Mechina Academies: Israel’s Gap-Year Phenomenon

Some of Israel’s best and brightest high school graduates are delaying military service for a year of character-building in pre-army academies. It’s still dark in Upper Nazareth as Nadav Cohen, 19, delivers a pithy, inspirational talk to his comrades—choosing Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ for his theme. On a previous morning, another student talked about the journey to Ith