Naomi Roff | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

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Jerusalemite Day of Diversity, 2021

This was the sixth year in which thousands of Jerusalemites took part in Jerusalemite Day of Diversity events on May 9-10. (You can read about previous Jerusalemite Days here, here, here and here.) This year’s festivities included 150 events – 50 events held by Jerusalemite activists and 50 neighbood encounters between neighbors during Jerusalem Day, emphasizing the grassroots action that makes for a diverse and multicultural Jerusalem.

Jerusalemite Day at-a-glance

Events: 43
Neighbor encounters: 50
Participants in events: 2,000
Participants in neighbor encounters: 2,000

Tours on Tolerance

Each initiative was completely autonomous; the activists were those who dreamed, led, and created. The JICC provided logistical, strategic, and at times, financial support, but remained completely behind the scenes, assisting where necessary and providing the framework for echoing the authentic Jerusalem voices that call for tolerance and diversity in our complex city.

Events at local sites

There were tours of a number of neighborhoods – Mamilla, Mea Shearim, Sheikh Jarrah, Pisgat Ze’ev and more; A joint prayer ceremony for Jews, Muslims and Christians; The creation of a Jerusalem culinary book by the best chefs in the city, peppered with childhood memories and thoughts about Jerusalem; Dozens of meetings with neighbors in different neighborhoods in the city that dealt with questions about good neighborliness and creating a diverse and common space in the building; Public sing-alongs organized by people dealing with mental illness, secular and ultra-Orthodox together; A huge street game to encourage meeting and conversation between passers-by; An original Jerusalem-Ethiopian play; Children’s drawing festival and various arts festival for adults; Portrait paintings of Jerusalem women; Meetings about Ashkenazim and Sephardim, Jerusalem diversity in Hebrew poetry, acceptance of the other in Judaism and more; Kosher Iftar dinner; Art workshops and diverse musical performances.

Inter-religious Iftar meal

This year, Jerusalemite Day of Diversity took place against the background of a number of significant influencers:

In the shadow of Covid-19: Over the past year work to advance tolerance looked very different than before. The Covid-dictated pace was different, the issues were different. Many organizations’ budgets had shrunk, limiting their staff and programming; as Jerusalemite Day neared, some organizations were bringing back staff that had been furloughed, and they were just transitioning back into their positions. In parallel, Covid made us focus inward – not on the entire city but on our neighborhoods, and thus there was an increased focus on neighborhood-based activity – connections between neighbors, within buildings and in close physical proximity, creating a sense of social solidarity.
Mt. Meron Disaster on Lag B’Omer on April 29 had a huge impact on the ultra-Orthodox sector in particular, and on Israeli society in general. There was an overriding desire to show support for and identification with various communities. In addition, the media was busy covering that event and was not open to covering other events.
Tense Atmosphere in Jerusalem: violence, tensions between Jews and Arabs. On the one hand, a concern about whether this is the right time to act in the public sphere, and on the other hand, it strengthened the need and importance of our work on Jerusalem Day.

A wide variety of activities to advance tolerance

All this happened during Jerusalemite Day of Diversity across the city, despite, and perhaps because of, the social tension bubbling beneath the surface in Jerusalem in weeks preceding the day. Despite the difficult atmosphere, there was a general sense this was necessary, now more than ever, to make the Jerusalem voice heard – the inclusive, diverse, multicultural view of the city, and to strengthen our presence in the public sphere.

Here’s a link to a more detailed summary that includes the entire list of events, and below is the Facebook post in Hebrew with the official photo album of the day.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the Natan Fund for helping us to advance tolerance and cross-cultural activism in Jerusalem.

Naomi Roff2021-08-02T13:42:30+00:00June 18th, 2021|Blog, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

MiniActive – Helping to Relieve Tensions from Unsettling Situation

Over the past several weeks, life in East Jerusalem has been very unsettled, and violence abounds. Mothers are afraid for their children. Their teenagers, or younger children, want to do something, to show their anger and frustrations about the situation.

MiniActive responded, offering special workshops (a total of 5) to help Palestinian mothers build resilience – for themselves, and for their families. The workshops helped the mothers understand the severe stresses, and receive tools to help cope. They were extremely well-attended, drawing upwards of 80 participants each time. Feedback was amazing – mothers raved of how much they helped them deal with a very sensitive situation.

Helping women deal with the stress of the period

One of the workshops took place on Monday, May 17, with 35 women participating. Another workshop was held on May 20, with over 80 participants! That workshop focused on: How to deal with fear and anxiety in the current circumstances, including: 1-How to deal with children’s excitement; 2-How to channel their energies; 3-How to deal with fear and stress; 4-How to help them in their studies. circumstances

Here’s the post (in Arabic) from MiniActive’s Facebook page from the May 17 workshop:

Here’s the post from the May 20 workshop:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, to Natan and to the Leichtag Foundation‘s Jerusalem Model for their ongoing support of MiniActive!

