YBA Ohel Shlomo student wins 13th annual ‘Dror QM Race’

It was a cold, cloudy day – perfect weather for a run through the Southern Hebron Hills. 1,100 runners of all ages – the largest showing of participants ever – limbered up in the village of Carmel before the 2 o’clock start time. 

Participants included students from YBA High School Yeshiva for Environmental Studies – Sussya and other YBA schools, IDF soldiers, and residents of all ages from the region's settlements. The quarter marathon (10km) race covers a mostly-uphill 10 km stretch of Highway 60, from Carmel to Sussya.

This year, the event was sponsored by Tene Omarim Ltd., the construction company building YBA Sussya’s four environmentally sustainable (‘green’) dormitories.

The record-breaking winning time of 37 minutes and 38 seconds was achieved by Vorko Ashato (16), a student from YBA Ohel Shlomo in Beer Sheva. In the junior category, the winner was Yochai Perel (7), the son of Sussya’s Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Noam Perel, who is currently on a leave of absence to serve as the Secretary General of the World Bnei Akiva youth movement.

The race is jointly sponsored each year by YBA Sussya and the Southern Hebron Hills Regional Council in memory of Col. Dror Weinberg, z"l, an IDF commander of the region who was killed in a terror ambush 13 years ago in Hebron. Weinberg is venerated as a local hero who embodied in his lifetime the values of religious Zionism - Love for the Land, the Torah and the Nation of Israel. As such, Dror Weinberg is regarded as a model of leadership for the boys at YBA Sussya to follow.

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