Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

Read All About Our Work on the Tolerance Train!

We told you here about the unique and exciting tolerance train event that took place on January 19. Well, we were also covered in the press! Here’s the clip to the article, which was published in the local newspaper, Yediot Yerushalayim on Friday, February 10.

Tolerance Train Article

The article read:

Students of the ‘Ruach Nachon’ pre-army program…recently started the ‘Tolerance Station:’ a special [train] station that will host youth movements and school groups and give them a workshop in tolerance. The first Tolerance Station opened in cooperation with the Dror (religious) and Hachmey Lev (Haredi yeshiva high school) secondary schools, and with representatives from Ma’ale Adumim’s Youth Council. During the event musical instruments were distributed, as well flyers that read, ‘Let’s open the heart of Jerusalem.’ Additional materials in both Hebrew and Arabic were distributed, and passages from Psalms (in Hebrew) and the Koran (in Arabic) were hung up around the Station.

Many thanks to the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jerusalem Foundation, who support our efforts to promote tolerance in Jerusalem.

Here’s the post from Facebook:

Naomi Roff2017-02-25T10:55:43+00:00February 18th, 2017|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

Window to Mount Zion – Praying for Church Unity

Jerusalem has certainly seen its share of conflict – between Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, Ultra-Orthodox Jews and Secular Jews, and even conflicts between different Christian denominations. And sometimes, Jerusalem also leads efforts to resolve those conflicts, on many levels. Thus is the rationale behind the Prayer for Church Unity that took place on January 26, 2017 on Mount Zion.

Leading the prayer for church unity

In 1964, Pope Paul VI made his first papal visit to the Middle East since the Middle Ages. In January 1964 he conducted an historic meeting with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, the first such meeting in 900 years! Since then, Christians around the world hold joint prayer services during the last week of January. In Jerusalem, this includes a special prayer, recited in the Cenacle (Room of the Last Supper), which is formally a neutral place, historically and religiously significant, and a sacred site to almost all the Christian communities in the city.

Some 200 worshipers were present

We first reported about this prayer last year. (You can read here about our experience.) This year, for the second year running the prayer for church unity again ran smoothly, thanks to the volunteers of Window to Mount Zion and their close cooperation with the David Precinct of the Israel Police. Together, clad in their bright yellow vests, Window to Mount Zion volunteers were there to advance tolerance and ensure that all 200 worshipers, members of all different denominations, were able to peacefully take part in the prayer.

Window to Mount Zion volunteers

Worshipers prayed in one of the holiest places in Jerusalem, and we were proud to be part of this effort to build bridges between different groups. Congratulations to Window to Mount Zion volunteers on another job well done!

Here’s the Facebook post (in Hebrew) from the Window to Mount Zion Facebook page:

Naomi Roff2017-03-25T07:36:01+00:00February 4th, 2017|Blog, Christians, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Mount Zion, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

2016 – What a Year!

As we jump head-first into 2017, we wanted to take a minute to reflect on 2016, and what a year it’s been! Overall, a year of unprecedented growth and development, and we can’t wait to get started in 2017. Here are some highlights:

Cultural Competence

The Jerusalem as a Culturally Competent City conference in May 2016, organized jointly by the JICC and the Jerusalem Foundation as part of its 50^th anniversary celebrations, was a turning point for the JICC. Attended by hundreds of professionals, from Jerusalem and throughout Israel, the conference presented strides that have been made over the past 10 years, and set the stage for the next step of meeting diverse residents’ diverse needs, in all areas of life.
Continued work in the health care system, in Jerusalem and as a model throughout Israel, training in-house coordinators and facilitators to increase sustainability and adaptability within individual institutions. For the first time, work included a national network of hospitals and clinics.
Expansive work in the Israel Police Force, reaching most police stations and present and future commanding officials, and continuing to expand training in 2017.
Groundbreaking work with the National Insurance Institute (NII), East Jerusalem branch, the first NII branch in the country to undergo a process of cultural competence.
In the Jerusalem Municipality, the entire Community Services Administration, which includes welfare, public health, immigrant absorption, and more, is undergoing training, as well as the Auditor’s Office which will be able to look at the entire Municipality’s operations through the prism of cultural competency and sensitivity.
Santé Israël, the first web site to make Israel’s health care system accessible to French speakers, celebrated its first birthday.

