The Shalem Leadership Institute was established in 2008/9 through the generosity of a $600,000 grant received through the Jewish Funders Network. The institute runs a series of programs for Israeli high school students with the aim of exposing them to Jewish and Zionist thought at the highest level. Programs include:

Seminars for Israel’s Top High School Students (The Rimon Program)

The Shalem Leadership Institute provides seminars for the enrichment of top high school juniors and seniors in Israel, with the aim of exposing them to serious textual study and discussion of political philosophy, Jewish history, and Zionist thought—not for credit or for a test, but as preparation for a life of civic involvement and leadership. They learn, among other things, to articulate to themselves and their peers, why the Jewish state is critical to the Jewish people, and why the survival and flourishing of the Jewish people merits the sacrifices they will be making. Their years of service will then build them as thinking individuals and citizens, and they will graduate from the army ready for a collegiate educational experience that will help them develop as leaders in their fields of endeavor—scholarly, professional, business, or political.

The 2009-2010 Rimon Program involves one hundred participants who are divided into two parallel tracks, each comprising 50 students. Each group meets five times during the academic year, generally for a period of two days at a time.  These programs feature top instructors from Shalem’s faculty as well as adjunct scholars and educators, and combine individual and paired study of texts (using the traditional chavruta method), lectures, and small-group discussions, as well as informal interactions and social activities aimed at creating a bonding experience. To enable students to devote themselves fully to the program, which run 15 hours or more each day, seminars take place in retreat centers or campuses located outside Israel’s major cities.

“Through This Program…I’ve Discovered a World Filled with Richness and Wisdom”
The Israeli weekly newspaper Gal Geffen, which reaches more than one million readers in areas from Modi'in to Rishon Le’Tzion, covered the Shalem Center's Rimon Program for high school students in its issue dated January 28, 2010. “This program expanded my horizons and shattered a number of stigmas,” says Eyal Pasternak, an eleventh grade participant. “Take, for instance, how I had always thought of rabbinic teachings as something archaic and irrelevant to today's world.  Through this program, I’ve discovered in them a world filled with richness and wisdom.  I agree with Dr. Ido Hevroni, one of the directors of the program, who said that ethical issues are important and relevant to the future of Israel no less than are mathematical formulas and the elements of the periodic table.” Click here to read a translation of the article in full.

“We Were Exposed to So Many Things that We Had No Chance of Learning in School,” Says Rimon Participant
On March 21, 2010, the widely read weekly paper Modi’in News ran an extensive interview with four participants in the Shalem Center’s Rimon program for outstanding Israeli high school students. The article focused on the uniqueness of the program and its impact on the 80 high school juniors taking part in it. “This was one of the most amazing experiences we’ve had,” said Adi Aharoni, describing a seminar on Rabbinic literature. “I left that seminar with an appreciation of how important it is to listen to different opinions and to discuss and probe ideas.” Yasmin Amroussi added, “We were exposed to so many things that we had no chance of learning in school. We gained access to things that I never would have imagined that I would study.” Click here to read a full translation of the article.

Seminars for Students in Pre-Army Preparatory Academies

Starting in the 2010/11 academic year, the Shalem Leadership Institute will launch programs targeted at students in Israel’s pre-army academies. In the first year, one academy will be selected, and Shalem will provide a once-a-month lecture and discussion focused on understanding Judaism, Zionism, and Israel within a broader context of philosophy and history—elements typically under-emphasized in the pre-army academies. Towards the end of the year, the Leadership Institute will hold a highly intensive, weekend-long seminar at a retreat center for all the students of the chosen academy, with the aim of giving them a much more concentrated exposure to these ideas, and provoking the kind of discussion that is only possible in an “immersion” environment. In the second and third years of the program, it is expected that a second academy will be added, and by the third year, an additional two.