Identity Groups and Conflicts | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

Meeting of the City Engineer with East Jerusalem Leaders – May 2010

Getting people to work together, in a challenging political environment, is one of JICC’s most important tasks.

Recently, alongside the many requests from East Jerusalem Palestinian residents to help them meet with officials responsible for the city’s Master Plan, we received a similar request from Jerusalem’s Chief Engineer Shlomo Eshkol to meet with East Jerusalem leaders to discuss it.

Today, it happened. Careful preparation made by Ezadeen Al-Saad, JICC’s head of the East Jerusalem desk, ensured that close to 20 of the main leaders from most East Jerusalem neighborhoods came to the meeting with Shlomo Eshkol at JICC.

May 5 City Engineer Meeting on East Jerusalem

These community leaders came from Beit Hanina, Shuafat, A-Tur, Silwan, A-Tori (Abu-Tor) and Tsur Baher. The city planning situation in East Jerusalem is hard to tackle as we are dealing with problems that have not been addressed for over 40 years.

The Master Plan Maps at the City Engineer Meeting on East Jerusalem

As it was the first time in years that leaders from so many neighborhoods in East Jerusalem came together to discuss solutions, this meeting set the stage for future meetings. Many ideas for the future emerged. First, those who came will continue to meet with the City Engineer to solve city wide issues. Secondly, there will be local district meetings to solve neighborhood planning issues. And lastly – the forum is considering meeting together to tackle other East Jerusalem issues as well.

jicc2014-04-09T16:57:15+00:00May 5th, 2010|Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Palestinians/Arabs|

Ultra-Orthodox respond to our request to condemn hate crimes against non-Jews

In mid-December 2009, we were approached by the Mayor’s bureau with an interesting request. For many years, churches and clergies are harassed in Jerusalem by extremist Jews. These harassments include spitting, cursing, offensive graffiti, trashing dead cats to the gardens of the churches etc. There are mainly two geographical areas in which this phenomenon occurs. One is the Mea Shearim neighborhood, an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish area in which there are some old active churches – e.g. Ethiopian, Polish, Romanian and Russian. The other is the Old City of Jerusalem – mainly the Armenian Quarter and Mount Zion (where, by the way, the Jerusalem Intercultural Center is physically located).

Recently, the representatives of the churches at the Mea Shearim area approached the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Jerusalem Municipality and asked them to make an effort to stop these hate crimes. A meeting was arranged with the Mayor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and churches’ representatives to discuss the issue. Prior to the meeting the Mayor’s bureau requested that we, with our connections, will approach the leaders of the Eda Haredit, one of the extreme Ultra-Orthodox groups in Jerusalem. “Chances are slim” – they told us at the bureau – “but maybe you will be able to get their cooperation in the matter”. As a reminder, the Eda Haredit boycotts the Municipality as an illegitimate regime in the city, and throughout the years has led many struggles and demonstrations against it, including in the past few months. On the other hand, a formal statement by this extreme body may affect most of the less-extreme ultra-Orthodox Jewish world.

So we gave it a try… We knew that the Halachic (Jewish Law) part was easy. According to the Halacha, such hate crimes are sinful due to many reasons. But we did not have a way to know whether the Eda Haredit Rabbis would agree to write a condemnation against these deeds. Indeed we used our connections, and to our great surprise we got a fast response saying – “of course, we will write such a formal statement”. Moreover, a member of the innermost circle of the Eda’s management, Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, was assigned to attend the meeting at the municipality to ensure that the Christian representatives will receive the clear message directly. We received the letter within a few days from our request:

A translation of the letter (thanks to Rabbi David Rosen):

Beth Din Tzedek of the Orthodox Jewish Community

26A Strauss St.

Jerusalem

Fax:02 6221317

Tevet 7, 5770
Dangerous Provocation

Recently repeat complaints have been heard on the part of non-Jews from other religions regarding assaults and insults with which irresponsible youth have harassed them in the city and in particular in the vicinity of Shivtei Yisrael St.

Aside from the Desecration of the Divine Name involved in this which is a very serious sin indeed, such provocation of gentiles is forbidden by our rabbis and may also heaven forbid lead to tragic consequences for the Jewish community at large, May the Ineffable One have mercy.

