Brig. Gen. Eli Shermeyster. Photo: IDF Spokesperson

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Gadi Nadau, 24, immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia with his parents and his seven siblings during Operation Salomon in 1991.  When starting out in Israel, the Nadau’s lived in the Absorption Center in Safed and later they moved to Kiryat Gat.  Gadi dreamed of being an engineer from before he even knew what it was exactly, but his family’s financial and social problems made him doubt if he would ever be able to fulfill his vision.  Today he is in his third year of Electrical Engineering Studies (BSc), as part of an military academic program called Atidim (“Futures”).  After his studies he will serve in the IDF as an engineer.  “The program gives an opportunity to people who want to and are able to achieve something, but don't have the means or sometimes do not have the support that they need from home," he says.

The program was initiated in 2000 to help provide an influx of soldiers with academic degrees in the IDF.  And throughout the past eight years the program had tremendous successes in increasing the number of soldier-students in the IDF.  Today, there are approximately 1200 academic officers who completed the program serving in the IDF.  This number represents 40 percent of all IDF soldiers holding a degree.  The program financially subsidizes expenses for its students with scholarships (up to 15,000 NIS every year) and full funding of the student fees, by providing each student with a laptop and by allocating two tutors – a social tutor and an academic tutor – per group of students.

The main project of the program is the teaching track to which 15 outstanding students are accepted a year.  These students finish a bachelor’s degree in a science or in English, attend teachers’ training and obtain a teaching degree.  They then continue teaching and living in a small community or areas surround city centers.  If the student should wish, the IDF finances and encourages the completion of a master's degree.  33 teachers in Israel have already completed the program and 50 additional students are currently participating in the training.  The students in the teaching track do not actively serve in the IDF, but the head of the Atidim management, Lt. Col. Lior Perlman, refers to them as “Diamond Elite”.  “If I have an excellent physics teacher in a school in Dimona where the students didn't have such a teacher before, it's a contribution to the IDF too, at the end of the day,” he says.  “The value of such a teacher – for the individual, for the family, for the school and for the town – is immense.”

On Sunday (Jan. 22), a national conference organized by the Intelligence Corps (with which the Atidim program is affiliated), took place at the Soldiers' Hostel in Tel Aviv and was attended by approximately 400 twelfth graders from the Ethiopian community.  The conference was designed to encourage the high school students to participate in the program and obtain an academic degree in a field that interests them, from law to medicine and finance.  Throughout the eight years of its existence, more than 200 members of the Ethiopian community have participated in the Atidim program, and 72 of them today serve as IDF officers in their fields of study.    

The Head Officer of the Educational and Youth Corps, Brig. Gen. Eli Shermeyster, who participated in the conference, and who in his position constantly works towards the success of the program, said “The Atidim program has become a byword in the education system and in Israeli society.”  The conference was also attended by representatives of all the bodies involved in the organization of the program, at their lead: Nagiste Mangasha, CEO of the National Project for Ethiopian Immigrants; David Meharat, manager of the Ethiopian Immigrants Representation Center; and Brig. Gen. (res.) Dvorah Hasid, CEO of the Friends of Atidim Association.  The conference also included a panel at which four Ethiopian alumni of the program explained to the high school students the characteristics of the Atidim program and shared their personal experiences as students of the program.