Ms. Uzma Shakir, Keynote Speaker, Jerusalem as a Culturally Competent City conference

Paramedical Professionals

Making healthcare practitioner exams accessible to Arab residents of east Jerusalem

2016 was an important year for us to take stock of the past four years of this program. Our conclusions show that:

The number of certified Arab paramedical professionals in East Jerusalem has grown significantly.
The program has enabled the JICC to more clearly map the situation of different paramedical professions in east Jerusalem, contributing to the knowledge of training in the Jerusalem area.
The awareness both among Palestinian institutes of higher education and health care institutions in east Jerusalem as well as Israeli Ministry of Health has been raised significantly.
A large window of opportunity for Arab women paramedical professionals to improve economic opportunities has been opened.

Nurses studying to pass their Israeli certification examinations

Talking Coexistence – Arabic Language Instruction

Both 2015 – 2016 and 2016 – 2017 broke enrollment records. In 2015-16 there were 180 students in 12 classes, over 5 levels. In 2016-2017, there are 240 students in 16 classes, also over 5 levels. We also held several cultural evenings to enrich students’ understanding of Arabic culture. Here’s a short video about the program:

Atta’a Assistance Center for the Rights of East Jerusalem Residents

The Atta’a Center has been in existence since 2004, and in 2015 it came under the aegis of the JICC. In 2016 we have seen:

70% growth in number of requests
Ballooning of its Facebook page to over 7,100 ‘likes,’ and launching of its web site.
Publication of a widely-referenced booklet on the Ministry of Interior
Expansion of network of partners in action, both from NGO’s and advocacy groups as well as municipal and government agencies.

Atta’a Presenting workshops

MiniActive for Arab Residents of East Jerusalem

For the first time ever, MiniActive activities led to a change in policy. After months of campaigning, MiniActive led the way toward the addition of 3 million NIS to the annual municipal sanitation budget for east Jerusalem, and 16 million NIS for the purchase of additional equipment for sanitation. As a result of this work, the entire Municipality is focusing their attention on garbage collection throughout
In January 2016, MiniActive organized the first ever Arabic language Horticulture Therapy course in Jerusalem for special education teachers, in cooperation with the David Yellin Academic College of Education.
Bus stops in entire neighborhoods were repaired and replaced, thanks to MiniActive.
210 women – including 50 youth – are studying Hebrew through a volunteer NGO to improve the effectivity of their activism. This is a record-breaking number, which broke last year’s record of 150 women.
In MiniActive Youth for the Environment, teenage girls learn leadership skills while participating in major environment-improving public art and other projects in neighborhoods throughout east Jerusalem.
MiniActive became a model for international work, hosting a delegation that works with the Roma population in the Czech Republic in November 2016.

Take a look at MiniActive’s own year in review. It’s pretty easy to understand, even if you don’t know Arabic:

Emergency Readiness Networks

In 2016 we expanded the network to include 14 communities throughout Jerusalem. In addition to training new volunteers, the program included training of existing networks to maintain ability to respond and increase sustainability.

Planning strategy on map

Multicultural Participatory Democracy

In 2016 we mentored community center staffs in Gilo, Kiryat Menachem, Givat Messuah, Baka’a and south Talpiot. For the first time, residents – especially the Ethiopian community in Kiryat Menachem and the highly diverse community of south Talpiot –felt that they were able to influence issues that affected their everyday lives. Training included using Facebook as a community-building tool key to increasing residents’ engagement in community processes.

Writing and submitting objections in Gilo

Promoting Tolerance in the Public Sphere

Since the summer of 2014 the JICC have been at the forefront of promoting tolerance in Jerusalem. 2016 accomplishments include:

A Different Day in Jerusalem celebrated Jerusalem’s diversity through 50 coordinated events, affecting tens of thousands of people on Jerusalem Day. It was the first time such a broad effort has been made to celebrate Jerusalem’s diversity.
JICC-mentored Speaking in the Square and other tolerance initiatives that came in their wake led to the redesigning of Zion Square, to be called Tolerance Square. The initiative’s Effective Dialogue methodology spread, and is now being presented in national frameworks.
0202-Points of View from Jerusalem are now liked by nearly 80,000 people and reach some 150,000 people weekly on Facebook and the Internet. The network now includes pages that translate from Arabic to Hebrew, from Arabic to English and one which brings news from the Ultra-Orthodox world to the awareness of the general population.
The JICC was asked to be one of the leading organizations in the Coalition of Civil Society Organizations to Promote Tolerance, formed by the Center for Young Adults and the Municipality’s Young Authority.
The JICC is continuing to develop Tolerance Network Teams (TNT’s), a series of neighborhood-based and theme-based grassroots initiatives that seek to advance tolerance in Jerusalem.

