Beni Hadad at Kiryat Yearim where he was both a student and subsequently a counselor

"Youth Aliyah gave me optimal educational opportunities and made up for what I was unable to get in my home environment," explained Beni Hadad, 39, a graduate of both Kiryat Yearim and Hadassah Neurim.

Today Hadad has come home to Youth Aliyah where he is the director of the Animal Corner and Horse-Riding Center at Youth Aliyah’s Neve Hadassah village. He set up the Center in 1990 and has managed it ever since.

"I want to stress that I came from a warm, loving family in Dimona," he explained. "But we lived in a very tough neighborhood. It was a very negative environment and the local schools were not good. Youth Aliyah gave me everything that was missing at home."

After studying at Kiryat Yearim's junior high school he went onto Hadassah Neurim. He also had a spell working as a counselor at Kiryat Yearim before moving to Neve Hadassah. Married with three children, Hadad is about to receive a B.Ed. degree from Beit Berl.

Shvat 5764 - February 2004