We thus call on all who are in a position to act to end this shameful phenomenon through means of persuasion, to rally forward as soon as possible to eliminate this blight, so that our camp may be one of peace.

And may the Holy One Blessed be He spread His tabernacle of mercy, life and peace over us and all Israel and all Jerusalem; and we wait for and look forward to the coming of our righteous messiah speedily in our days, amen.

Signed this day by the ecclesiastical court of justice, here in the holy city of Jerusalem

Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch (the Head of the Beth Din Tzedek of the Orthodox Jewish Community)

Rabbi Naftali Herzka Frenkl

Rabbi Yakov Mendel Yaravitsh

The meeting at the Mayor’s office was very good. Rabbi Pappenheim talked convincingly about the Jewish approach to harassment and was very empathetic towards the harassment stories conveyed by the clergies. On the way out, Rabbi Pappenheim discussed with us possible next steps. This was very interesting as from the point of view of the Municipality, the meeting was the end rather than the beginning of the process. But Rabbi Pappenheim thought differently, and since the meeting we are making efforts together with the Eda and himself to prevent future harassment events. It is important to emphasize that mostly these incidents are not conducted by members of the Eda Haredit, but what drives the leaders of the Eda to continue the process is their leadership role and a sense of shared responsibility.

A few days following the meeting, we got another letter from the Eda:

The second letter was very similar to the first, except for three significant alterations. First, Rabbi Weiss, the main leader of the Eda Haredit is now himself signed on the statement. Second, the letter refers to acts against gentiles not only at Mea Shearim but also at the Shimon Hatzadik area. When we called to check about this change, we found that it was made since there are also harassments of Muslims at Sheikh Jerah and the Eda leadership added this locale to make sure it would be widely understood that the letter is against the harassment of both Christians and Muslims. Third, the statement now gives a clear directive for all those who are able to act to prevent further harassment.

The full story was covered in the press. First, the Ultra-Orthodox newspaper “Bakehila” published a long article with photos from the meeting with the Mayor and the clergies (in Hebrew). Then it was covered in Haaretz in Hebrew (http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1139305.html) and in English (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1139705.html). Our involvement was mentioned in all of these articles. Here is an excerpt from Haaretz:

Poland’s honorary consul in Jerusalem approached Avraham Kroizer, the mayor’s adviser on ultra-Orthodox affairs. The latter turned to members of the Eda Haredit and to Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir, director of the Jerusalem Intercultural Center, closely tied with the group. [our emphasis]

Eda Haredit representatives denied that members of their community were involved, but said it was possible that “fringe youth” who had participated in the demonstrations were causing the problems.

In recent years, and particularly in the past few months, there have been several incidents in which Palestinians have also been attacked in the area separating the western and eastern parts of Jerusalem. Agmon-Snir and Kroizer said it was not by chance the appeal had been made to the Eda Haredit, even if they were not responsible for the attacks, because rabbis from that community could lead other ultra-Orthodox to follow in their footsteps. [our emphasis]

This is not the end of the story, as we continue the process to minimize such hate crimes in Jerusalem.

jicc2016-11-07T19:41:15+00:00January 5th, 2010|Blog, Christians, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Palestinians/Arabs, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Silwan Mother and Baby Centre – December 2009

In an article we published recently, we described our model for resident participation in decision making in East Jerusalem. This model aims to respond to the anomalous relations between Palestinian residents of Jerusalem and the Israeli establishment. We focused on our special role as a non-partisan liaison agent who facilitates the dialogue between the two sides. At the end of the article, we pointed to one of the issues we have been working on – the Silwan Mother and Baby Center, that was shut down in December 2008, creating a void of baby care (including immunizations, growth control, etc.) for around 100,000 residents.

Indeed, last year, we received a request from residents in Silwan to help them in this case. We contacted the Jerusalem municipality and created a dialogue channel that involved all professional levels at the municipality, as well as all relevant portfolio holders at the Municipality Council. As a result the two sides achieved the following understanding: the municipality will fund the reopening of the center in 2010, while the residents will help in overcoming obstacles such as finding an appropriate location for the clinic in the village and spreading the word about the renewal of the service.

