Weil Foundation Film Fund

In partnership with the Robert Weil Family Foundation, the Department of Film Studies at Beit Berl College in Israel has established the Weil Foundation Film Fund. The Weil Foundation Film Fund is aimed at engaging the Palestinian Israeli community in the area film, enrolling and supporting Palestinian Israeli students of film in their studies and practice. The fund will enable the marketing and promotion of films made by Palestinian students and support projects in which Palestinian students serve as the photographer, editor, director or producer – developing their portfolio and helping them advance in their artistic work. The fund will also help the college attract more Palestinian students, and specifically to the department of film studies.

Beit Berl College was founded in 1949 as a training institute for teachers, youth leaders, kibbutz members and immigrant youth. In 1979, Beit Berl became an accredited academic college of education. In 2015, Beit Berl was recognized for its academic excellence and placed under Council for Higher Education, affording Beit Berl the academic independence given to regional colleges and universities in Israel.

Today, Beit Berl College is recognized as a leading multi-disciplinary institution of higher education in Israel, specializing in the development of training teachers at a high level with an emphasis on experience in the field of education and the integration of innovative pedagogies and technologies in teaching and learning. The College has close to 9,000 degree and continuing education students annually in its Faculties of Education, Arts, Therapeutic Professions, and Society & Community.

The College specializes in the development of training teachers at a high level with an emphasis on experience in the field of education and the integration of innovative pedagogies and technologies in teaching and learning. The College’s impact on Israeli educators is comprehensive, long-term and ongoing, with programs addressing the educator’s entire career life cycle, from pre-service preparation, induction and life-long in-service learning. Beit Berl graduates make up 20% of the educators in the secular public Arab and Jewish school systems.

The Robert Weil Family Foundation strongly supports Beit Berl College in their belief that higher education is a vehicle for social advancement and equal opportunity. Situated at the vital geographic and cultural crossroad between Israel’s high-tech center of the Sharon region and the Arab Israeli population center of the Triangle region, Beit Berl College students and faculty reflect the surrounding communities and region, with Arab Israelis making up close to 30% of the student body and 25% of the faculty. The college provides opportunity to those from socio-economically disadvantaged populations, including ultra-Orthodox, Ethiopians, orphans, immigrants and other marginalized populations.