Yeshivat Makor Chaim

The senior Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Dov Singer is assisted by Rabbi David Rabinowitz. In addition to the high school which serves close to 300 students annually, Makor Chaim also operates the "Beit Midrash L'Hitchadshut" (the Renewal Outreach Center), a nationwide outreach study andprayer program for personal spiritual development as well as several training and development programs for educators, administrators and others.

• Name — Yeshivat Makor Chaim • Native Name — ישיבת מקור חיים • Motto — "תאמין שיכולים לתקן" • Motto Lang — Hebrew • Motto Eng — Believe that you can repair • Established — 1985 • Affiliations — Jewish • Officer In Charge — Rabbi David Rabinowitz • President — Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz • Dean — Rabbi Dov Singer • Students — 300 • City — Kfar Etzion • Province — Gush Etzion • Country — West Bank • Website — makorchaim.org

The daily schedule starts at 7:00 am with morning prayers, followed by breakfast. From 9:00 until 12:30 students learn Judaic studies, where they primarily engage in rigorous Talmud Study. Classes in Jewish Thought and philosophy are also taught in this portion of the day. After lunch, the secular studies begin at 13:30, and end at 18:30, with afternoon prayers and additional torah study from 16:20-17:10. This is followed by dinner. Evening prayers begin at 19:15, followed by an hour or two (depending on the learning program in which the student is enrolled) of Talmud Study. The remaining night hours are dedicated to homework, hobbies, relaxing, clubs, and sleep.

In June 2014, a national tragedy struck Makor Chaim. Three students were kidnapped from outside the grounds of the Center on a Thursday evening as they prepared to make their way home for the Sabbath. Naftali Fraenkel, Gile'ad Shear and Eyal Ifrach never made it home. An eighteen-day intensive search resulted in the discovery that the 3 boys had been murdered by their Hamas abductors moments after they were snatched. Three months after the abduction, buoyed by the allocation of 32 dunams of land by the State of Israel, Makor Chaim and the She'ar, Ifrach and Fraenkel families "Chose Life". A campaign to build a permanent new educational campus in memory of Eyal, Gilad and Naftali was launched. The new campus project was to begin construction by the summer of 2015. A special event marking the first anniversary of the boys kidnapping was held in June 2015.

• Yair Cherki, journalist