Haaretz article about A Different Day in Jerusalem

Window to Mount Zion

Since October 2015, Window to Mount Zion has bridged inter-religious and inter-community gaps that have festered between Jewish, Christian and Muslim groups for centuries. As a result of its activity over the past year:

In unheard-of cooperation, religious Jewish and Christian groups have issued joint statements condemning hate crimes on Mount Zion.
Christian ceremonies, which in the past have caused inter-religious tension, proceeded without incident.
The celebration of Christian and Jewish holidays that coincided simultaneously, which in the past had been the source of conflict and tension, also proceeded smoothly.

Window to Mount Zion volunteers

Asylum Seekers

The JICC, together with the Jerusalem Municipality, sponsor the only paid public servant in Israel to help asylum seekers, outside of Tel Aviv. We are also part of a consortium of organizations and agencies that seek to meet the needs of asylum seekers living in the city.

Families of asylum seekers on tour of Nahlaot neighborhood

Thank You!

Many many thanks go out to our partners in action and our donors. You can read about our activities in more detail either by clicking on the hyperlinks above, or by clicking here.

Looking forward to making 2017 even better!

Attention, Read All About It! 0202 on Front Page of “In Jerusalem” Supplement of the Jerusalem Post!

We’ve introduced 0202 – Points of View from Jerusalem, which we’ve been mentoring since their inception in March 2015, several times, but there’s nothing like seeing it in print. This past Friday, they were featured on the front page of the Jerusalem Post‘s In Jerusalem section. Click here to read a .pdf version of the article.

Here’s the text:

A view from east to west
By ARIEL DOMINIQUE HENDELMAN
01/19/2017
The 0202 website provides translations of east Jerusalem and haredi media, for greater understanding of our fellow city dwellers.
Michal Shilor started 0202 for the same reason so many innovative projects have begun; she was looking for something that didn’t exist.

Shilor is a Jerusalem activist who became involved in dialogue circles in Zion Square during the summer of 2014.

“We were engaged in discussions with people from all over Jerusalem and I found myself answering questions about east Jerusalem with knowledge that wasn’t firsthand,” she recalls.

“I started asking questions about where I could find news coverage on east Jerusalem that wasn’t filtered through some Jewish source; not left- or right-wing. I wanted to know what an east Jerusalemite sees and how that affects what he does.”

Shilor connected with a team of seven like-minded people who believed in her vision. With the support of Search for Common Ground and the Jerusalem Intercultural Center, 0202 was born.

Shilor and her team worked on a pilot project for three weeks. They gathered approximately 150 Facebook pages from east Jerusalem, including mainstream news media, such as the Gaza-based Shahab news agency, as well as alternative news sources, community leaders, community centers, schools and parent organizations. In March 2015, the 0202 Facebook page was published.

“We are trying to show what is going on in east Jerusalem,” Shilor says. “The first day we put the page online, we got 1,000 likes. It was amazing to see that it filled a need. That gave us a lot of hope.”

With time, 0202 became more professional. They brought in editors. Shilor and her team found that they relied less on the experts they thought they would need because they became experts themselves.

The 0202 staff is a mix of Arabs and Jews, and currently includes 18 dedicated volunteers. Shilor believes the team is a model of how Jerusalemites can live and work together.

“It’s activist-based,” Shilor states. “It’s about showing that we have to see what the other side sees.”

A hurdle early on was in translating the language from the pages coming out of east Jerusalem; not Arabic into Hebrew, but the way things were written.

Every time there was a mention of the police, army or municipality, the word “occupation” would come up. Shilor and her team found themselves questioning whether their readers would stay with them if they continued to translate word-for-word.

“It’s really difficult to read that kind of language for people in west Jerusalem,” Shilor explains. “But we have always maintained that we translate word-forword.

It’s important to see the way things are written.”

In the fall of 2015, Shilor and her team opened an English version of the page with funding from the Leichtag Foundation. She points out that there is no difference between the English and Hebrew pages in terms of content. They wanted to reach the Anglos in Jerusalem. Last March, 0202 celebrated its first birthday.

It had an event where both Palestinians and Israelis came to speak about Jerusalem.

“On the page, we don’t want to tell you what to think, but in the event, we were able to bring guest speakers to supply more nuanced points of view,” Shilor says. “A hundred people came, Arabs and Jews.

It showed us the impact we’re having.”

Another way 0202 measures its impact is in the ability to create change on the ground. Last June, the head of the Association for Driving Instructors in east Jerusalem began posting about an issue in Arnona and East Talpiot. Signs prohibiting student driving on Saturdays were popping up.

