A cornerstone ceremony was held in Ashdod's Rova Gimmel neighborhood for a school complex to be built and manned by Magen Halev in order to provide for the needs of special education students from Ashdod and other parts of the Coastal and Southern Regions.
Magen Halev was started 15 years ago by Rav Chanoch Zeibert and Rav Yisroel Kornit in response to demand by parents of special needs students in the Ashdod area who previously had to send their children to schools and institutions in distant cities in order to provide them an education suited to the requirements of chareidi families.
Magen Halev got its start with some 20 children with various handicaps. "The only thing we were able to give the children was our hearts," said the director, Bnei Brak Deputy Mayor Rabbi Chanoch Zeibert. "The principals, schoolteachers and kindergarten teachers gave of themselves. They put all their heart into these kids. Therefore it comes as no surprise that children who it was assumed could never walk, could never communicate, reached varying levels independence thanks to the unparalleled dedication of the staff."
Today Magen Halev includes kindergartens of all kinds, boys' schools and girls' schools, Talmud Torah Darkei Yehuda and Yeshivas Ohel Dov, which accommodate students with a wide range of birth defects and handicaps. At the disposal of the 300 children enrolled is a dedicated, professional staff of 100 kindergarten teachers, male and female grade school teachers and professional care providers engaged in this holy work, and who have seen much blessing result from their efforts besiyata deShmaya.