Naomi Roff2021-06-17T16:13:05+00:00May 28th, 2021|Blog, MiniActive|

MiniActive Youth – Back in the Fresh Air

We’ve written here and here how MiniActive Youth has been limited because of Covid-19 and Covid regulations, and how we’ve done what we can, but it hasn’t been easy.

Working in the outdoors

As new cases throughout Jerusalem seem to be going down and restrictions are being lifted, MiniActive Youth are also able to meet again.

Continuing to improve the environment

On April 4, they met outside the Sur Baher Community Center to work in the adjacent garden.

Finally, being able to meet and work outside

This is how it looked before the work

Before the work

And how it looked after

After

And here’s a post on the MiniActive Facebook page:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, to Natan and to the Leichtag Foundation‘s Jerusalem Model for their ongoing support of MiniActive!

Naomi Roff2021-05-06T07:43:13+00:00April 14th, 2021|Blog, MiniActive|

Cultural Competence in Academia

It’s no secret that Cultural Competence affects all areas of life – from healthcare, to welfare to businesses and academia. We’ve written here and here about our work with academic institutions.

Cultural Competency in Academia

Throughout Covid academic institutions have continued to hold class, online. And like many aspects of our everyday lives, post-secondary studies, as well as the online format, raise numerous inter-cultural and inter-identity issues, which cultural competence can help to address effectively. This year, we’ve been working with the Zefat Academic College, the Sapir Academic College in Ashkelon, Shenkar College – Engineering. Design. Art and Bar-Ilan University.

In February we led an online workshop for 20 participants, which dealt with issues such as culturally competent academic teaching, dealing with bias and stereotypes, cultural axes, adaptations that are necessary for different identities, and more.

In March we began a four-workshop series at Shenkar, and we’re scheduled to play the HoliGame in April with faculty and staff from Bar-Ilan University.

Here’s the Facebook post from our Dr. Rachely Ashwal from the meeting in February with Sapir Academic College:

And this trend will hopefully continue in the next months and years! The message of cultural competence in academics will spread to more campuses!

Naomi Roff2021-03-30T16:04:43+00:00March 20th, 2021|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Academic Institutions|

Cultural Competency with Division for the Advancement of Youth, Jaffa

We’ve written here. here, and here how Cultural Competency deals with inter-cultural communication, and how to ‘read’ the person sitting in front of you and ensure maximum communication.

It’s not always between cultures, it’s also sometimes between ages, and between different groups of people.

Ezadeen with Youth Center Director

Such was the case on March 9, 2020, when our Ezadeen Elsaad led a cultural competency workshop for the Division of Advancement of Youth in Jaffa. Ezadeen spoke with them about methods and skills to cope positively with diversity and how to create a sense of belonging even when they face differences between students and colleagues in their daily routine.

The discussion included how to engage the youth, and how to de-stigmatize the youth center and turn it into a place where youth would want to come. He also spoke about ways to listen to the youth and engage with them on an eye-to-eye level, in order to help them understand their own way forward.

Applying principles of cultural competency in everyday work with at-risk youth

Here’s a Facebook post (in Arabic) by the director of the Center for Youth at Risk:

This is part of our work with a number of offices of the Division for the Advancement of Youth throughout Israel. Stay tuned for more updates!

Naomi Roff2021-05-06T07:43:23+00:00March 16th, 2021|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Government Institutions|

New Arabic-language Digital Tools to Fight Covid

We’ve been on the front lines helping to fight the spread of Covid in East Jerusalem for the past year, the first NGO ever invited to join a public command center that was set up together with the Jerusalem Municipality, the Ministry of Health, and the IDF’s Home Front Command, among others. At the same time, we actively set up and coordinated a Forum to Fight Covid in East Jerusalem, network of 150 Arab Palestinian civil society actors in East Jerusalem, representing some 80 organizations.

The new web site lists the updated numbers of cases in East Jerusalem

As a result of this work, an idea was raised to create a go-to web site that included all the possible information about Covid – healthcare information, where to go for testing, information vaccinations, information to counter fake news, and more.

This web site draws from official sources and authorities to ensure accuracy of information. Also critically important – the web site is considered an independent initiative. Official Israeli channels are often regarded with suspicion in East Jerusalem, so the fact that it is independent adds to the website’s legitimacy.

Updated testing information also listed

You can view the website here.

And the Facebook page here:

For example, here’s a post about vaccinations in the Shuafat Refugee Camp:

And another, a video by Jerusalemite doctors about the importance of the vaccine:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the Russell Berrie Foundation, and the Leichtag Foundation for their emergency support of our efforts to stop the spread of Covid in East Jerusalem.

