5 Fingers Mechina Preps Teens for Life’s Challenges

Switzerland may be famous for its finishing schools turning impressionable teens into suave ladies, but Israel’s 5 Fingers Mechina prepares boys and girls to grapple with the rough-and-tumble reality of life. All with a Jewish soul, where communal living means communal responsibility.

On a beautiful campus on Mount Carmel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, 100 18- and 19-year-old students – 40 percent of them female – are enrolled in a boot camp for the real world, supervised by 15 staff members. The curriculum, heavy on sports and hiking, consists of extreme mental and physical challenges meant to prepare the teens for a leadership role in the coming years.

While the mechina (preparatory school) has no pre-military component or weapons training, 42 percent of its 5,000 alumni have gone on to enlist in elite combat units in the IDF. Many have signed on as officers making the army their career. Others have similarly committed themselves to a life of public service in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, or Ministry of Education.

5 Fingers provides “An environment that allows every person to dream, realize their potential and make an impact,” explains its website www.5fingers.org.il.

“Our purpose isn’t to prepare them for the [IDF] draft,” begins the mechina’s CEO Dror Yannai, 36, a veteran of the IDF’s battle-tested Shayetet 13 – comparable to the U.S. Navy Seals.

Yannai points to a poster on his office wall quoting U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again.”

The mechina is part of 5 Fingers – a non-political, educational-social movement founded in 2014 with the mission of empowering youth to reach their full physical and mental potential through training. Today, it has 2,500 members, and collaborates with the Ministry of Education, the IDF, and various business and sports organizations.

The youth movement was founded by Amir Menachem, also a former Shayetet 13 officer, along with his father, Yoram, a professional fitness coach who trained Israel’s top basketball teams. Their vision was to develop leadership among Israeli youth through physical activity – to teach grit.

“This movement is about developing excellence, resilience and leadership among Israeli youth,” Yanai explains. “We operate informally and formally, reaching thousands of trainees every year.”

Of the 100 teens currently enrolled, 15 are from abroad. Ten are Americans, and five are Israelis whose family lives in the U.S. Some of those reach 5 Fingers after growing up in the Tzabar Scouts movement. Not all know Hebrew when they arrive. Mastering a new language is just part of the challenge these young people grapple with.

Yannai points with pride to alumnus Talya Green, today a sophomore at New York University, who arrived knowing a smattering of Hebrew and flawlessly delivered last year’s 30-minute-long valedictorian address in her new tongue. Returning to New York, Green established a “hasbara” group to counter campus antisemitism.

The name 5 Fingers – or Hamesh Etzbaot in Hebrew – embodies the idea that whatever one does, it should be done full on, with one’s entire strength. Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, there’s been a surge in applicants both from Israel and overseas.

“They understand it’s not a game. It brings them a lot of pride. It’s a high standard. It’s not for everyone,” acknowledges Yannai. Some students drop out, unable to cope with the physical and mental stress. Those who persist experience a deep maturation, he notes.

There’s also a human side to the hard work. “I can’t count how many couples met here and later married.”

Alas, the number of couples isn’t the only statistic on Yannai’s mind. Portraits of 19 graduates killed in action form a wall of honor. “It’s not easy,” he says from a personal perspective of knowing so many who fell in Gaza.

Excusing himself, Yannai says he has to prepare for an 80 km (50 mile), five-day trek along the Israel Trail leaving shortly. Bussed to Nofit in the Jezreel Valley, students carry 20 kg (44 pound) rucksacks including all their supplies as they return to Mount Carmel. They sleep under the stars and cook all their meals on a campfire. Significantly, only staff carry cellphones for emergencies.

One member shared, “For me, being a role model for young girls starts with visibility. I strongly believe in the idea that ‘what you cannot see, you cannot be.’ I say this as the first female commander of a Dvora patrol boat in the Israeli Navy — someone who had to break through, lead in real situations, and prove to myself and to others that I belonged there. I grew up hearing the story of Alice Miller.”

Miller (1923-2010), a pioneering Jewish Polish-Swiss psychologist, psychoanalyst, and philosopher who wrote about parental child abuse, is best known for her groundbreaking book, “The Drama of the Gifted Child,” which became an international bestseller upon its publication in English in 1981.

“Once I understood what she fought for, something opened in my mind — I felt there was no place I could not reach. That is why it matters so much for young women to meet strong women not as distant Wonder Woman figures, but as real coaches, commanders, and mentors who have actually walked the path themselves,” says Or Cohen, 5 Finger’s director of diaspora engagement.

“But even more than that, we do not only tell them that we have been through challenges before — we go through the process with them. We train with them, struggle with them, and show them that leadership is built step-by-step, from the inside. Girls need to feel that leadership is not something far away or impossible to reach, but something real and accessible. When they are surrounded by strong women and a community that believes in them, they gain the courage to discover their own strengths, express themselves, and understand that their success is not only personal — it creates space for others to believe they can do it, too.”

Liam Milman, 18, explains he arrived shortly before the program began on Sept. 2. “Instantly, the people here blew me away. I’ve never been around a better quality of people. They push me every day to be better,” says the native of Demarest in Bergen County, N.J.

Apart from the memorable hikes in the Negev Desert and the Golan Heights, Milman was greatly impressed by the time he and his fellow hanichim (mates) spent volunteering in Arad. The city suffered severe damage from an Iranian ballistic missile strike. They spent a week sweeping up shattered glass and moving wreckage.

Milman is hoping to be accepted into an elite IDF combat unit. “I don’t want to say which one ‘cause then I might jinx it.”

Fellow hanich Amit Yagour, 19, from Los Altos, Calif., expressed similar satisfaction with 5 Fingers’ challenging peer-based program. “The people here push you to push yourself.”

What of the future?

5 Fingers is currently establishing a second campus in the United States, with the 10-month-long program beginning in September, says Yannai. The site will likely be a summer camp somewhere along the Atlantic seaboard.

For further information, please visit http://www.5Fingers.org.il or call +972 55-685-5850.

Gil Zohar is a journalist and licensed tour guide in Jerusalem.