However, a week ago we found out that at the final stages of approving the municipal budget for 2010, the funding for the Silwan Mother and Baby Clinic was cut out. This story was covered on Haaretz Newspaper, December 20, 2009, in Hebrew and in English. Here are two citations from the article:

Professional workers in the municipality’s community authority recently recommended to the mayor that a well-baby clinic be opened in Silwan, which would also serve the residents of adjacent Arab neighborhoods such as the Old City, Ras al-Amud and Abu Tor. The recommendation came in the wake of discussions they had held with residents of Silwan under the aegis of the Inter-Cultural Center in Jerusalem [emphasis added]. It was suggested that a clinic be opened in the Jewish Quarter at the same time.

Haggai Agmon, director of the Inter-Cultural Center [emphasis added], a non-profit organization that works to assist the city’s different ethnic groups become involved in communal life, says that “the urgent need to open a well-baby clinic in Silwan was agreed upon by both sides but to my great surprise, someone took it off the budget at the last minute.”

In the following week, we helped the residents and the municipality officials in their efforts to retrieve the budget. In between, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), sent a letter to the Mayor, reminding him that there is a Supreme Court decision from 2001 demanding adding more Mother and Baby Centers in East Jerusalem. Nevertheless, so far the budget item has not been restored.

This is very disappointing, and maybe typical of the situation in Jerusalem. However, as a non-partisan organization that identifies issues that are important to all sides – we will continue to work in the coming weeks and months, with the residents and with municipality officials, towards the reopening of this important service for babies. In the course of last week, we found out how much support we have on all sides for our actions, and although we haven’t completed the mission yet, we feel that we are on the right track.

jicc2014-04-09T16:42:47+00:00December 25th, 2009|Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Palestinians/Arabs, Silwan Community Dialogue|

Speaking Arts 2009

In the last two days, December 9 and 10, we held the 6th Speaking Art Conference in Jerusalem. The conference is organized annually by the Jerusalem Foundation and the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center (read here about last year’s conference) and was conducted this year once again at the Jerusalem International Y.M.C.A.

The Jerusalem Foudnation wrote a comprehensive report of the conference and you can get to it here. We at the JICC were very happy to hear the wholehearted feedback from the 65 Jewish and Palestinian participants. The conference participants worked in three groups: music, theatre, and for the first time this year, a movement group that was a great new addition to the other two. The project managers were Hanan Ohana and Ezadeen Alsaad from the JICC.

The conference concluded with an exhilarating concert by David D’aor and Lubna Salame, who performed together in front of an enthusiastic audience of 400 people in the Y.M.C.A concert hall. This was a unique show, as it was the first time that the two of them gave a full concert in a joint bi-national bi-lingual arrangement. During a rehearsal that took place several days before the event we recorded two of the songs for the innovative concert. The first is D’aor’s song, “Take Care of the World, Child” that was translated to Arabic by Salame a few years ago. Here is the song – performed by both:

The second song is D’aor’s most recent piece that was just put out to the media – “The World I Draw”. Lubna Salame translated it especially for the Speaking Art concert, and they sing it here together:

(You can also see it at Ynet article here)

Needless to say, we are very pleased to be the ones who brought them to work together. And it might as well be only the beginning of them working and performing jointly in the future.

jicc2017-03-25T06:45:57+00:00December 11th, 2009|Arts, Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Palestinians/Arabs, Speaking Arts Conference|

Cultural Competence Training – Gonenim Clalit Clinic – November 9 and 16, 2009

After the workshops at the Clalit primary care clinics at Ir Ganim and Talpiot, we continued this week with two half-day trainings for the staff of the Gonenim clinic, conducted at the JICC premises on Mount Zion. These three clinics serve most of the Ethiopian Jewish immigrant population in Jerusalem, and we adapted our cultural competence training to focus on the needs of this group. All clinic staff members, from physicians to administrative staff, attended the workshop, as we see the response to diversity at the clinic as an integrative task.

Gonenim Clinic Training 2009

The workshop was in general very similar to the ones we conducted before. However, we used many more examples, which participants in the previous workshops raised, and based the training on case studies and simulations. This made the training closely related to the practical issues brought up by clinic staff members.

Gonenim Clinic Training 2009 – roleplaying

Following this training the Gonenim clinic now joins the support system we are creating to enhance the Clalit Health Services’ capacity in providing better and more adapted services to new immigrants. We will conduct follow-up meetings with the clinic’s management and mentor them in implementing Cultural Competence in the clinic.