“It was clearly racist,” Shilor says. “On Saturdays, only Palestinians have driving lessons. The signs were put up unofficially, but somebody allowed it to happen without having any sort of discussion with the people it would affect.”

0202 translated the posts and the issue reached the municipality. The signs were eventually taken down.

The fact that the 0202 page had journalist and activist followers brought about tangible change. This was gratifying for Shilor and her team.

“To see that something happened because we’re amplifying voices that people don’t hear in west Jerusalem showed us that what we’re doing has an effect,” she says.

There was a similar occurrence with uncollected garbage. Mini Active, a group of female Palestinian activists, posted photos of garbage every day for a year with the tag line, “We don’t want to live in filth.” 0202 translated their campaign every day, and within a few months, NIS 3 million had been transferred to the sanitation department of east Jerusalem. The garbage issue today is one of the biggest and most talked about, thanks to Mini Active’s posts and 0202’s translations.

In the fall of 2015, the stabbing intifada tested the 0202 team’s abilities in a new way.

“That was our first big chance to prove ourselves, and we really managed to be an important source for people who wanted to know what was going on in Jerusalem and what people in east Jerusalem were saying about it.”

0202 hosted an event called “Why Is Jerusalem Burning?” that drew 150 people “We had posts from September that showed the coming violence,” Shilor recalls. “We took the opportunity to bring two speakers, one left- and one right-wing, to talk about why it was happening and why having access to what was coming out of east Jerusalem was so important. That was a major point for us to understand that we really have influence. One of the speakers was in charge of security at the Temple Mount, so he knows east Jerusalem very well and showed both sides of the spectrum.”

Shilor emphasizes that the common theme found in every post coming out of east Jerusalem is the mention of the “occupation,” even if the subject matter doesn’t directly relate.

“The mind-set in the media is, no matter the subject, we’re living in an occupied area,” she says, “but I have to say what’s most interesting is that Facebook doesn’t really show what’s happening in real life. Facebook in east Jerusalem is not a mirror image of street talk because of social pressure to say the right thing at the right time. When you look at the comments on posts, you’ll see much more diverse opinions than you’d see in a major post. You might see positive and negative comments, but posts will be negative across the board.”

0202 is currently focusing on trying to lessen the gap between how east Jerusalemites talk in the street, as represented in Facebook comments, and what is actually posted on a page. They’ve begun translating comments on posts, in order to showcase the disparity.

“It’s important to show how different the reactions are because there’s a lot of identity confusion in east Jerusalem,” Shilor explains.

0202 shows posts ranging from anger about settlers defacing al-Aksa Mosque, to what the children did in school that day. The message is that life is complex and east Jerusalemites are talking about all of it.

0202 is not attempting to provide a solution to the conflict. It is not in favor of or against one state or two.

Shilor believes that no matter what happens, Jerusalemites are living here together and need to understand each other.

“We need to understand what the other side thinks and how that affects their actions,” she says.

“One of the things we learned during the stabbing attacks was that it doesn’t really matter what the news says is happening. There were many instances where in west Jerusalem, we were sure that it was an attempted stabbing. But in east Jerusalem, they were sure that it was an innocent woman walking by, pulling her phone out of her pocket, and being killed in cold blood.
third of the people are sure that they’re being murdered in the streets while the other two-thirds are sure that they’re being stabbed to death in the same streets. It doesn’t matter what the objective truth is; what matters is that this is how we’re living. If both of us are that afraid, there should be discussion about the fear.”

In the spirit of communication, Shilor is now learning Arabic. She ardently believes that the simple act of talking to each other can bring about understanding.

Through her work with 0202, she has come to see that east and west Jerusalemites live in two separate worlds, both mentally and socioeconomically. 0202’s translations provide a meeting point somewhere between these two realities.

She plans to create a page for every sector of Jerusalem.

In September, they launched the haredi page, with the same process of culling news sources from a cross-section of ultra-Orthodox online and print media and providing accurate translations.

“If we’re going to talk about Jerusalem, it has to include all of its citizens: haredi, modern Orthodox and secular,” Shilor says.

“We want to pick something, work with the page until it steadies, and then open another. We want to create a complex look at Jerusalem so that people in and outside of Jerusalem can see. We decided that the first step would be the ultra-Orthodox world. That world is new for me. I wanted to learn about it and it looks like everyone else is interested as well.”

The haredi page has a smaller team: three people on staff and three advisers, all of whom are ultra-Orthodox themselves or were in the past.

“This page draws from Hebrew to Hebrew,” Shilor states. “It’s amazing that it’s still a whole other language.

