When we talk about increasing tolerance in Jerusalem, we’re not just talking about tolerance for different cultures, ethnicities, and religions. We’re talking about everyone in society, including those who are coping with mental health issues.

Making Souls Festival

Over the past year and a half, as part of our Grassroots  Campaign for Tolerance, our Michal Shilor has accompanied – Nefashot (souls in Hebrew) – a group seeking to break down stigma about mental health issues by creating spaces for awareness and dialogue in Jerusalem´s public sphere. For the past two years Nefashot  has held events on Jerusalemite Day of Diversity. This year, in celebration of World Mental Health Day on October 10, Nefashot, with the support of the JICC, produced Ossim Nefashot – the Making Souls Festival. The festival featured 19 events, beginning Sunday, October 7, and running through Friday, October 12.

Mental health issues affect all segments of society

The events included: talks, discussions, lectures, exhibits, performances, and more. About how mental health issues affected motherhood, their people’s personal journeys and experiences, their art, their stories, and even a baking workshop.

Double sitgma

All were organized by organizations, places and especially people who have joined forces together to achieve one goal: to raise public awareness about mental health in our city while reducing  stigma against people coping with mental difficulties.

Speaking about how mental health issues touch lives everyday

Many thanks to the organizers. Here’s what some of them had to say:

Ronni Diler, one of the organizers, noted, “This might sound over the top, but I feel like my life has completely changed since I’ve become involved with [the JICC’s tolerance efforts]. I’m a purebred Jerusalemite and I always felt connected, but over the last year I’ve come to know more and more people and initiatives that are doing amazing things, with lots of good will and cooperation. There’s no doubt that without our guide (we are only 1 1/2 years old), Michal Shilor we wouldn’t have gotten to this place.”

“Mom Is Not Crazy” performance at AACI

Yaniv Rosenfeld Cohen, another organizer, said, “A year and a half ago Nefashot was born. I didn’t know how it would turn out, and if I’d have the strength to develop it. But I hoped that I would have enough courage to try something completely out of the mainstream. Nefashot was born with a goal to fight stigmas associated with mental health, and was an attempt to create a human and authentic encounter. Since then those who know me know that I am very passionate about this initiative and it’s one of the most significant things that I’ve been involved with. I’ve had the fortune and honor to have a number of extraordinary people helping me. They are the people working day and night to try and create a better and more tolerant city in Jerusalem. The missing part of the puzzle is Michal  Shilor [and the JICC], who decided to accompany us despite her crazy schedule. Without her un-ending optimism and energies I have no doubt that the picture would have looked entirely different. The 19 special events that [took place] this week would not have been possible without the people who decided to make this city better. I take my hat off to every one of them.

Performance at Beit Taylor, Kiryat Hayovel

Sivan Regev said, “So excited that this week is here! So many partners, [including the JICC]. And to all those who came with initiatives, those that we’re implementing now and those that we’ll continue to develop, and to those to ask me, and spread the word, and ask me to send them a flyer so they can tell others. A sea of wonderful people. Thank you everyone!”

Full house at the Clubhouse

Here’s a little summary video with the highlights of all the events (in Hebrew):

Click here for the entire list of events (Hebrew).

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, to the Natan Fund, and to the UJA-Federation of New York for their support for our efforts to increase tolerance in Jerusalem.

Zion Square is the heart of downtown Jewish Jerusalem. All of our efforts to advance tolerance and fight racism in Jerusalem began in Zion Square. We’ve reported here and here about the Jerusalem Municipality’s recognition of the importance of the Square, and of its recent re-design and renewal of the Square according to principles that foster connecting with one another, and tolerance.

Picturing a re-designed Zion Square in the news

“The new design of Zion Square turns it into a place that makes connections, and advances tolerance and mutual respect,” noted Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat in a recent article on the opening. “The renewal of the Square is another stage in strengthening the city center.” You can read the Hebrew article here and here.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the UJA-Federation of New York, and Natan who are helping us advance tolerance in Jerusalem.

Michal Shilor, our Coordinator for the Grassroots Campaign for Tolerance, was just the focus of an article on the Australian web site, +61J: Broadening the Conversation. In the article she spoke about her work at the JICC promoting tolerance, Jerusalemite  Day, her founding of 0202, and Jerusalem as the World Capital of Tolerance.