Gonenim Clinic Training 2009 – roleplaying

jicc2014-04-07T20:11:50+00:00November 16th, 2009|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts|

Hot Summer 2009 – the JICC Involvement in the Ultra-Orthodox Conflicts

Summer 2009 was very dense with issues related to the Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) community in Jerusalem. One issue was around the opening on Saturday of a public parking lot in close proximity to the old city. Another major case was the arrest of a Haredi mother who allegedly starved and hurt her son for more than a year. Every weekend throughout the summer, Haredis rioted in their neighborhoods and near the parking lot. Also, throughout the week of the arrest of the Haredi mother, the Haredi neighborhoods were on riots, and municipality services were prevented from approaching them. Specifically, welfare services did not function for several weeks as a result of the Haredi community blaming them for being active in the arrest of the mother.

The JICC has become the main mediating agent in these conflicts. It was our work during the week when the mother was arrested that enabled all sides to sit together and achieve a solution that allowed the riots to stop. Since then, we have been working closely with all sides to respond to the many conflicting issues, which could each develop into a full blown crisis. We were involved in the court discussions, in the children’s interrogation, in the mother’s visits of the relevant child etc.

This story is not over yet. As we write this post, during Succot Hol Hamoed, we are handling another crisis around the Welfare Department’s involvement in the case. We observed professional people on all sides who act according to their best professional judgment in this case. However, in a complex culturally-sensitive environment, the usual best professional practices are not always best for the situation at hand – and we try to help all sides to redefine what would cultural competent professional work mean in their respective areas – health, welfare etc. The story was covered on a Jerusalem Post article on July 23, when our work on this issue just begun. We hope that when the issue is resolved, we will be able to write the full story as an important case study for the need for cultural competency in all services.

In the case of the Karta parking lot, we were also involved in most of the negotiations and with the efforts that allowed the “ceasefire” in September. We are still involved, together with the highest officials at the municipality, police and Haredi community, in the endeavors to calm the issues for the future.

Altogether, we must admit that with all these unfortunate and difficult events, this was a very interesting and fruitful summer for us. We accumulated a great deal of knowledge and experience and demonstrated our important role and significant contribution in the city. Most important – we created even better contacts and relationships with the innermost circles of the Haredi community. A clear outcome of this development is that at present, whenever problems are about to erupt, all sides call us to intervene – it took us 10 years to acquire this legitimacy in Jerusalem!

jicc2016-11-07T19:36:26+00:00October 7th, 2009|Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

A New Model for Resident Participation in East Jerusalem – an Article

We just published an article, together with the Alquds Dialogue Center, at Search for Common Ground (SFCG) Newservice, on our model for resident participation in East Jerusalem. Here are the links and the text:

SFCG: English, Arabic, Hebrew.

PDF (English).

Text:

A new model for resident participation in East Jerusalem

by Fuad Abu Hamed & Hagai Agmon-Snir

03 September 2009

JERUSALEM – All over the western world, community empowerment programmes encourage resident participation by involving community leaders and organisers in decisions about the city in which they live. What could be better than the authorities and residents coming together to take joint responsibility for municipal challenges? It seems that in East Jerusalem, all this is not so straightforward.

For those who aren’t familiar with East Jerusalem, the Palestinian residents living in this part of the city constitute a third of its population. Their neighbourhoods and villages have been neglected for years by the Israeli establishment. In fact, significant discrepancies between East and West Jerusalem exist in every area of life.

In theory, the Palestinians could take action and change their situation. Most of them hold permanent residency rights and are eligible to vote in municipal elections and run for municipal office. They can also join a variety of frameworks that would allow them to influence municipal institutions such as parent committees, activist groups working to improve infrastructure together with municipal officials, committees within community administrations which encourage resident involvement and more.

Yet their level of involvement is very minimal. Instead, frustration and despair, and, to a large extent, passivity and acceptance of the situation have taken over. However, if we speak to residents across the city, we will discover that they are very aware of their rights and obligations. In order not to lose their residency rights, they pay municipal taxes consistently (if they don’t pay this tax, they could lose proof of residency within the city boundaries) and are very keen to realise their rights to healthcare, education, housing etc.

