More Than Treading Water

New Immigrant Ethiopian Children get ready to face the challenges of full integration into Israeli schools through an intensive program at the Tzahal Absorption Center.

Matzofim in Hebrew means floaters, water wings -- inflatable arm bands small children wear in a pool to keep them afloat. The Matzofim afternoon program at the Tzahal Absorption Center does more than keep children’s heads above the water, it teaches them to swim in scholastics. As a matter of course, new immigrant Ethiopian children residing in the Absorption Centers are integrated into what are known as “absorbing” classes at the local school. In a segregated, non-threatening environment, they are given the opportunity to master language skills. However, the classes are often not enough, and the initial separation sometimes comes with a stigma.

This coming September, none of the children from the Tzahal Absorption Center will be placed in “absorbing” classes. Rafi Trabelsi, Program Coordinator at Tzahal, explains that Matzofim is successfully pre-empting problematic school integration. Situated within the Absorption Center are eighteen classes with ten children in each class. Experienced teachers spend three hours on language skills and one hour on math three times a week. “Six years ago, we began a small project preparing children for first grade. The results were astounding, and the Jewish Agency decided to expand the project and call it Matzofim.

“The children, ages four to twelve, come home from preschool or school, eat lunch at home and walk down to the Matzofim program at three o’clock. Highly motivated, once they begin to master skills and concepts, their confidence soars and with it an enhanced ability to learn. The great majority of our children arrive in Israel at grade school age illiterate. At Matzofim, the teachers are supportive and respectful of them and the results are that they become quick and adept learners. We had fifteen third graders last year in a nearby school. The teachers had utterly despaired of them ever learning to read. Today each and every one of them can read. I guarantee that some of our kindergarteners will be helping the Israeli kids when they get to first grade in the Fall.”