Shevah Mofet

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Shevah Mofet (Hebrew: שבח מופת‎; also spelled Shevach Mofet) is a high school located on 7th HaMasger St. in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was considered one of the leading secondary schools in Israel for about ten years until its popularity began declining in 2004.

The school was originally called Shevah, named after a British World War 2 pilot, who was the uncle of one of the founders of the school. It was only the second secondary school in Tel Aviv, after Gymnasia Hertzlia, starting studies in 1946.

In the beginning, Shevah was a 'professional' school, where students studied only a particular profession, such as carpentry, and graduated with a professional diploma. As demand for such schools declined, Shevah became a regular high school.

In the 1990s, a professor from Russia, named Yakov Mozganov, who worked as a security guard at the school, founded the Mofet night school on Shevah's grounds, and attracted to it many Russian immigrants from the mass aliyah of the 1990s. In turn, this attracted more Russian doctors (people who had a doctorate degree) to teach, as they couldn't find a job anywhere else, due to their lack of Hebrew knowledge. Eventually a decision was made to merge Shevah and Mofet and the Russian teachers started teaching in the regular school, which became known as Shevah-Mofet. Mofet is an acronym containing the words Mathematics and Physics, but also means excellence.

This gave the school a reputation of being one of the best (due to the extremely high quality of teachers), but also discouraged attendance from many non-Russian students, who did not want to be part of a Russian-speaking high school in Hebrew-speaking Israel. The school was nicknamed 'Little Russia' by many.

From left to right: Mikhail Gorbachev, Shimon Peres, then school principal Avi Benbenishti

Shevah Mofet has attracted many Russian visitors, notably figures such as Sergei Brin, one of the creators of Google, and Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet president.

On June 1, 2001, an Arab suicide bomber killed 21 Israeli teenagers in the Tel Aviv "Dolphi" discotheque. Seven of the victims were from the Shevah Mofet high school, with more injured.

The bombing created an international outrage, but also caused many worldwide to donate money to Shevah Mofet. This helped improve the financial situation of the school and create a new library and cafeteria. Therefore, although much money was given to the families of victims, the school's administration was often criticized for exploiting the deaths of its students.

In 2004, it was discovered that the school cafeteria served expired, or otherwise bad food products. It created a citywide scandal, where the media (newspapres such as Yedioth Ahronoth and Maariv) was involved, as well as the health ministry. Despite this, the cafeteria remains, employing the same workers.