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An impressive event was held in the Knesset building on the occasion of the great success of the first pilot project to bring students from educational institutions on an educational journey in the footsteps of the Gedolim on Har HaZeisim. So far, 2,500 chareidi students from Talmud Torah, girls’ schools and seminars have arrived. The project was launched thanks to the close collaboration between the Jerusalem Cemetery Council and the Ministry of Social Equality, headed by Minister Gila Gamliel, the Jerusalem Affairs Ministry headed by Minister Ze’ev Elkin, and the Jerusalem Municipality’s Chareidi Education Division. The place where the greatest scholars of Israel were buried throughout the generations – the students of the Vilna Gaon, the sages of Spain and the great Chassidic world, to the greatest of Israel.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, welcomed the prestigious initiative to bring chareidi students to Har HaZeisim. “In recent years, we have witnessed a great revolution taking place on Har HaZeisim in every sense … People are less reluctant to visit and we see the thousands who come to visit their rabbis and family members all year round, and I am confident that while we are talking now, we are working on new projects that will take shape in the future.”

Minister of Social Equality Gamliel, who initiated the project, spoke of the “important ethical goal that the ministry fosters in the project of encouraging visits to Har HaZeisim to visit the kevarim of the Gedolim of the generations as these students study their Torah, their ideals and their ways”.

Many educators thanked the board of Cemetery Council for the spiritual knowledge with which the students returned to school. It should be noted that the Council of Cemeteries offers a value journey program with supervised spiritual content that will be adapted to each age group, which will bring the students together on a fascinating and interesting journey on Har HaZeisim.

In this journey one can combine several secure hiking trails and a visit to Kosel. The new plan includes the full funding of the Jerusalem Cemetery Council, in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Equality, the Ministry for Jerusalem Affairs and the Jerusalem Municipality. And what is required of the educational institutions is to coordinate the date in advance, and they will be coordinated by a certified instructor who will pass on the fascinating and unique journey.

Among those who participated in the event were: Knesset Speaker Edelstein, Minister Gamliel, Minister Elkin, Director-General of the Office of Jerusalem Affairs Ron Yishai, Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee MK Gafne, MK Michael Michaeli, MK Yinon Azoulai, Director-General of the Ministry of Religious Services Oded Flus, Director-General of the Cemetery Council Rabbi Hillel Horowitz, Jerusalem Councilman Yossi Deutsch, Jerusalem Councilmen Ruchberger, Kellerman, Halprin, Betzalel, and King, and the Director of Chevra Kadisha Prushim Rav Yitzchak Globstein.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)