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Thank you from the entire Boys Town Jerusalem family for your generous response to our Rosh Hashana Appeal. As essential partners, your support for our students’ wellbeing is crucial to our every effort to grant them a bright future.

And, for a quick glimpse at what YOU made possible during the 2021/2022 school year, enjoy the video clip below.

After two difficult years clouded by Covid, the new school year opened with hope and excitement on 1st September for over 900 students, from Year 7 through our College of Applied Engineering. Take a look below for photos of the First Day of School.

We are delighted to share that the Israeli Ministry of Education has granted Boys Town Jerusalem the highest Award for Excellence among Israeli high schools. Your support plays a prominent role in enabling our school to reach this prestigious award, and we are grateful.

What’s behind BTJ’s secret to success? See “Eliezer’s” story that follows.

On your next trip to Israel, please come visit Boys Town Jerusalem for a firsthand look at the Start-Up Nation’s up-and-coming generation you are helping to cultivate. You are cordially invited to tour our campus, meet students, and join us for lunch. To arrange your visit, please contact me at ilana@btj.org.au, click on the link at the bottom of this newsletter or via my Australian number 02 8006 0249. Looking forward to welcoming you!

 Warm regards,
Ilana Kaplan
Australian Development Coordinator
+61-2-8006-0249
ilana@btj.org.au

To keep up with the latest Boys Town Jerusalem activities, check out our website www.btj.org.au and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
 
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BTJ CITED FOR EXCELLENCE BY ISRAELI MINISTRY
The Israeli Ministry of Education has granted Boys Town Jerusalem the highest Award for Excellence among Israeli high schools throughout all educational sectors. The school ranked in the top 10% of the 838 high school schools examined over the 2021-22 academic year.

In releasing its findings, the Israel Ministry of Education cited Boys Town Jerusalem (BTJ) for reaching outstanding achievements in the academic and social realms, as well as for instilling crucial ethics and values within students. BTJ principal Yossi Cohen notes that the prize reflects the Ministry’s findings of the extraordinary efforts by BTJ instructors to spur students to reach a high academic level, avoid drop-out, and advance to IDF enlistment and higher education. “The meticulous Ministry of Education examination also scrutinized the progress from enrolment to graduation of our considerable number of boys from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
 
This marks the third time in the past decade that Boys Town Jerusalem has been awarded the prestigious prize for excellence, and the first time in which the school has reached the top-echelon rank. The Ministry of Education Award for Excellence includes a monetary reward for teachers among the highest-scoring schools. In saluting BTJ’s instructors, Principal Yossi Cohen stressed the Covid-related hardships over the past two years which have demanded exceptional efforts to keep students focused and excelling despite the increased illness, poverty and strife they face at home.
 
“Above all, our instructors care deeply for every student’s welfare,” he says proudly. “Being a teacher is the challenge of a lifetime. At Boys Town Jerusalem, our special mission is to motivate students with personal hardships to work hard and aim for success. Their achievements are a priceless reward for us all.”
THE POWER OF A TEACHER'S TRUST
At the end of Year 8 in 2007, Eliezer* was hurt, but not really surprised, to be informed that he was under serious consideration to be transferred out of Boys Town Jerusalem for high school. Over the past two years he’d spent at the school’s Junior High, he’d only excelled in troublemaking. Now to his chagrin, his troubles got worse: no other high school agreed to accept him.

“I had no alternative but to phone BTJ Principal Rabbi Yaakov Elimelech and beg him for another chance,” Eliezer recalled. “The rabbi listened, paused, and then invited me to his home to join his family for dinner. That 1½-hour visit changed the course of my life.”

Speaking at the recent reunion of his BTJ High School Class of 2011, Eliezer recalled, “Rabbi Elimelech told me, ‘The day I have to decide whether to kick out a student from Boys Town is like Yom Kippur for me. I fast and pray for the wisdom to make the right decision.’ That hit home. I suddenly realised how much he genuinely cared about me and others, and that turned my life around.”

As he agreed to reinstate the youngster to Boys Town Jerusalem, Rabbi Elimelech gave him three principles upon which to base his life. One, Eliezer shared, was to always acknowledge the kindness that you are shown. “To this minute, that directive has guided my life. Thanks to the confidence and love I was given at Boys Town Jerusalem, I became a serious student, graduated university, and began studying medicine.”

Beaming at his beloved student, Rabbi Elimelech noted, “Eliezer had a tough time as a new immigrant to Israel. But he found tremendous inner strength, and we are all proud of his accomplishments. He will be an extraordinary physician who will made a profound contribution to Israel and to mankind.”

* Name changed
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
The big day has arrived!
Happy students
Sign greeting students at the campus entrance to launch BTJ’s community service program: "You have 2 hands - one to help yourself and the second to help others"