Teacher’s Day 2015-2017

A couple of years ago, we embarked on a new initiative, titled: Teacher’s Day, which aims to recognize the importance of teaching and teachers in Israeli society. The Teacher’s Day events started as a small spin off from our online social network community (It’s Time for Education), in an attempt to increase attention and awareness to its activities.  Members of the virtual community were asked to send thank-you letters to their favorite teachers, to upload photos and video clips and to share them with each other.

The events quickly moved from the internet to the real world, as dozens of education organizations, school networks and municipalities joined in. Students and parents arranged all sorts of ceremonies and receptions to pay respect to teachers, TV channels amplified the celebrations by sending reporters to cover the events across the country, and even the Knesset’s education committee convened for a special meeting, asking its members to invite their beloved teachers and to publically thank them.

Last year we decided not to keep operating the project internally, rather than to ask LEAD, a non-profit organization, to take responsibility and to orchestrate this effort. The reasons were the growing activity which seemed more than we could take upon ourselves and the fact that Teacher’s Day is developing a ‘life of its own’, which we thought would be better if not directly organized by a philanthropic foundation. This decision proved itself effective as the events sprouted, with hundreds of creative activities and numerous volunteers. Among the new participants in last year’s event were the President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin and the Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat.

In the coming three years, LEAD is planning to bring Teacher’s Day to the center stage and to create a ‘social movement’ around it. For this purpose, the central website of the events will be upgraded and translated to Arabic, Russian and English. Designated teams will be dedicated to customize the activity to the Arab, Jewish-Religious and Haredi communities. Additional municipalities and organizations will be harnessed, as well as the youth movements, universities, parents’ organizations and high tech companies. Members of the Knesset will also become more involved and an effort will be made to legislate the day as a formal event in the Israeli calendar.

In addition and at the request of the Trump Foundation, special and ongoing events will be dedicated to teachers of mathematics and the sciences, signaling their unique professionalism and the importance of their work to Israel’s future.

* The text presented above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation Board / Grant 178