Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Amir Yaron, Supervisor of Banks Mr. Yair Avidan, and other guests from the Bank of Israel visited the Ben Shemen Youth Village today, in order to take part in the financial education classes that were given by Bank of Israel representatives, based on content prepared especially for Global Money Week. The classes dealt with proper financial conduct, budget management, the importance of saving, and proper conduct vis-à-vis the bank. The Governor’s remarks at the meeting are attached, as well as pictures for general use (credit: Bank of Israel Spokesperson’s Office).

 

The Ben Shemen Youth Village, established in 1927, has approximately 400 students and offers modern education with an old fashioned flavor. The Village integrates high-quality education, an advanced agricultural farm, individually suited responses for each student through finding their interests—music, bicycling, horseback riding, physics, or social action. The Director General of the Youth Village, Dr. Ilana Tischler, thanked the Governor of the Bank and the staff for the meaningful and empowering visit, and the classes given by the Bank of Israel staff to the students. She said that in the Ben-Shemen Youth Village, they “plant seeds of education and reap achievements through the integration of education and agriculture with an old fashioned flavor, with the main message being—if you believe, this is reality you will bring”.

 

This is the first year that the State of Israel is taking part in Global Money Week—an international activity for youth, with the goal of increasing financial awareness with an emphasis on its importance in the day to day life of youth around the world.

 

The first phase of the activity in Israel, led by the Bank of Israel’s Banking Supervision Department, the Ministry of Education and Israel’s representation to the OECD, as well as through a financial education forum of the banking system, began on March 9, 2021 with an online class on the Internet academy website, for students in grades 9 and 10, on the topic of “taking responsibility for our money”, which was given by representatives of the Ministry of Education and the Banking Supervision Department.

 

In addition, with the opening of the program, the material that the Banking Supervision Department and the banking system’s financial education forum prepared for the various activities were published on the Bank of Israel’s website. These included an experiential presentation, a guide for the person making the presentation, interactive games, and a consumer guide that includes helpful suggestions before opening a bank account. It should be noted that even a recording of the online class was published online so that schools that did not yet participate in the class will be able to integrate it into their schedule when they want to do so. Following is a link to the Global Money Week page on the Bank of Israel website (in Hebrew):

 

https://www.boi.org.il/he/ConsumerInformation/ConsumerIssues/Pages/globalmoneyweek.aspx

 

In addition, the Banking Supervision Department, via the banking system’s financial education forum, will launch at the beginning of next week, on March 21, 2021, the second phase of Global Money Week activity. As part of that, there will be extensive explanatory activity on social networks in order to enhance the awareness of the importance of financial conduct and to encourage youth to review, outside of school as well, content about proper financial conduct. It will emphasize the importance of saving, referencing the considerable content available on the Bank of Israel website. The public awareness activity will include films, various simulations in which the youth will be required to make decisions about budget management and saving, interactive games, and more.

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