A Warm Home for Students

At the beginning of the academic school year, the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology inaugurated the Marc Hamon Anières House – a dormitory designed to house 120 male and female students studying at the Technion and are a part of the Anières Program. In addition to housing, the building includes shared study spaces, a club, a large balcony, a gallery, and more.

Made possible thanks to the initiative and contribution of Marc Hamon, the Anières House at the Technion is named after ORT Central Institute that Hamon studied at in the town of Anières, Switzerland, near Geneva.
A few years after the closure of the Anières Institute, the program was brought back to life in Israel at 2012, as an educational project of World ORT – Kadima Mada in collaboration with the Na’aleh program of the Ministry of Education, the Jewish Agency, the Technion, and the  Wizo Nahalal Youth Village.

“The Technion gives male and female students the best tools to become leading engineers, industry pioneers and technological pioneers, entrepreneurs, and founders of startup companies,” said Mr. Hamon. “Somewhere in history, the World ORT organization gave me the opportunity to study at a leading institution in the town of Anières, an opportunity I grabbed with both hands. Today I wish to give a similar, and even better, opportunity to our students studying at the Technion.”

Anières Program students in front of their dorms building

Mr. Hamon is supported and joined with enthusiasm by Mr. Jacques Levy, president of the Anières Alumni Association who said, “It is a dream come true. It will become a place where all students under the same roof and via their Technion studies and their great determination to know and develop their thoughts will become human beings who take responsibility for their lives and fulfill their hopes for the future,”

During their Technion studies for degrees in engineering and computer science, the students in the Anières Program receive an envelope of financial, academic, and social support. A skilled team that is personally and directly responsible for each one of them and a program that includes plenty of workshops, interesting and cultural content, and mutual guarantees ensures that the students of the Anières Program become a strong and supportive community.

“Since its inception, the Technion has had an important social role,” said Technion President, Professor Uri Sivan. “Academic education is the key to social and economic leadership, and studying at the Technion opens a door to a promising future for its graduates. The participants in the Anières Program are outstanding students, and we will give them everything they need to reach their full potential. The Technion is grateful to each and every donor, but here the thanks are twofold – because of the identity in the worldview and social commitment and because the donor, who is a graduate of the program, is now contributing to these wonderful young people and giving them an opportunity for a better future.”

Anières Program students in front of their dorms building

The process of establishing the Marc Hamon Anières House, and thus recreating the ORT Central Institute in Anières, had been led by Mr. Robert Singer, chairman of the board of trustees of World ORT and a co-founder of the Anières Program. Mr. Singer expressed that “the common goal between the project and the Technion is 1,000 graduates who are outstanding engineers who will lead the Israeli economy. Many engineers will continue Marc Hamon’s path both in industry and as a future leadership of the Jewish people.”

“The Anières program supports students from the geographic and socioeconomic periphery in Israel and single soldiers,” explained Professor Ayelet Fishman, dean of students at the Technion. “The Office of the Dean of Students at the Technion works to help all students deal with personal problems and reach their potential, and we are happy about the cooperation with the Anières Program. The male and female students in the program are entitled to live in the dormitories in any case, and now they will live together in the Anières building and enjoy designated activities after school hours. I am so thankful to Marc Hamon, who chose the Technion as a partner, and I wish success to all the students in the 2023 academic year.”

Ira Lotman, who leads the Anières Program in Israel, said, “Marc Hamon Anières House is a very significant step that will advance the program towards achieving its goals – building a large community, based on the values ​​of the historical institution that World ORT established in Switzerland. The male and female students join as another link in the chain where each individual becomes stronger, so that he or she can pass it on.”

“The historical Anières Alumni Association, led by Mr. Jacques Levy, continues to support and inspire our students,” she continued. “Today, after a decade of activity, the first 50 graduates of the Anières Program who started their journey with us as teenagers at Wizo Nahalal finished their studies at the Technion last year, will receive their graduation certificates this summer and emerge to influence the outside world. This is the cutting edge of Israeli society.”

One of those students is Mykola Fedotov, from the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering, who recently started his third year of study at the Technion. He was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, where he participated in the Jewish Agency’s youth movement.

“My grandparents immigrated to Israel when I was a child and wanted me to move to Israel, too. My mother also supported me,” shared Fedotov. At the age of 15, he came to Israel as part of the Na’aleh program of youth coming on aliya before their parents and began studying as part of the Anières Program at Wizo Nahalal High School. At the end of the 10th grade, he completed the Technion’s “Archimedes” chemistry program, which awarded him a score of 100 in chemistry in the matriculation exams.

After that he began to study biology and physics in high school and at the end of his studies, was accepted into the academic reserve and began his education at the Technion. After two years in the Canada Dormitory, he now enters the Marc Hamon Anières House and is very satisfied – not only because of the view and the level of maintenance but mainly because he will live together with his friends in the Anières Program. He will take part in the program’s student committee to promote personal and community formation and enrichment. According to Fedotov, he will also continue to enjoy dancing bachata and salsa at the student house.

Anières Program students

Another student, Inbar Isso, recently began her second year of study in the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science. Her sister is completing a degree in computer science and her brother has earned a degree in electrical and computer engineering. Isso herself studied in the program of excellence at a high school and went on to join the military service in the information technology field.

This is Isso’s second year living in the dorms, something she enjoys, “because living at the Technion saves on travel and allows us to enjoy the social life here.” She is even more enthusiastic about the new building. “It’s an amazing building, and I’m really grateful for the opportunity to live in it. We’ve already been told about the annual activity plan, and it’s really excellent. There are going to be Shabbat receptions, evenings together, workshops, lectures, and meetings that I’m really looking forward to participating in.”