Israelis shed light on Jewish-Arab schools

Thursday, March 18, 2010 | by

The founder of an Israeli organization that oversees schools where Jewish and Arab children learn together will speak at 1 p.m. Sunday, March 21 at the Osher Marin JCC, 200 N. San Pedro Road, San Rafael.

Since founding the Hand in Hand Center for Jewish-Arab Education in 1997, Amin Khalaf has opened four bilingual, multicultural schools for Arab and Jewish children living near Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheva and the Galilee.

Khalaf will speak at the JCC with Lee Gordon, co-founder of American Friends of Hand in Hand (Yad b’Yad in Hebrew). The men will speak about the current and future state of integrated Jewish-Arab education in Israel.

Each school is co-directed by Arab and Jewish principals; each classroom is co-taught by Jewish and Arab teachers. Students at all grade levels study in both Hebrew and Arabic, learning to appreciate their own culture and language while understanding the differences of others around them.

Nathan Zilberg and his 14-year-old daughter, Rachel, organized the event after visiting the Yad b’Yad School in Beersheva last year. The Zilberg family was in Israel for Rachel’s bat mitzvah at the Western Wall, and as part of a group from Congregation Rodef Sholom.

For more information or to RSVP, e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). The event is co-sponsored by Congregations Rodef Sholom and Kol Shofar.