About the Mandel Leadership Unit in the School

The Mandel School for Educational Leadership strengthens the capacity of senior educational leaders from the formal and informal education systems, as well as and policy-makers from the wider educational ecosystem, to lead meaningful change across Israel’s education system. The School combines reflective theoretical thinking with informed pragmatism, enabling participants to navigate the complexities of educational systems and social change. It cultivates values-driven leaders whose work has a broad and lasting impact, and whose graduates hold and continue to assume key positions throughout the educational field.

The current times are marked by numerous overlapping crises—democratic, social, political, security-related, health- related, ecological and economic—which collectively result in leaders facing high levels of complexity and uncertainty. Within this larger context, the field of education is also undergoing major epistemic and normative shifts, including rapid technological advancements (e.g. AI), the breakdown of traditional frameworks, challenges to core pedagogical assumptions and a decline in consensus on the goals of education.

This state of affairs poses significant challenges to Israel’s education system, particularly since they require a reevaluation of the relationship between education, identity and social solidarity.

In such circumstances, educational leadership requires an approach that combines reflective theoretical thinking with informed pragmatism, as well as the ability to move between a critical systemic understanding of social change and addressing the complexities of educational systems, both in theory and in practice.

The Mandel School for Educational Leadership encompasses two core initiatives:

The Mandel School for Educational Leadership Program, which develops leaders who aim to have a broad impact across Israel’s education system.
The Center for Policy in Education, which aims to advance policy thinking throughout the wider educational ecosystem.

In addition, "A Time to Educate", a teaching certification program designed for war evacuees, operated between the years 2024-2025 in partnership with the Seymour Fox School of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Fellows of Mandel School for Educational Leadership sitting together and talking — The Mandel School is aimed at high level educational leaders within the formal and informal education system, as well as policy-makers in the wider eco-system. The ‘Time to Educate’ program was offered as an urgent and temporary response to Israel’s teacher shortage, while simultaneously meeting the personal needs of war evacuees. Graduates of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership lead change in their various professional fields, based on the unique professional approach, values and ways of thinking they develop during their studies. Many graduates have held and continue to hold key positions in the education system.

About the Mandel Foundation–Israel

The Mandel Foundation–Israel aims to advance Israel as a Jewish and democratic state that is inclusive, just and pluralistic, by training visionary leaders in the fields of education, society and culture in Israel.