You’ve got acronyms everywhere. They use the same letters and words, but I’ll have to read a post three times in order to understand it.”

Shilor has learned about ultra-Orthodoxy: haredim, hassidim and the hundreds of subsects within each. The first posts the page displayed, revolving around construction work on the light rail on Shabbat, showed that from the haredi point of view, mainstream Israeli society was blaming them for the halted construction. There have also been issues concerning education. In the Kiryat Hayovel schools, there is ongoing debate about religious and non-religious studies. There was also an issue regarding the mandatory quota that at least 30% of each seminary’s student body must be Sephardi girls. The posts showed concern that this was a maximum and not a minimum.

“There is an uproar about that and we really don’t hear about it outside the haredi world,” Shilor says. “We’re usually limited to what’s going on in the Knesset, but it is much bigger.”

0202 draws its haredi news from 80 different source pages, and it joined journalist WhatsApp groups that yield significant information.

What 0202 has done, in essence, is to strip away the bias that plagues today’s journalism. It reports the news from a plethora of sources, unfiltered. Of course when the team searches over 200 pages, some opinion is bound to seep into the selection process, but even that is addressed by choosing from only popular posts.

“If we use something minor that nobody is talking about, then we would be bringing our own opinions into it,” Shilor says. “It’s difficult because we have to include editor’s notes when we need to show a larger context to the picture. We do it with care and stay as neutral as possible.”

Shilor plans to translate the haredi page into English in the near future. In addition, 0202 is in the process of becoming a registered non-profit. The board is comprised of Palestinians and Jews, religious and secular. It’s important for the team to reflect Jerusalem in a real way, so that they can continue the work of holding a mirror up and providing a channel for understanding between disparate groups. Perhaps more importantly, 0202 provides an opportunity for identifying commonalities.

“From everything I’ve seen, each of these groups feels like they’re under occupation,” Shilor summarizes.

“They feel that everyone is against them – especially the municipality – and that their voices aren’t being heard. When you think that everyone is against you, it stands to reason that you would think everyone is doing better than you. There are a lot of similarities in terms of the feelings, even if the actions are different.

Understanding this will bring peace to Jerusalem.

“It’s about living in a way that we’re not afraid anymore, and not increasing the hate or the racism. It’s about making those small, human steps to promote tolerance over violence.”

www.facebook.com/0202updates

www.facebook.com/0202ultraorthodox

Many thanks to the Leichtag Foundation for their support of this project, and to the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jerusalem Foundation for their ongoing support of our efforts to promote tolerance in Jerusalem.

And here’s the Facebook post with pictures of the article:

Naomi Roff2019-11-16T12:08:00+00:00January 22nd, 2017|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

All Aboard the Tolerance Train!

One of the main goals of our Grassroots Campaign for Tolerance is to bring tolerance activities into the public sphere. Today, together with the Citypass company that operates the Jerusalem light rail and the Ruach Nachon pre-army preparation program, the Jerusalem Municipality and religious and ultra-orthodox high school students, we helped them do just that. The invitation to get out to the Municipality Hall Light Rail Station was put on Facebook:

Here’s a short video to give you a taste of what went on:

In addition to music, throughout the event participants handed out flyers that read, “Let’s open Jerusalem’s heart” in Hebrew and Arabic and spoke with passersby. Passages from the Koran and the Book of Psalms that speak about peace were hung, in Arabic and Hebrew, respectively.

Speaking with passersby on the street

Participants also posted messages with tolerant messaging on light rail cars.

Making the cars more tolerant

The event raised the curiosity of passersby, including city council members as well as those who heard from inside the Municipality buildings, as well as those who joined in the festivities on the sidewalk. Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, City Council member from the Yerushalmim Party, was so excited she made this video (in Hebrew):

Together with the beautifully sunny winter’s day, the event spread a tolerant atmosphere throughout the entire area. If we continue, these and other events will be able to influence the entire city. Congratulations to Citypass, which recognize’s the light rail’s important role in maintaining a positive atmosphere in Jerusalem. This was the first of what is supposed to turn into a monthly event. We can’t wait ’till then!

Many thanks to the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jerusalem Foundation for their ongoing support for our efforts to promote tolerance in Jerusalem.

If you’re interested in seeing more of the event, here’s a longer video that Ruach Nachon posted:

Naomi Roff2017-01-27T14:12:38+00:00January 19th, 2017|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

10 Days of Light – Spreading the Light of Tolerance

2016 brought with it Christmas, Chanukah, and Novi God all at the same time, and this year, Jerusalem decided to celebrate together! And our Jerusalem Tolerance network, including its Facebook page with over 1,600 ‘likes’ and its e-mail list with over 450 members, spread the light.

