INN: Rabbi David Samson, known for his unconventional approach to educating youth at risks, is launching an innovative project for youth who find it difficult to sit in one place: A mobile Yeshiva high school � in Jeeps.

Rabbi Samson’s new vision takes his concern for disenfranchised young Jewish youth across the Jewish nation, literally. Beginning in September, 36 twelfth-graders will attend class each day in one of 6 jeeps. The chalk board is the dust and sand of the Judean Desert.

“I realized that something must be done to reach high school youth who simply can’t sit in a 4-walled classroom,� says Rabbi Samson. �The evening high-school [Maaleh Erev institutions] where I currently serve as Dean helps kids who dropped out of conventional frameworks get through their matriculation exams (known in Israel as bagruyot). We give them much individual attention and have many successes, but I see others who we are missing. The challenge is to get them through their matriculation exams and steer them back into mainstream society on every level. This new methodology of a Jeep Yeshiva was the answer.”

Each jeep is a �classroom� complete with a combined Rabbi/driver. Each month, the students will complete one class, and move to another jeep. Classes are in Tanach, Jewish history, Talmud, Jewish philosophy, Jewish history and civics. Math and English will be taught throughout the year part-time in a jeep where they will only hear English. And as Rabbi Samson admits, “Yes, there’s no way to totally avoid it,” Math and English will also be taught part-time in the dreaded 4-walled classroom.

“The students who are already signed up,” says the 50-year-old Rabbi, “are excellent youth who yearn to learn and absorb, but for some reason didn’t survive conventional frameworks.”