pursue their potential and contribute meaningfully to the country.

Colonel Shukrun’s story illustrates what Amal’s mission looks like in practice. A student who walked the corridors of Amal Ramot in Be’er Sheva now commands a brigade tasked with preparing the next generation of Israel’s Home Front leadership. Behind her stand thousands of students across the network, in Jewish and Arab communities, in cities and small towns, who are being taught that responsibility, service, and leadership are open to each of them. Amal’s role is to strengthen school principals and educators in its schools with know how and resources to give every student the path they choose, and to ensure that the next “Yarden Shukrun”, wherever she may be studying today, finds in her school the values, the tools, and the confidence to go as far as her ambition will take her.