Creating light in Zion Square and throughout Jerusalem

In the past two years, Jerusalem has seen an ever-growing number of tolerance activities created by its residents, and the winter holidays gave us an even bigger and better opportunity to celebrate – and celebrate diversity.

Celebrating the Ethiopian Jewish Sigd holiday

So what did we have? During the final 10 days of 2016, Jerusalemites took it upon themselves to celebrate Russian, Ethiopian, Christian, and Jewish holidays – and even more!

There were celebrations of both western and eastern Christmas

In private homes, Jews hosted Christians for menorah-lighting, Muslims opened their homes to discuss their Jerusalemite narrative, Ultra-Orthodox Jews opened their homes to share their traditions, Ethiopians opened their homes to talk about the Sigd (which actually took place at the end of November, but who’s going to pass up a chance to celebrate?), and much more.

Chanukah in Meah Shearim

Tours invited Jerusalemites of all colors and religions to enter places that seem foreign to them on a daily basis. Several hundred Jerusalemites toured the Christian quarter of the Old City, the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Meah Shearim, and the Muslim and Armenian Quarters of the Old City with a local group of Palestinian and Jewish activist artists.

On tour in a diverse Jerusalem

We saw cultural fusion taking place all over the city in local coffee shops and with a plethora of organizations. We saw movies about Ethiopian Israelis, and movies made by Palestinians and Israelis. We joined a musical jam between religious, secular, Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews at a local cooperative pub. We celebrated Novi God in several different venues that introduced us to the customs and food of Russian Israelis.

Celebrating Novi God

We heard the sounds of the YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus, made up of Jewish and Arab teens in Jerusalem, in a special Christmas Eve concert. We joined one-on-one discussions at the Hebrew University between Palestinians and Israelis. We met Ethiopians and learned about the culture, the food, and the music of Ethiopia and its integration in Jerusalem. We lit Chanukah candles with all different walks of life: Christian, transgender, right-wing, Muslim, Ashkenazi, Jewish, ultraorthodox, left-wing, Mizrachi, Russian, Ethiopian, and more… We even made it to the Knesset, in a special meeting with representatives from the three monotheistic faiths who share Jerusalem!

Here’s a video of the YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus in concert:

These 10 Days of Light can perhaps be summed up in the very special Chanukah candle-lighting ceremony that was held on December 29 in Zion Square, Jerusalem’s major downtown public square. This event was a special joint effort between Speaking in the Square, the Yerushalmit Movement and Beit Midrash Rechov. In the center of town, open for everyone to see, candles were lit by pairs whom we don’t usually see together. Here’s the list of candle-lighters:

Efraim Zecharia, ultra-Orthodox, Assistant Principal at Chachmei Lev Yeshiva (one of the first ultra-Orthodox Yeshivot in Jerusalem to offer a full Israeli matriculation), a teacher at the religious Dror High School, together with Yiscah Smith, a religious transgender woman and an international speaker about living life authentically.
Yael Yechieli Persico – Director of Freedom of Religious and Pluralistic Judaism, Shatil, left-wing activist, together with Yehuda Ifrach, journalist at the right-leaning Makor Rishon newspaper and right-wing activist.
Anna Maria Segarmella, a Catholic nun from Italy, together with Peta Jones Pelech, Director of Educational Activities at the Elijah Interfaith Institute and initiator of “Praying together in Jerusalem.”
Pnina Pfeufer, left-wing political activist in “Darkenu;” also active in “ultra-Orthodox for Peace,” and freelance writer in the Jerusalem Post and ultra-Orthodox newspapers, together with Berry Rosenberg, an Israeli of Russian descent, one of the initiators of the Israeli Novi God and the Culture Brigade, and a member of “1.5 generation” of Russian Israelis.
Ahmed Maswadeh together with Oren Feld, the initiators of “Jerusalem Art,” an activist group of artists in Jerusalem who clean up abandoned areas, paint them, and create public space for dialogue.
Avishai Bar Ishai, right-wing activist, together with Shayna Abramson, Times of Israel blogger and left-wig activist.
Avi White, formerly ultra-Orthodox and an active member of the dialogue in Zion Square, together with Shmuel Drilman, ultra-Orthodox, communications expert, and an activist in promoting ultra-Orthodox-secular dialogue.

Here’s Jerusalem Art’s Facebook post of the event:

The candle-lighting was followed by discussion circles about tolerance in Jerusalem.

