School under siege: Kibbutz Yehiam families innovate amid daily rocket fire

The kibbutz’s bomb shelters and protected rooms were converted into classrooms and organized by subject, with 112 students in grades 1-6 now learning at the kibbutz.

By Noah Michaeli, TPS

For the families of Kibbutz Yehiam, sending their children to school during Hezbollah’s daily rocket barrages on northern Israel was a difficult task.

“The local authorities decided to send the children back to elementary school, but the only school is half an hour from Yehiam,” Yehiam resident and mother of two Roni Egozi Aberman told The Press Service of Israel.

“While they decided to send the children back to school, they didn’t renew school buses.”

This meant that each child would have to be driven by their parents twice a day for half an hour each way, without any cover, under missile fire.

The community’s residents, however, were determined to find a safer way to educate their children.

“The parents here got organized. They got together and decided to arrange their own school, here in the kibbutz,” said Egozi Aberman, whose children are in fourth and fifth grade.

In addition, it was important to the parents of Yehiam that the school itself be safe.

As a result, the kibbutz’s bomb shelters and protected rooms were converted into classrooms — organized by subject.

Around 112 students in grades 1-6 now learn at the kibbutz, but the number varies with children from nearby communities also attending if it is safe for them to drive.

Wednesday marked the kibbutz school’s first in-person classes since Hezbollah’s communication devices blew up on Sept. 17 and 18.

According to Local Council Chairman and Yehiam resident Niv Moran, the drive behind this initiative came entirely from the kibbutz’s residents, who found a creative solution to a pressing problem.

“The parents innovated,” Moran told TPS-IL. “We talked to the relevant people in the local government and they helped us with everything we needed to turn our bomb shelters into proper places for learning.”

The entire community came together to clean, furnish, and prepare all the new classrooms ahead of the first day of school, Moran said.

Said Egozi Aberman, “Everyone in the community contributed something, whatever they had at home, to make sure that the classrooms were properly prepared.”

Moran attributed the community’s success to both the strong group effort and to Yehiam’s effective organizers and administrators.

“I’d especially like to thank Idan Raz, our kibbutz’s community manager,” Moran says. “He helped us with everything we needed.”

“Five teachers come every morning,” Egozi Aberman explains. “Each one teaches something different, all the core subjects that are the most important for the children to learn.”

After a year of war and uncertainty, Moran is happy to be part of a solution that gives his children, and the children of his community, some stability.

“Real lessons! In-person, exactly like children at that age need,” Moran says.

For residents of northern communities like Yehiam, where child education has been interrupted by over a year of war, safely returning children to school is a huge achievement.

“My son is in third grade,” Moran adds, “and to see him there in class, meeting his friends, it’s really, truly something else.”

After the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, Hezbollah began firing rockets and launching drones at northern Israel communities daily.

More than 68,000 residents of northern Israel are displaced from their homes. Hezbollah leaders have repeatedly said they would continue the attacks to prevent Israelis from returning to their homes.

According to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the terror group is forbidden from operating in southern Lebanon.