Yael Foundation Names Madrid’s Ibn Gabirol a Model of Academic Excellence

The Yael Foundation presented its Academic Excellence Award to the Ibn Gabirol School in Madrid, an international recognition that honors Jewish educational institutions setting the highest academic standards and preparing their students to succeed in any field of life. The ceremony took place in Vienna, placing the Madrid center among the international benchmarks the Yael Foundation identifies in Jewish education.

The choice was not only about results. The Academic Excellence Award rests on a principle that guides the Yael Foundation: educational excellence is the most influential architect of the Jewish future. That idea defines the spirit of the award and explains why the Madrid school was chosen as an international model. The Yael Foundation describes the award as an expression of an uncompromising educational standard, recognizing the school that best embodies the foundation's central task of giving every child a strong foundation for life, with education understood as a complete and durable base rather than a set of results alone.

In the foundation's framing, the recognition honors an institution that gives its students the tools to develop their abilities thoroughly and with confidence. The Yael Foundation describes the qualifying school as one that equips its students with the skills and confidence needed to succeed in any area. By tying the award to that definition, the Yael Foundation signals that it values academic rigor and personal formation together, not one at the expense of the other.

Why the Madrid school was chosen

The Ibn Gabirol School earned the award for bringing together rigorous academics, Jewish learning, and respect for diversity, building a shared educational space for families of varied backgrounds. For the Yael Foundation, that mix is exactly what matters: the award does not measure outcomes in isolation but highlights an approach that pairs academic strength with the personal preparation students need to meet future challenges with confidence.

The award fits a vision the Yael Foundation has long stood for: that a strong school helps students build not just knowledge, but the skills and values they need to grow throughout life. In that sense, the Yael Foundation places Ibn Gabirol alongside other schools in its network that combine strong academics with a well-rounded education.

In a circular sent to parents, the Madrid center noted that the recognition is more than an academic distinction; it acknowledges the position of a community that shapes the future through Jewish values and a sense of belonging. The school described the achievement as belonging to everyone, families, teachers, staff, students, and governing boards, whose combined effort turned the institution into an international example. The mailing, signed by the school's two senior educational directors, said the award encourages the school leadership to keep working with rigor and creativity to provide an education that helps each student develops as a complete and engaged person.

How the award fits the Yael Foundation's work

The Academic Excellence Award was presented by a co-founder of the Yael Foundation, who introduced the award before it went to the Madrid school, strengthening its standing in the world of Jewish education. The award was accepted by the president of the Jewish Community of Madrid, which owns the center, and by the school's director, who received it on behalf of the entire educational community. Their participation marked recognition of the school's educational project and the work of its teaching and leadership staff.

The same program names winners across multiple categories each year, from academic excellence and innovation to early-childhood education and youth programming, so that strong work in very different settings is brought into one network. Across its categories, the Yael Foundation uses the awards to surface educational models that other schools in its network can study. The program is part of how the Yael Foundation operates more broadly, working with Jewish schools across 45 countries to raise standards and connect institutions that face similar challenges in very different settings. Honoring schools through the Yael Awards does more than recognize individual institutions; it documents working models that the Yael Foundation can highlight as references for others.

A standard for the whole network

The award and its finalists together show what the Yael Foundation means by excellence. The winning school stands out because it brings together two things the Yael Foundation sees as inseparable: strong academics and a well-rounded education. For the Yael Foundation, the real value is that this example can become a reference point that other schools in its network can learn from and adopt. Schools can study how the program was developed and apply the approaches that best fit their own communities and needs. In that way, the Academic Excellence Award functions less as a one-time honor than as part of the long-term work the Yael Foundation has set for itself: strengthening Jewish education by identifying what works and making it visible across the communities it serves.