That is quite a list! We can’t wait to see and assist more of these activities in our ever-growing tolerant Jerusalem!

Ethiopian embroidery

And here is our Facebook announcement post (in Hebrew) about (almost) all the events:

Many thanks to the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jerusalem Foundation for their support of our efforts to advance tolerance in Jerusalem!

Naomi Roff2017-01-13T13:23:20+00:00January 8th, 2017|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

An Insiders View – 0202 Beyond the Screen

When was the last time you could experience a newspaper from Meah Shearim, or get an inside peek at what goes viral in Silwan? Palestinian and Ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem, two vastly different experiences from the secular-religious Jewish continuum of another 300,000 Jerusalmites. Only a few blocks separate them physically, but they are all worlds apart.

This Facebook event picture basically sums it up

In a truly Jerusalemite way, they all came together last week (November 22) at the Hamiffal cultural space, at the 0202: Beyond the Screen event. The event brought together representatives from the original 0202: A View from East Jerusalem and the newly-launched 0202: A View from Ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem for a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at Jerusalem and current events from their different points of view.

Bursting at the seams, with another 750 viewers online

What does Jerusalem look like? What can we learn from a deeper look at 0202 items? How does East Jerusalem view Ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem, and vice versa? What do the same news items look like as covered from East Jerusalem news sources or from Ultra-Orthodox news sources?

During the evening we were able to look at a number of different indicative posts that enabled panelists to analyze media, reality and the gap in between in ultra-orthodox and east Jerusalem, crossing social, cultural, and physical borders through Facebook. Panelists included: Hatem Khweis – editor of “Hon” website and “Al-Balad” newspaper; Nasr Temimi – an active resident from Ras el-Amud; Yael Yechieli Persico – Director of Freedom of Religious and Pluralistic Judaism, Shatil; Boaz Ben Ari – Photographer, “Haredim 10” News; Ohad Merlin – Editor, “0202 – A View from East Jerusalem”; Yossi Klar – Editor, “0202 – A View from Ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem”; Michal Shilor – Founder and Director, 0202.

From L. to R.: Nasr, Boaz, Yossi, Ohad, Yael, Hatem and Michal

In all, over 150 people squeezed into the main space at Hamiffal, and another 750 people watched on live stream! You can watch the video of the event here:

Earlier in the day Yossi and Ohad, both editors at 0202, were interviewed on the Galei Israel radio station. Click below to hear the interview in Hebrew.

Congratulations to Michal and the entire 0202 team for another successful Beyond the Screen event. Can’t wait for the next one!

Naomi Roff2016-12-16T14:40:01+00:00December 3rd, 2016|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, Palestinians/Arabs, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Tolerant Katamon Tour – Part of International Tolerance Week

Jerusalem in general and Katamon in particular are seen by many as a place that has seen its share of bloodshed and intolerance throughout history.

Learning about a range of interesting corners in Katamon

But as part of the week surrounding International Tolerance Day on November 16, we at the JICC publicized a range of activities that sought to advance tolerance on the Jerusalem Tolerance Facebook page, part of our Grassroots Campaign for Tolerance supported by the UJA-Federation of New York.

One of these activities was a tour of Tolerant Katamon, led by renowned tour guide, Itamar Farhi.

Jerusalem from many different angles

In two hours, Itamar showed a different viewpoint of Jerusalem through the story of Katamon and its environs. He showed the secularism through its monasteries, coexistence through the stories of different houses, feminism through the names of its streets, vegetarianism / veganism through its restaurants, support for the gay community through its neighborhood flags. And who knows, maybe the word about a different Jerusalem will come forth, a more tolerant, more respecting, more Utopian Jerusalem.

As one participant noted:

The tour was very interesting and I learned so much! I’ve lived in the surrounding neighborhood for many years but I never knew about any of those charming places. Such an appropriate event for Tolerance Day.

Pictures from the tour:

https://www.facebook.com/events/640674549444159

Naomi Roff2016-12-02T15:13:13+00:00November 23rd, 2016|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

Celebrating International Tolerance Day in Zion (soon to be Tolerance) Square

“It might have been the timing of the discussion circles a few hours after the difficult words of one of the rabbis against the gay community [see here for more about that], or maybe we’re talking about pent-up anger since the terrible murder of Shira Banky [at the 2015 Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade, by a Haredi man], but my first impressions were, ‘wow, they really hate us.’

Us. These nice young people beside me see the Haredi community as an inciting herd that seeks to drown out their entire fabric of life. Even I wouldn’t want to live beside a group so grotesque.’

