PM was ‘responsible’ sixth-grader, evaluation shows
Netanyahu visits Henrietta Szold Elementary School, which he attended as a child.
By MELANIE LIDMAN
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened the school year yesterday at Jerusalem’s Henrietta Szold Elementary School, his alma mater, and was greeted with a surprise: an original copy of his sixth grade evaluation from teacher Ruth Rubenstein.Luckily for Netanyahu, he was a good student. According to the evaluation, Netanyahu was courteous, polite, helpful to his parents and a reader. Rubenstein called Netanyahu’s work “responsible and punctual.”She also wrote that Netanyahu was friendly, disciplined, cheerful, brave, active and obedient in the social category.“If you invest in your studies, they will write things like this about you and maybe you could become prime minister one day,” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat told the class.Barkat also presented Netanyahu with a copy of his late brother Yonatan’s evaluation, which, like his own, was located in the city’s archives.After visiting the Szold school, Netanyahu traveled by helicopter to the Aseh Hayil School in Efrat and declared that Efrat and Gush Etzion represent the southern gates to Jerusalem and “will always be part of the State of Israel.”“We are building Efrat and Gush Etzion with enthusiasm, faith and responsibility; thus we are also building education,” the prime minister said. He went on to speak about the new state plan that went into effect Monday to offer free education for children starting at age three.“This saves parents NIS 800 a month, NIS 8,000 a year, but it is mainly an opportunity to educate children from the roots to the top. I wish that each of you achieves everything that you want. [As Theodor Herzl said] If you will it, it is no dream, and today, the state is offering its support.”