Machon L'Madrichei Chutz La'Aretz (Hebrew: מכון למדריכי חוץ לארץ) ("Institute for Youth Leaders from Abroad") is a young leadership program in Israel for high school graduates from all over the world. [1]
The Machon was founded in 1946 by the World Zionist Organization to train a cadre of Zionist youth leaders who would go back to their home countries and work in the Jewish community to pass on Zionist values and promote immigration to Israel.
Since then, over 12,000 young people have studied at the Machon, from South America, Australia, Argentina, Mexico and the United States, North African France, Great Britain and many others countries in the 1950s, and more recently from the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The Machon offers 17-19 year olds an intensive one-year program to strengthen their leadership skills and enhance their knowledge of Judaism, Zionism, Jewish history, Hebrew and Israeli society. The program includes touring, volunteer work in development towns and kibbutzim, and encounters with Israelis to strengthen ties to Israel. [2]
The first group of students, 30 Jewish high school graduates from South Africa, were housed at an agricultural school near Ness Ziona. In 1949, the Machon moved to a building in the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem. Since 1972, it has been located in East Talpiot, [3] at the Kiryat Moriah Educational Campus.[4]
Today the Machon runs four programs: