About the project
The Gymnasia Ha’ivrit (Hebrew Gymnasium) Comprehensive High School is one of the city’s most historic and highly regarded secular schools. It was founded in 1910 and moved to its present location in 1929. The school has graduated some of the country’s top academic and political figures. It became a comprehensive school in 1982, adding junior high school grades and vocational training to its academic coursework. It has an average of 1,000 students per year. The Jerusalem Foundation has supported various projects at the school over the years, beginning in 1975 with creation of the Amnon Ben Natan Library, named in memory of a soldier killed in the Balima Battle in the Golan Heights in 1973. It created an Arab language program in 1984 that increased the number of Jewish students learning spoken Arabic from 200 beginning in ninth grade, to 500 beginning in seventh grade. The Foundation created a computer laboratory in 1986. It supported a major renovation project in 1995 that included interior and exterior improvements, including at its main building, library, science center and lower and upper courtyards and creation of the Bartana-Zelman Hall, which was dedicated to commemorate 50 years since the end of World War II.