But then I remembered the apathy in which my friends dealt with the Parade and the municipal Sabbath-breakers, I really felt they cared about us, and that legitimacy from us has a real significance, much more from that of a discussion about rights and obligations.

And then we talked, we discussed the challenge of liberalism in complex situations such as those we’re in, and we argued about people and religions. We shared what challenges us, and we learned how to prove that love, between brothers who live so close together but think so far apart, can exist.

And maybe the learned person was right, he who told me this week that just the act of learning about the problems, and focusing one’s viewpoint on them openly and honestly – that is the main part of the solution.

This is how Shmuel Drilman, a Haredi activist who participated in the evening of discussion and learning that took place in Zion Square last Thursday night, commemorating International Tolerance Day (November 16). The event was organized by Speaking in the Square (which we’ve written about here and here and here), the Yerushalmim Movement, and the Beit Midrash Rechov. More than 200 people, from the entire spectrum of Jerusalem’s population, participated.

The entire religious spectrum discussing tolerance

For Speaking in the Square, it was important to note International Tolerance Day with these other two initiatives. The evening included discussions about tolerance and its importance in our daily lives. But the most important part of the evening was that it took place in Zion Square. Everyone sat together – Jews and Arabs, religious and secular, and talked about their shared lives in Jerusalem, and about the importance of considering the needs and feelings of one another. But not only did the participants in the discussion circles learn about tolerance, everyone who passed through Zion Square saw a live example of the advantages of creating an open society that includes and respects its different groups.

Throughout Zion Square, soon to be renamed Tolerance Square

Our assistance to Speaking in the Square and other groups during the week commemorating International Tolerance Day is being generously supported by the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jerusalem Foundation.

Here’s the Facebook post (in Hebrew) written by Speaking in the Square:

Here is Shmuel Drilman’s Facebook post about the evening:

Naomi Roff2016-12-02T15:17:49+00:00November 22nd, 2016|Blog, Effective Activism, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

0202 – Failing on the Way to Success

Look up “failure quotes” in Google and you’ll find the widest range of people talking about it – from Winston Churchill to Nelson Mandela to Oprah Winfrey and LeBron James and Michael Jordan. The gist of all of these inspirational quotes is that in order to succeed you need to fail, and that the most learning – and often success – takes place after that fail.

Such is the rationale behind the F***up Nights (FUN) initiative, a global movement born in Mexico in 2012 to publicly share – and learn from – failure stories. On November 3, a FUN was organized in Jerusalem, under the auspices of the Jerusalem Municipality, PresenTense, Siftech, and others. Michal Shilor, our Coordinator for the Grassroots Campaign for Tolerance and the founder / initiator of the growing 0202 Facebook page / web site “empire” that we’ve been mentoring, was one of the speakers.

Michal, at the November FUN

Today all three pages have close to 70,000 likes and reach well over 100,000 weekly, including prominent journalists and researchers and municipality and national agency officials, and has been known to affect municipal policy. However, in the beginning, it almost closed.

It was the fall of 2015. The first page, 0202-A View from East Jerusalem, which translates news posts from Arabic into Hebrew, had opened 6 months previously. The translators began to see on the Facebook pages and Internet sites much more violent and hateful speech, and very little else. Then panic set in. ‘Is this what East Jerusalem is really like, always?’ the organizers thought. ‘What are we doing here? If this is what it’s always like, we can’t be part of the hate cycle.’ And they almost closed up shop.

And then they took a closer look at the string of events. Lots of incitement on Facebook and the Internet, and a short time later, a stabbing attack. The connection was clear. In fact, they were the ones with the information. 0202 was indeed showing them insights into Palestinian life in East Jerusalem, however disturbing that reality was.

That was when they realized that they could use the information they have access to help influence policy and society. Case in point – the “We Won’t Live in Filth” campaign by our MiniActive network. As a result of the continuing violence in East Jerusalem, garbage collection all but stopped in the fall of 2015. The MiniActive network, which has been working to improve the environment in East Jerusalem in a number of ways since its establishment in 2012, had been trying, without success, through its usual channels – calling the 106 municipal hotline, occasionally publishing on their Arabic-language Facebook page. Then they came up with their “We Won’t Live in Filth!” campaign, in which they posted pictures of overflowing garbage recptacles every day, in order to raise awareness. 0202 picked up these posts, which were seen and followed up by city council members, who were able to pass an addition of 3 million NIS to the annual Jerusalem sanitation budget for garbage collection in East Jerusalem.

Over 100 people came out to the Post Hostel for the first Jerusalem FUN. It was also covered by the Jerusalem Post: