The Mandel IDF Educational Leadership Program marked its ninth year this month, with the start of the program for a new cohort of 20 IDF majors and lieutenant colonels from the Education and Youth Corps, Ground Forces Command, Home Front Command, Air Force, Navy, Intelligence Corps and Teleprocessing Corps. The fellows chosen to be part of the program were vetted by both the IDF and the Mandel Leadership Institute.
The program was launched at the Education and Youth Corps training base, in an event attended by the IDF Chief Education officer and the head of the corps’ education division. The group commenced its studies at the Mandel Leadership Institute on October 20, 2014.
In 2005, the Mandel IDF Educational Leadership Program was established in collaboration with the Education and Youth Corps. The academic year long program aims to help IDF officers develop their identity as educators and expand their knowledge, perceptions and practical skills in educational matters. The program focuses on such topics as the goals of education, educational challenges in the IDF and in Israeli society and values-oriented education. The course of study includes lectures, workshops and field trips as well as individual projects.
On the first day of the program at the Mandel Institute, Moshe Vigdor, the director general of the Mandel Foundation-Israel, spoke to the officers about the Foundation’s activities and shared with them Yitzhak Rabin’s understanding of leadership, from a book about leadership in the IDF. Rabin's understanding of leadership, like Mandel Foundation Chairman and CEO Morton Mandel’s conception, stresses the importance of investing in the individual. The fellows also met with Dr. Eli Gottlieb, director of the Mandel Leadership Institute, who told them about the Institute’s work. In a lecture on the goal of the Mandel IDF Educational Leadership program, program director Dr. Chava Shane said “there are places that work on leadership and there are many places that deal with education. The unique thing about this place is the attempt to link the two.”