0202: Showing all sides of Jerusalem

You can see the original article here. And here’s the text:

Found in translation: Activist puts Hebrew, Arabic speakers on same page

By Ittay Flescher

IN THE SUMMER of 2014, Michal Shilor was studying social work. On the night before her final exam on The Components of a Welfare State, she heard kids yelling “Death to Arabs” outside the window of her apartment in the Nachlaot neighbourhood of central Jerusalem. She thought to herself: “How can I be studying for something that’s supposed to be about social change and how a state should give equal rights to everybody while this is happening outside my window and I am doing nothing?”

Realising that her need to do something was more important to her than studying for an exam, she went outside and followed the group of boys and men to Kikar Tziyon (Zion Square), the centre of the city’s economic and cultural life. On one side of the square stood the far-Right group Lehava,yelling ”Death to Arabs” and “Mohammed is Dead” with further calls for revenge, following the burial of three Israeli boys that had been kidnapped and brutally murdered by Hamas.

That same night, news had also emerged about the fate of 16-year-old Palestinian who was kidnapped, beaten and, while still alive, set on fire by three Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem. The men justified the murder to police as a response to the abduction and murder of the three Jewish teens.

On the other side of Kikar Tziyon, Shilor saw a large Left-wing rally chanting loudly against fascism and racism. She found herself sitting in the middle with a small group of friends, singing songs and lighting candles, feeling isolated by the aggression of both sides.

As conversations began to emerge between these groups and the many passers-by, Shilor and her activist friends decided to return to Kikar Tziyon every night to have discussions with people about their different visions for Jerusalem.

That discussion became “Speaking in the Square,” a forum  that has created a space for complex one-on-one conversations every Thursday night for the past four years and hese  turned Kikar Tziyon into a place that is no longer violent.

Shilor was not finished. “I’m talking to the far-Right activists, saying things that my Jewish friends are telling me about what Palestinians think and feel, but all of my knowledge about the Arab residents of my city (who make up 37% of Jerusalem’s population) comes from Jewish eyes.”

She turned to Facebook, which is used heavily in East Jerusalem, to do some research but couldn’t speak or read Arabic. Her solution, with the support of several cultural and philanthropic organisations, was to build  a team of Hebrew and Arabic speakers who  could find and translate the most viral political and social posts from East and West Jerusalem on a daily basis.

Four months later, the Facebook page 0202 Points of View From Jerusalem went live and has since become one of the most important sources of information for Jerusalem activists and residents alike (the numbers refer to Jerusalem’s telephone area code, 02, and by using it twice, the name conveys connection with the other side of the city). A year later, a page translating posts from Haredi Jerusalem was also added to the project.

The head of 0202 is Shira Laurence, who moved to Jerusalem 10 years ago from the United States. Laurence heads a team of half a dozen part-time staff who manage around 35 translators, most of them volunteers. A self-described “language nerd”, Laurence wrote her senior thesis for Middle Eastern Studies on Jerusalem.

She says one of the most significant achievements of the site involved driving lessons in the Arnona neighbourhood of West Jerusalem, which has a mostly modern Orthodox, Jewish population.

Arnona is popular for people learning to drive in Jerusalem because it’s a relatively new and spacious precinct with wide streets, and much easier than the often small and crowded streets of East Jerusalem. In June 2015, signs went up in Arnona bidding driving lessons on Shabbat and Jewish festivals. Shortly after this announcement by the Jerusalem City Council, there were hundreds of Facebook posts in Arabic from residents and driving instructors in East Jerusalem complaining about how the decision was discriminatory as it prevented them from teaching or learning how to drive at a time that suited them.

When posts of complaint in Arabic where translated to Hebrew by 0202, it eventually led to the council allowing Arab driving instructors to work in the neighbourhood on Shabbat.

The issue received almost no coverage in Jewish West Jerusalem until these posts where translated to Hebrew by 0202, which eventually led to the council reversing the decision.

Dalia Goodhardt, who recently made aliyah from Melbourne and now works on the social media team at 0202, says being part of the team has broadened her horizons about Jerusalem. “Editing posts, especially from Haredim, has exposed me on a regular basis to different narratives of what Jerusalem means to different people. At times it is challenging, as I often translate posts whose views I don’t share, but I always edit neutrally so the reader can make up their own mind.”

