School Programs and Workshops

JNFSA works closely with the South African Jewish Day Schools, running educational programmes bringing Environmental and Judaic principles into daily life.

This includes bringing Shlichim from KKL-JNF, running educator seminars in Israel, collecting seeds for the WSEC centre to allow the less fortunate to have access to fresh produce and sharing KKL-JNF materials, kits and information.

Our shlichim, Efrat and Shabtai, recently spent time in South Africa, running engaging sessions in Jewish day schools across Johannesburg, from primary school through to high school level. They also travelled to Cape Town, where they took part in the Discover programme alongside Herzlia's Grade 11 students during their Encounter. It was a meaningful trip, full of learning and rich in the connections built with Jews across the diaspora.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/05deee_b8415b6af2164c2698043175738dce1f/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Tu B'shvat 2026 seed drive for WSEC

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/05deee_74d30166448a4c0dae71815b22885407/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

In the wake of the 7 October attacks, the tragic loss of Ariel and Kfir Bibas has come to symbolise both unimaginable grief and extraordinary resilience. Their aunt, Ofri Bibas-Levy, together with the Base, JNFSA and the South African Jewish community has committed to honouring their memory not only through mourning, but through acts of kindness and impact. Speaking at the launch of the Bibas Children Youth Impact Challenge, our newest joint initiative, shared how pain has been transformed into purpose, inspiring initiatives that spread light, unity, and generosity across Israel and now, South Africa, too. Even in the darkest moments, the Bibas family’s story reminds us that compassion, courage, and community can shape a better future. Through education, youth leadership, and meaningful action, we commit that their legacy will continue to touch lives and strengthen the fabric of our society.

JNFSA shared KKL-JNF Independence Day Activity kits with some of the schools in preparation for Yom Ha'Atzmaut. The learners at King David School also enjoyed using the interactive activity itself.

Yeshiva College Pre-Primary School using the KKL-JNF Parachute

KKL - JNF posters seen around the schools

Educator Seminars 2025 - 2026

The educator seminars are aimed at strengthening Jewish and Zionist identity and instilling values of heritage and environmental sustainability, sharing valuable resources and knowledge with learners. These seminars run in July and December.

Educator Seminar July 2026

https://youtu.be/06tepgAdQ1g

SA teachers learn to plant hope during KKL-JNF seminar in Israel

Savannah Gogoski

A delegation of South African educators and Jewish National Fund South Africa staff has returned from the annual KKL-JNF International Educators’ Seminar changed by what they saw and better equipped for what they teach. 

This year’s seminar ‒ attended by 209 delegates from 26 countries ‒ was built around the theme of planting hope for the future, and that idea took on real meaning as the programme moved between sites of grief and sites of growth across the Galilee, the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, and southern Israel. 

Visits to sites connected to the events of 7 October, including the Nova festival grounds, a car yard housing vehicles burnt in the attacks, and Kibbutz Mefalsim, gave participants a first-hand understanding of the scale of the massacre, one that will now shape how they teach this period of Israel’s history back in their own classrooms. 

That understanding was placed alongside evidence of a country still building. 

At KKL-JNF’s excellence centre in Nof Galilee, educators saw how high school students who need extra academic or social support are given far more than tutoring in subjects like English and maths. The centre offers music lessons, podcasting, and social skills programmes, giving students who might otherwise struggle a place to be seen and supported. At an innovation centre near the Kinneret, engineers and physicists are developing new technology, a reminder that Israeli ingenuity continues alongside its history. 

The theme found its clearest expression in the Tzipori Forest in the north, where the group planted trees and learned about afforestation and water management in Israel, work that has defined KKL-JNF since its founding. For educators who had spent days confronting loss, the act of planting something that would grow long after they had gone home carried its own quiet weight. 

Participants have returned to South Africa with more than new resources for their classrooms. They carry a fuller picture of Israel, one that holds its hardest history and its hope for what comes next in the same frame, and a clearer sense of what it means to help students plant something worth growing. 

For more than 125 years, KKL-JNF has been doing exactly that, turning barren land into forests, building the infrastructure that sustains communities across Israel, and now bringing educators from across the globe together to carry that same spirit of growth and renewal back to their own countries. This seminar was a reminder that KKL-JNF’s work is never just about the land. It is about the people who tend it, and the future they are helping to grow. 

Educator Seminar December 2025

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/05deee_4c896ebadc8d4aefbf27c46d7c0cf193/360p/mp4/file.mp4