There are many reasons for their lack of involvement. First, any cooperation on the part of the residents with the Israeli authorities may be construed as a stamp of approval for the continuing occupation. Secondly, the various arms of the Israeli establishment discourage leadership in Jerusalem which “could get out of hand”. And third, regional and local chaos generates a sense that circumstances are determined by events that are beyond their control. As a result, the dominant approach is to refrain from involvement, while waiting for an outside source to come and save them.

So when seeds of a new approach emerge it is important to take note. For example, in the neighbourhood of Tsur Baher, which is a village in the southeast of Jerusalem, a group of residents came together a few years ago and set up a “committee supporting education”. The committee works to improve the educational systems in the village which are operated by various elements – the Jerusalem municipality, the Islamic Waqf, UNRWA etc.

Instead of waiting for change, the group held a week of educational activities in the village, the pinnacle of which was a day of discussions in the form of “an open space meeting”, which was moderated by the Jerusalem Intercultural Center. The event was widely attended by local residents, principals, teachers, students and key figures in the area of education in the village and beyond, including senior education officials from the municipality.

In other cities this would not constitute anything new but in Jerusalem an initiative led by residents of the eastern neighbourhoods is rare and many people within the establishment were surprised by its success.

What was novel about the event was the statement that informed the whole event: “We are partners to the change that has to happen in the village”. Instead of just accusing the authorities and demanding that they take action and allocate resources, there was a request to look for joint solutions – to be shared by both the authorities and the residents.

In a city like Jerusalem, this kind of development tends to give rise to a great deal of suspicion. The education administration within the municipality which is responsible for East Jerusalem panicked because collaboration with residents is no small nuisance for a dysfunctional system. In the village itself there were voices calling to boycott any dialogue with the municipality which is part of the apparatus that serves the occupation. There were quite a few figures from both the village and the municipality who did not attend events organised by the residents – the necessary conceptual shift that they would have needed to make was too far-reaching, at least for now.

To overcome these suspicions, the activists turned to two organisations to mediate between them and the establishment: the “Al Quds Dialogue Center”, which is a Palestinian Jerusalem-based organisation, and the “Jerusalem Intercultural Center”, a pan-cultural Jerusalem-based organisation. On the one hand these organisations work to persuade the establishment that collaborative efforts with the residents will assist in the provision of services. On the other hand, for the residents, they help clarify the distinction between collaborative efforts on the one hand, and accepting the occupation and cooperating with its messages, on the other.

The process makes for a very delicate balancing act in an extremely sensitive political climate. The tense atmosphere gives rise to mutual suspicions. Are the groups of activists what Israel calls “a hostile terror-supporting organisation” or are they “collaborators, agents of the Israeli occupation”? These suspicions have concrete implications. Any mistake could put the activists in harms way. Therefore, mediating organisations are extremely important in making a collaborative effort possible.

Education in Tsur Baher is just one example. Similar initiatives are beginning to emerge in other neighbourhoods and areas of life such as rubbish disposal, a mother and baby centre in the village of Silwan, Arabic translations of municipal forms, pedestrian crossings and road safety programmes for school children.

We hope we are witnessing the development of a new model for the advancement of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, a mechanism that can improve their quality of life until a permanent and just solution is found for the city and the region as a whole. Perhaps also this type of model could be implemented in other places in the world which share a reality similar to that which exists in Jerusalem.

###

* Fuad Abu-Hamed, a resident of Tsur Baher, is the chairperson of the Alquds Dialogue Center (http://alquds-dc.org), a businessman and a social activist. He can be reached at bsafafa@zahav.net.il . Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir is the director of the Jerusalem Intercultural Center ( JICC, http://JICC.org.il) and can be reached at hagai@jicc.org.il. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

jicc2014-04-07T20:06:09+00:00September 10th, 2009|Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Palestinians/Arabs, Tsur Baher Community Dialogue|

Cultural Competence Training Demonstration – September 7, 2009

During summer 2008 we developed our first Cultural Competency in Health training. Since then, we piloted the workshop, adapted it as necessary, and implemented it with medical staff at the Alyn hospital and at the Clalit Health Services (both in Primary Care Clinics serving the Ethiopian community and in expert clinics). This was done in partnership with the Jerusalem Foundation. Throughout this process, we got tremendous help from many experts from all over Israel – physicians, nurses, management of the relevant institutes, and researchers and practitioners focusing on cultural sensitivity, awareness and competence. It was important for us to present the training to these people, hear their feedback and insights, and thank them for their valuable contribution.

