The Rothschild Education Award in the memory of Max Rowe was presented to Tal Karelitz-Nissim, a teacher at the ORT Rose Junior High School in Acco.

The Rothschild Education Prize in the memory of Max Rowe is a highly prestigious award. It is presented each year in the Knesset to a teacher or teaching team that initiated, developed, and successfully implemented an innovative use of computers or the Internet in their classes or schools. This year's winner, Tal Karelitz-Nissim, was awarded the prize for leading a breakthrough in her school in the field of teleprocessing.

Tal, a science teacher at ORT Rose, built an Internet site and initiated educational projects operated by teleprocessing. She sparked the enthusiasm of students, who participated in school Internet activities even after regular school hours. Many of the students even recruited their parents into becoming active, and the parents participate in lively debates on the school website.

Among the various activities are: research on the subject of eating disorders - a subject that is important to many teens; multi-culture in Acco - a city inhabited by Jews and Arabs, new immigrants and veteran Israelis alike; dilemmas in the field of cloning and genetic engineering, and more.

A citation was also awarded to Orit Nitecki of ORT Kiryat Bialik, coordinator of electronics studies, who designed a website for students in the electronics track at her school. The site enables students to study and practice, and teachers to teach and assist, after regular school hours. Thanks to the opportunities made available by a virtual environment, there has been an improvement in the students' matriculation achievements.

ORT Israel's pride is twofold - for these same two teachers are themselves ORT graduates.

  Tevet 5764 - January 2004