Naomi Roff2021-03-30T16:08:09+00:00March 14th, 2021|Blog, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Effective Activism, Palestinians/Arabs|

Even in Lockdown, We Continue to Learn Arabic – JICC Arabic Classes Featured in Jerusalem Post Article

This year, Arabic classes were held as they have been over the past 15 years, but this year, they’re taking place online.

Continuing to study Arabic online

The year began on September 6, with 174 students studying in 15 groups over 5 levels, with a maximum of 12 students per group.

One of our students, Linda Gradstein, is also a veteran reporter in Israel and throughout the Middle East. She recently wrote about the surge in Arabic study for the Jerusalem Report, which was published on the Jerusalem Post web site. You can read the entire article here. Here are selected parts:

The Jerusalem Intercultural Center, which runs the Arabic language center, has more than 200 students annually, although this year it is closer than 170, as some students said they didn’t want to learn on Zoom.

The center’s director, Hagai Agmon Snir, says that the population studying Arabic at the center has changed significantly.

“Years ago we assumed that most people studying here were from the left,” he says. “Now we have as many people from the right and we even have a few settlers who learn with us.”

Snir says that there are sometimes political arguments in class, which is fine with him as long as the arguments take place in Arabic.

He says that the reason that most people study Arabic has also changed – a change he welcomes.

“Until ten years ago people learned Arabic because of ideology,” he says. “Now most people who learn it do it because they need the language either for work or volunteering. Arabic is hard, and that is a better motivation.”

The article features not only JICC Director Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir, but also Dr. Michal Schuster, a long-time lecturer in cultural competency for the JICC, and also a student of Arabic:

For some students, it is specifically violent Palestinian attacks that pushed them to intensify their study of Arabic.

Michal Shuster, who teaches community interpreting at Bar Ilan University, has always had many Arabic speaking students. She used Arabic during her army service, but hadn’t taken an Arabic class in many years.

But in 2015, when lone wolf Palestinians began attacking Israelis, she decided to start speaking more Arabic to friends and colleagues as a way to bridge the mutual fear that Arabs and Jews felt during that time.

“Palestinian friends said they were afraid to speak Arabic in the street,” she says. “My response was to start speaking Arabic with friends and colleagues, even if I make mistakes. I wanted to dome kind of trust-building measure using the language to connect. I decided to take the Arabic out of my head and I waited for the opportunity to start learning again.”

This year, with the classes of the Jerusalem Intercultural Center on Zoom, she joined an Arabic class. She said many Arabs are surprised when she approaches them or answers them in Arabic. She said there is an Arab restaurant in the Galilee that she often stops in. A few months ago, she said she was able to have a “real” conversation with them in Arabic, and the owners encouraged her to keep studying Arabic.

“It is such a shame that not many Jewish Israelis speak Arabic,” Shuster says. “It shouldn’t be so exceptional but it still is.”

Thank you Linda, for the wonderful and interesting article. Hope we can all meet in class soon!

Interestingly, while of course the regular in-person meetings are missed, many are telling us that there are advantages to remote learning. Since the classes are recorded, they can review the material learned in class by re-playing the class itself. Not to mention the savings in travel time, parking and gasoline.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for its support of the Language Center almost since its inception.

Naomi Roff2021-02-13T12:45:42+00:00February 17th, 2021|Blog, Language Center|

Parents Association Handbook: Definitive Guide to Parents Associations in East Jerusalem

One of the side products of lockdown is having the opportunity to summarize knowledge gained from unique processes, and being able to compile it all in one place. Such is the case with the Parents Association Handbook, which was recently finished by our East Jerusalem Desk Director, Ezadeen El-Saad, who has been working with Parents Associations in East Jerusalem for the past 5 years.

New book on Parents Associations

Ezadeen has been working closely with several Parents Associations, especially in Sur Baher, Silwan and Ras el-Amud, among others. (You can read a little bit about it here.) The book describes all the processes they went through, from start to finish.

Table of contents

When we started several years ago, the Parents Associations consisted of a few dominant leaders in the community. They met only sporadically, and only when there were specific problems. Meetings did not have set agendas, no one took minutes and there was no official documentation of the meetings. They served mainly to react to actions of a principal, or to a certain problem in the schools. The Parents Associations never initiated anything. They were afraid to act because they weren’t familiar with the bylaws of the national Parents Association or with their rights as an Association or as parents. They did not know that it was their right to work in cooperation with the principal.

