Kadoorie Agricultural High School is an agricultural school and youth village in Israel situated next to Mount Tabor in the Lower Galilee, Israel, two kilometers north of the village Kfar Tavor, about 150 meters above sea level. The school was founded in the year 1933.
"Kadoorie" is one of two of agricultural schools founded as agricultural boarding schools by the British Mandate of Palestine with the contribution of the Jewish philanthropist Sir Ellis Kadoorie, who died in the British colony of Hong Kong in the year 1922.
He contributed 100,000 British Pounds. Herbert Samuel established a committee to determine how to use the money. However, when Kadoorie's testament was read it became clear that the Yishuv would not inherit the money - the government of Britain would - and that Kadoorie ordered in his testament to invest the money either in Palestine or in Iraq. Haim Weizman contacted the brother of the deceased, Elly Kadoorie and obtained a decision that the money would be invested in Palestine. For Palestinian Jews a speculative gymnasium would be established, and for Palestinian Arabs, an agriculture school would be opened. Eventually two agricultural schools named after Kadoorie were built, one the Khodori Institute in Tulkarm founded in 1930, and the second next to the village of Kfar Tavor founded in 1933.
The Kadoorie agricultural school was reputed to be one of the best schools in Palestine in the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. Many people from main settlements in Palestine sent their boys to be educated at Kadoorie.
The main goal of study was to give students the possibility to continue their agriculture education in Europe. The school was well known by the work of its first manager, Nathan Fiat, who lead the "honour code examinations" (exams without the attendance of teachers) and concentrated in the subjects of agriculture and security. The school's nickname during that period was "The monastery", due to the place being so secluded, attendance restricted to boys. During the period of the Israeli War of Independence many of the school's students and graduates fought in the Palmach brigades and were an honorable part of the chain of the command in it. Many of the graduates of Kadoorie school took active part in the actions of the colonization and the struggle to defend the Yishuv.
After the Israeli state was founded the school came under the authority of the office of agriculture of the state of Israel, and during that period the school began to deteriorate slowly due to the decrease of funds in the Israeli boarding schools. Good Jewish students abandoned the school and the number of Arab students increased, and by the mid-1970s the school had a majority of Arab students.
By the year 1975 the school changed from a boarding school only to a mainly regional school (although the boarding school is still active). Since then the school has improved its condition significantly, and the number of students in it grew notably. Next to the Kadoorie high school was built a Kadoorie elementary school in which nowadays only few students go to (after new elementary schools were built in the 1990s in Kfar Tavor and Givat Avni).
These days more than 1500 students learn in Kadoorie: 200 are youths from all over Israel who attend the boarding school, and the rest students of the Lower Galilee area (Kfar Tavor, Giv'at Avni, Kfar Kama, Yavniel, Shadmot Devora, Sharona, Kfar Kish, Masad, Mitzpa, and more). In addition to that there is an active agricultural farm (which is used to educate the students), a technological college for the students of classes 13th grade and the 14th grade, The Kadoorie regional center around the school area developed with the years and part of the residencies of the teachers changed with the years and became a separate village.
Famous alumni
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Coordinates: 32°42′16″N 35°24′16″E / 32.70451958°N 35.40451731°E
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