Goodhardt, who attended Beth Rivkah Ladies College before majoring in Arabic at Melbourne University, added: “Working at 0202 has given me a better understanding of the Palestinian narrative, giving me more empathy to respect their viewpoints, even though I don’t always agree.”

WATCH: Hagai Agmon Snir, Director of the Jerusalem Intercultural Centre and Board member of 0202 speaks to Plus61J about the importance of Jews in the city learning Arabic.

Shilor says: “Our city is roughly a third Arab (Muslim and Christian), a third Haredi, and a third modern Orthodox or secular. We meet each other in the streets, on public transportation, in restaurants, in hummus places, in garages, in taxis. There are over 500 activist events that celebrate diversity every year.”

Shilor notes that on a tense Jerusalem Day this year, following President Trump’s decision to move the US embassy, with violent clashes on the Gaza border and the 70th anniversary of what Palestinians call the Naqba (the “catastrophe” of Israel’s independence) all occurring in the same week, there were over 80 events promoting tolerance in the city. She believes these events created a different, “authentically Jerusalemite” narrative of the day.

WATCH: Jerusalemite Day of Diversity, 2018

“Just as a city which has infrastructure for bike lanes hosts cycling events, includes a growing community of riders and attracts people from abroad to experience the ‘bicycle capital of the world’, so too, Jerusalem can become the tolerance capital of the world, despite the serious and unresolved political-diplomatic issues facing the city,” Michal Shilor wrote in the journal Fathom.

Shilor’s Facebook translation page is a grassroots attempt to help the different groups within Israeli society speak with one another and discover that more things unite than divide them. For people who call Jerusalem their home, It’s a small but important step in the right direction.

Main photo: Michael Shilor (left) and Shira Laurence

WATCH – Chen Amram presents: Jerusalem – the World Capital of Tolerance

READ
Jerusalem’s light rail has new destination: Teaching Arabic (Tablet)
ELHANAN MILLER With coexistence in mind, the train’s operators will dedicate July to encouraging Israelis to open up to a language too few speak

Follow the 0202 Facebook page in English

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the UJA-Federation of New York, and the Natan Fund for their support of promoting tolerance in Jerusalem. Many thanks to the Leichtag and Rayne Foundations and the Natan Fund for their specific support of 0202.

Can Jerusalem Become a Capital of Tolerance?

Jerusalemite Day of Diversity, Sunday May 13, 2018

Our Michal Shilor, Coordinator for the Grassroots Campaign for Tolerance and organizer of Jerusalemite Day of Diversity on Jerusalem Day, says ‘yes, absolutely!’ Read her column in the Fathom, a highly respected, leading on-line publication. Here’s the link, and here’s the full text:

Michal Shilor believes Jerusalem should be known as ‘the tolerance capital of the world.’ She works at the Jerusalem Intercultural Center as ‘Activism for Tolerance’ Program Director, consulting for more than 80 independent, grassroots initiatives from across the city. She is also the founder and chairwoman of 0202 – Points of View from Jerusalem, which provides unedited, unfiltered narratives from East, West, and Haredi Jerusalem, in Hebrew, English, and Arabic.

This past May, Jerusalem experienced its potentially most dangerous week. There was Jerusalem Day, which celebrates the unification of Jerusalem in 1967 and signifies its occupation simultaneously. A day later, the American Embassy moved to my city. And one day after that fell Nakba Day – marked by my Palestinian neighbours as the day of their catastrophe (Israel’s independence). And all just before the first day of Ramadan, when more than a third of the city fasts until sundown every day for a month and things seem to slow down, even for the Jews.

Although this series of events could have turned Jerusalem into a war-torn city, they did not, because, although many people are unaware of this development: Jerusalem is changing in ways that mean it has the potential to become the tolerance capital of the world.

This is a new development. After the city was reunified or captured (depends how you look at it) fifty years ago, East and West Jerusalem remained divided de-facto; separate lives, different languages, clashing narratives, During the decades that followed, Zion Square, the heart of West Jerusalem, became the centre for protests and for hatred. The Black Panthers, an Israeli protest movement of second-generation Jewish immigrants from North Africa and Middle Eastern countries, demonstrated in the square, protests sometimes ending in clashes with the police, arrests, and injuries. The city suffered terror attacks that took the lives of 22 and injured 90. In 1995 the square hosted the infamous protests in which a picture of then Prime Minister Rabin in S.S. uniform was held aloft. And in the summer of 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, shortly after the murders of Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel, and of Muhammad Abu-Khdeir, Zion Square once again became a centre of protest with right-wing and left-wing factions taking over the square, each yelling their slogans (‘death to Arabs’ and ‘revenge’ on one side; ‘down with fascism’ and ‘Bibi, resign’ on the other).

