Mae Boyar High School and Residential Campus
The Mae Boyar High School was created through the vision and foresight of Los Angeles philanthropist Louis Boyar, who recognized the need for a high school that would unlock the potential of underserved Israeli students. Mr. Boyar established the school in 1964 as a memorial to his life partner and beloved wife, Mae.
Today Boyar is one of the most distinguished high-schools in Israel, and is dedicated to cultivating excellence in the scholastic performance of the students — in their social values, and in the fields of sports, culture, and the arts.
The school’s vibrant student body is composed of close to a thousand students, highly motivated and scholastically capable teenagers from the full spectrum of Israeli society. A combination of day school students, who are mostly from Jerusalem, and 300 boarders from outlying and developing communities in Israel’s periphery, contributes to the school’s unique learning environment. Respect for humanity, contributing to society, celebrating difference, and pluralism are core values that guide Boyar as a learning community.
The 21st century is characterized by changes in all areas of society, technology, economy, environment and politics and Boyar High School is keeping pace. Boyar is changing the learning experience from passive to active, creating a learning environment in flexible modular learning spaces in which students learn, research, ask questions and discover the world.
Boyar prepares students to operate in a knowledge-rich, interdisciplinary, technologically-complex environment that requires critical vision, discernment skills and focus on quality versus quantity. The school is instilling students with academic abilities appropriate to the changes taking place in the world along with social skills and leadership abilities that will enable them to be change agents and to take responsibility for Israeli society and the communities in which they live.
The Boyar School now has more than 8,000 alumni, many of whom have become leaders of Israeli society in a variety of fields, from health care and business to science and government service. The grandchildren of Mae and Louis Boyar z”l are continuing the family’s heritage through involvement in the success of the School and ensuring it has the capacity to educate future generations of young Israelis.