Who we are
Our Vision
We believe that every person is born to discover and realize themselves in their lives.
From the experience we have gained over the past decade in accompanying children and youth to bring their wonderful and original ideas to life, combined with the safe and productive environment we have created for the children, we have seen that the process builds their self-confidence, instills in them a sense of competence and high self-worth, and of course tools and inspiration to initiate and realize the fruit of their imagination into reality.
The enormous educational advantage is the change that the child recognizes in himself and in the value he has to give to the world. This is truly oxygen for the soul for our children in today's world.
Our vision is to raise a young generation that knows its value, believes in itself, and contributes to its environment out of joy, meaning, belonging and personal initiative, therefore we strive to grow this change into two main branches:
1-
Establishing an empowerment village for children and youth in Israel
The empowerment village is a unique, open and inviting space, where every child and youth can come from all corners of the country to create and fulfill their inner world and realize their inner strengths, develop responsibility, creativity, independent thinking and mental resilience.
The village will include spaces for woodworking, welding, art, a seminary for studying the human soul, a studio for creating content with children + creating music, an agricultural farm that also includes animals (sheep, chickens and more), outdoor and indoor facilities, a complex for lectures and workshops, guest houses for groups and families, and residences for staff and management.
The village will host schools from all over the country and from all sectors and will train students and teachers to develop confidence in themselves and their environment and bring a spirit of action and leadership to the school as well.
The village will include groups: families, education teams, parents and people who believe in the human soul from Israel and abroad.
2-
Integrating our knowledge and experience in the education system
Over the years, we have developed a unique model for personal and social empowerment for children and youth, based on building trust and an experience based on personal initiative, a sense of belonging and self-fulfillment.
Now we seek to expand the impact and introduce this model into the educational frameworks themselves - schools, high schools, yeshivots, seder yeshivots, ulpanots and more - to train teaching teams and formal education systems.
The goal is to provide teachers, counselors and teaching teams with practical tools for emotional-educational work with students, based on the same principles that have proven themselves in the empowerment processes that we have been going through together with children and youth over the past decade.
About Etz Haim
Etz Haim is an empowerment and Entrepreneurship program for children and youth.
We work on developing the children's inner world through their interests and ideas.
We founded Etz Haim in order to provide a safe space for children to develop their inner- emotional world alongside their dreams and desires.
We all have an innate need that starts from childhood to explore, evolve, experiment and discover who we really are. We want to know what makes us special and what gifts we have to share with the world.
In Etz Haim we empower children through the fruition of their ideas and initiatives they choose to explore.
We believe in the potential their soul has and want to help them reach that potential.
Our story
We are Hillel and Chen Klein. We are married and we are parents to five wonderful children.
Our story began long before we met and had our children. Hillel was a man of the desert. He lived in the desert guiding tourists and taming camels. After a few years of traveling and working in Israel and the world, he got into the business of heights.
Chen studied acting for many years. After the army Chen flew to Australia to study that further in one of the top schools there. She ended up presenting on TV and she also go into private real-estate investments.
We were at the height of our carriers, and yet we weren't fulfilled.
We were missing a sense of purpose and meaning, beyond the banal.
After we married, we continued our quest to discover the essence of life, through deep discussions and studying kabbalah together. Our will to fulfill ourselves and change the world around us was growing.
Having our first born daughter, Priya, pushed us to delve into the different educational methods out there. We wanted to find which method suited our family best.
Then our son was born and that pushed us further to create our own space. We founded a school based on the idea of allowing free reigns to the students.
We put all our effort into creating this school, but unfortunately, the initiative fell through. We found ourselves once again 'schoolless'.
But we didn't give up!
After having another baby boy,we pivoted, and in 2017 we built The Etz Haim Center. To empower children and youth towards entrepreneurship.
In Etz Haim the children grow to listen to themselves, to explore and discover their inner world. They find out what interests them. We support them to further their ideas through to fruition. We joyfully expose them to different life skills and nurture their deepest thoughts and wants.
We curated this belief from Jewish materials, kabbalah and chasidus, based on Rav Yehuda Ashlag's, The Baal Hasulam, teachings. Also, Rav Kook, Rabbi Kalman Klonimus, The Admor of Piascecna and more.
We believe the role education has in a child's life is to give the child the tools to discover and fulfill who they really are while they are still children.
If you are like minded, and seek change in your children's education,then we invite you to join us in reforming the educational system.
Sincerely yours,
Chen and Hillel Klein.
Our vision is to build in every region of Israel and the world a space that is an enveloping and family environment for children and youth, which gives them freedom and confidence to explore and discover themselves in their own unique way, encourages personal initiative, the ability to express and self-fulfillment, with full trust in the human soul and the infinite potential that exists in each and every one.