As a first step, Ezadeen called a number of meetings with central Parents Associations, including in A-Tur, Silwan, Abu Tor, Jebel Mukaber, Sur Baher and Ras el-Amud, which are considered particularly strong Parent Association. He explained:

The different rights and obligations afforded Parents Associations by law
What Parents Associations can accomplish
How to achieve results, in areas that included: student achievements, maintenance of the school, and in parent involvement in their children’s education, in cooperation with the school principals and school administrations.

At first, representatives were quite skeptical. However, as time went on, he gained the trust of the Parents Associations, and together, they worked, together with the local principals, on a broad range of initiatives that helped to build community – and improve education and school atmosphere – in the schools. After the initial workshops, the Parents Association learned how to build and follow through on specific work plans. They also learned how to create subcommittees – such as cultural activities, behavior, trips, study guidance, maintenance, and more – according to the school’s needs.

The processes, in the words of the parents

In this book, he’s compiled all the instructions, all the relevant materials, all the relevant protocols, case studies from different schools, and more. for an effective and influential Parents Association, one that will help to improve education. It also includes a chapter about learning during the Covid pandemic. Given the intense crowding in East Jerusalem schools, the Parents Associations closed schools in East Jerusalem in March 2020, long before schools throughout Israel were closed, and they stayed closed until the end of the 2019 – 2020 school year. This act was seen as a major contributor to a low rate of infection in East Jerusalem during Israel’s first lockdown in March – May 2020.

Parents activities

The guide includes photos from a variety of activities organized and implemented by the Parents Associations. These included:

Drawing and essay exhibit

Accompanying the construction of a schoolyard in Silwan;
Establishment of Facebook pages to build community, encourage discussion among parents, and document activities;
Production of 12th grade graduation ceremonies in Sur Baher;
Produced an exhibit of drawings and essays written and drawn by students;
Special days for Teacher Appreciation and Family Day at a special education school in Sur Baher;

Even more examples of activities parents produced with schools

Construction of a school yard, and more

There’s also a page that thanks the Leichtag Foundation and to the Jerusalem Foundation who have supported of the Parents Association project. Many thanks!

Thanks to partners

And many thanks to Ezadeen! May we have much more success with the Parents Association project!

Naomi Roff2021-03-20T08:20:00+00:00February 12th, 2021|Blog, Effective Activism, On Jerusalem, Palestinians/Arabs|

Little Prince – Continuing to Lead Processes toward a Clean City in Jerusalem

The Little Prince (and its website)has been leading processes of cleanliness in Jerusalem since 2017. One of its main objectives has been to engage the Jerusalem Municipality in adopting policies and practices to make Jerusalem a cleaner city. Indeed, the Municipality has followed suit and made a clean Jerusalem one of its highest priorities. In mid-December, the Jerusalem Municipality opened its own clean city page:

https://www.jerusalem.muni.il/he/residents/environment/

The page describes the Municipality’s efforts to make Jerusalem a cleaner city as well as the entire Municipality’s commitment, including that of Mayor Moshe Lion.

Municipal web page on clean city

It also includes links to different areas that contribute to a clean city – recycling, city beautification, sanitation, parks, composting, and more.

Ways to help make Jerusalem clean

And it was reported on here, by JICC director Hagai Agmon-Snir:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the US Embassy in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for its continued support of the Little Prince!

Naomi Roff2021-02-13T10:03:51+00:00February 5th, 2021|Blog, Effective Activism, The Little Prince - Cleaning Jerusalem Together|

MiniActive Makes 106 Tutorial Video

We’ve described here about how MiniActive is helping the Palestinian populations improve their surroundings in Jerusalem. Since its founding in 2012 MiniActive has registered tens of thousands of complaints, bringing about a revolutionary change in the way the municipality provides services to the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.

Downloading the 106 app

The Jerusalem Municipality recently launched a new mobile app that enables residents to register complaints with the 106 hotline, supplementing the work of the telephone-based hotline. However, while it is possible to write requests and complaints in Arabic, the whole app platform – downloading, signing up, entering some information for tracking – is in Hebrew.

Even types of complaints are listed only in Hebrew

Enter MiniActive. They’ve created a video on how to use the new 106 mobile app. The video shows how to download the app, how to sign up and insert all the necessary information, how to use its system that also plots the complaints on a map, and how to file a complaint using the app. You can view the entire video here.

Details can be described in Arabic

Using this app will make MiniActive’s work – and its ripple effect of inspiring the rest of the Palestinian community in East Jerusalem – even more accessible. Can’s wait to see how it’ll upgrade their work!

Many thanks to the Leichtag Foundation‘s Jerusalem Model for their support of this summertime initiative for youth. And many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and to Natan for their ongoing support of MiniActive!

Naomi Roff2021-02-06T11:03:41+00:00February 1st, 2021|Blog, Effective Activism, MiniActive|

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