On September 7, 2009, we were joined by about 20 experts at the JICC premises on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. We went through the details of the workshop in depth and shared with them our ideas for improvements. At midday, we, the cultural competence team at the JICC, felt much enriched with a lot of new ideas and advice. Some of the feedback related to specific modules and parts of the workshop, allowing for further improvement, and some contributed to the overall approach of the workshop.

For example, we realized that learning can be structured around case studies provided by the participants during the workshop, as well as cases that we prepared in advance with the help of professional actors. We now also know how to better simulate with the participants situations they describe, by applying the “Caregiver in the Shoes of the Patient” model: we ask the medical staff member who raised the case to play the role of the patient while another participant plays the role of the medical staff him/herself. Thus the theoretical and practical modules of the workshop, that previously were given as is, are now incorporated and triggered by the stories and situations raised by the participants, as well as by the pre-designed situations we prepared with the actors.

This approach makes the training much more interactive and practical, and most importantly, responsive and well connected to the needs of the participating practitioners. We discussed this new training design with today’s expert participants and they all agreed it was very promising.

jicc2014-04-04T12:56:03+00:00September 7th, 2009|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Identity Groups and Conflicts|

A Strategic Group on Ultra-Orthodox – Non-Ultra-Orthodox Relations in Jerusalem – August 31, 2009

Since the last post on this forum we convened twice more and concluded our in-depth discussion on housing issues in Jerusalem in the context of Haredi – non-Haredi relations in the city. This was not an easy task since while we were discussing long-term strategy the city experienced tensions between Haredi and non-Haredi populations, which resulted in riots in the streets. Such tensions could be easily reflected in our work. Yet, all participants in the forum made every effort to maintain our focus on the long-term issues. At the same time, many of the participants helped the JICC in the parallel behind-the-scenes process of responding to the riots and tensions.

During today’s meeting the detailed housing plan of the city was presented by the municipality, specifically highlighting potential housing solutions for Haredi and non-Haredi populations. It became obvious that while prospective areas for non-Haredi neighborhoods do exist, there aren’t enough options for Haredi neighborhoods. Obviously, this was bad news for the high-level Haredi participants. However, it was well understood that this may reflect negatively on all the others too, since in practicality it means that young Haredi couples will be forced to look for residential solutions in a number of other neighborhoods and tensions between the populations will continue. Yet, the mutual understanding of the problem created the motivation to demand of the municipality professional planners to increase their efforts to find better solutions. Hence, the process of solving the housing issues will be continued on the municipality level, with us at the background. We will communicate our conclusions to the decision makers, many of which are active members of the forum, and continue to our next topic of discussion – the tensions in Jerusalem. Stay tuned to read about our October meeting.

jicc2014-04-07T20:04:46+00:00August 31st, 2009|Blog, Citywide Religious Denominations Dialogue, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

The Arabic-Hebrew Studies Center in Jerusalem – End of the 2008-09 class

On the week of October 26, 2008, we began another year of the language courses at the Arabic-Hebrew Studies Center (see what we wrote back then!!).

Today, the courses ended (except for the Hebrew course for Palestinians that will continue through August). We had a party to celebrate our efforts in learning Arabic and Hebrew in these intensive and not-that-easy classes.

Arabic/Hebrew Celebration

Most of the participants wanted to ensure that these important language trainings will also be provided next year. Indeed, thanks to the donors of the Jerusalem Foundation, we are able to assure this. Our approach, focusing on the needs of professionals, is well proven. This year we insisted that the Jewish participants, while learning the spoken dialect, will also learn to read basic Arabic – street signs, names and newspaper titles. This addition to the courses was most appreciated by the participants.

Graduates thank the Arabic and Hebrew teachers

The party was held, as usual, in our beautiful garden. This year it was well timed with our mulberry tree… It has the sweetest fruits in the city! From the informal conversations, as well as the formal speeches – all made in Arabic! – we could tell that the participants appreciate the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center as a unique organization in Jerusalem: A place where professionals, who devote themselves to the transformation of Jerusalem to a more just city for all its residents, can form relations and networks for their mutual benefit.