But then something changed. A couple of right- and left-wing college-aged students – myself among them – decided this wasn’t any way to deal with the turmoil of our country. Much to the disbelief of the protestors in the Square, we sat down smack in the middle of the warring protest groups, and started singing songs of mourning, lighting candles and playing the guitar. Some protesters aimed their anger at us in the form of cigarette butts, beer bottles, and spitting; but some sat down and joined us. In retrospect, we made history by simply starting to talk. At the outskirts of the singing circle, a barrier between the protesters, and us were discussions – real, tough discussions. And these discussions changed Zion Square forever.

‘Speaking in the Square’ is an initiative we started in July 2014 and continued over the next three years. We came to the square week after week, to create dialogue, to encourage tolerance, and to create a space in the public sphere where all opinions could be heard. During those three years, Zion Square saw no protests; only spaces for mutual solace and understanding. When 16-year-old Shira Banki was murdered in Jerusalem’s Pride Parade in 2015, her public shiva consisted of nightly dialogue circles for seven straight nights – in Zion Square rather than at the spot she was stabbed. In 2016, the municipality officially renamed the square as the centre for ‘dialogue and tolerance,’ and even asked architects to submit proposals for ideas how to make the space even more available for dialogue and tolerance. Alongside these changes, across the entire city small, grassroots groups blossomed and new ideas for promoting tolerance emerged. Jerusalemites began to see their city’s diversity as an asset.

The seeds that were planted in those years are now growing fast. A recent survey (link in Hebrew) found that 82 per cent of Jerusalemites believe it is important to meet people who are different from them; 95 per cent reported that when they meet someone not from their nationality or religion who needs help, they help; 70 per cent reported not having a problem with living in a building with neighbours from a different sector; and 64 per cent wanted their municipality to be comprised of Haredi, Arab, religious and nonreligious members. When people in the streets of Jerusalem were asked what they thought of Jerusalem as ‘the Tolerance Capital of the world’ their responses were astonishing and belie the city’s bad reputation.

That doesn’t mean there is not intolerance, of course.

East Jerusalem is considered occupied by international law, and its residents aren’t granted Israeli citizenship unless they go through a tortuous process that usually lasts several years. They have to prove their residency, which can be revoked for reasons like living or spending too much time outside of Jerusalem, and they need special documents in order to travel outside of Israel. There is racism, there are disputes, and different communities often find it difficult to converse with one another, let alone legitimise narratives different than their own.

Still, 160,000 of us – Jews, Arabs, asylum seekers, LGBTQ, blind, disabled, Ethiopians, right-wing, left-wing – ride the light rail every day, and there are so few racist events reported that there is no active record of them (we checked!). Our city is roughly a third Arab (Muslim and Christian), a third Haredi, and a third modern orthodox or secular. We meet each other in the streets, on public transportation, in restaurants, in hummus places, in garages, in taxis. There are over 1000 activists in a network for tolerance in the city; 500 activist events that celebrate diversity every year; 80 organisations who work towards promoting tolerance in the city; and two coalitions of activists and organisations. On Jerusalem Day alone – a day disputed and uncomfortable for most Jerusalem residents, and best known for the controversial ‘Flag Parade’ that goes through the Muslim quarter – there were over 80 events that promoted tolerance and created a different – I’d argue an authentically Jerusalemite – narrative of the day.

Just as a city which has infrastructure for bike lanes, hosts cycling events, includes a growing community of riders and attracts people from abroad to experience the ‘bicycle capital of the world’, so Jerusalem can become the tolerance capital of the world, despite the serious and unresolved political-diplomatic issues facing the city.

Chen Amram, a local slam poet and activist says we should dare to call Jerusalem the Tolerance Capital of the world. When considering my vision for Israel, my hope is that it will follow in Jerusalem’s footsteps – that the vast array of different groups within Israeli society will find a way to dialogue with one another, and find that more things unite us than divide us.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the UJA-Federation of New York and the Natan Fund for their support for advancing tolerance in Jerusalem!