Midrashiat Noam (, commonly known as The Midrashia) is a prominent religious Zionist yeshiva high school in Israel. Originally established in Pardes Hanna in 1945, it was the first flagship institution of its kind designed to integrate rigorous Torah studies with a high-level general education. Today, the school operates in Kfar Saba under the management of the ORT Israel network.
History The school was founded in Elul 1945 by Israel Sadan, Michael Tzur, and Rabbi Yehoshua Yagel, with the spiritual blessing of the Chazon Ish. The founders aimed to combat the marginalization of religious youth in Israeli society at the time by fostering intellectual pride, religious commitment, and secular academic excellence.
During its operation in Pardes Hanna, the institution became highly influential across Israel. Under the guidance of school leadership and Rabbi Shaul Israeli, the school developed and edited Perakim Be'Machshavat Yisrael (Chapters in Jewish Thought), a pioneering textbook published by Midrashiat Noam in 1952 that was widely adopted by schools throughout Israel for official state matriculation (Bagrut) exams.
In 1975, the institution established a junior high school division in Kfar Saba called "Kiryat Yaakov Herzog", which served as a preparatory program ("Mekhina") for the main high school campus.
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Pardes Hanna campus suffered from severe disciplinary issues, student rebellion, and structural vandalism. In 2005, the Kfar Saba preparatory division was expanded into a full six-year high school, and the original Pardes Hanna campus permanently closed its doors following the graduation of its final class in 2007. Management of the school shifted to the ORT Israel network in 2015, which introduced specialized science and software engineering tracks.
2023 Documentary In 2023, an investigative documentary film titled The Midrashia (also known as Once Upon a School)—directed by school alumnus Tal Bechar alongside Netanel Yemin and Yair Agmon—was screened at the Docaviv film festival before broadcasting nationally on Kan 11. The film documented a long-standing internal culture of intense peer pressure, severe hazing rituals (known as "Zobors"), widespread vandalism, and institutional negligence that plagued the boarding school environment during its final decades in Pardes Hanna.
Notable alumni The school has produced numerous influential figures in Israeli politics, law, education, and military, including: Ofir Sofer – Minister of Aliyah and Integration. Yaakov Neeman – Former Minister of Justice and Minister of Finance. Eitan Cabel – Former Member of the Knesset for the Labor Party. Yehudah Glick – Rabbi, activist, and former Member of the Knesset. David Mintz – Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel. Michael Abraham – Rabbi, prominent analytical philosopher, author, and researcher at Bar-Ilan University. Yoram Cohen – Former Director of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).
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