“The first time I was introduced to the children’s stories in Sweet Tea with Mint and Other Stories, I was enchanted.” This is how Dr. Marcelo Menachem Weksler, Director of the Department of Primary Education at Kibbutzim College, opened his article on the book, Sweet Tea with Mint and Other Stories on the Okets blog site. (Click here for the entire article.)

Book cover

Book cover

Last week, on February 29, the JICC was filled to the gills as students in our levels 3, 4 and 5 of Arabic for Communication courses listened to Afnan Abu Taha and Bilal Arshid, speaking in Arabic, describe the book and its authors. They are members of the Hagar Association, which operates a binational, bilingual elementary school in Beer Sheva. Members of the Association, and which also published the book.

 

 

Listening to Jewish and Arab authors

Listening to Jewish and Arab authors

The book features six stories, three written originally in Hebrew by Ronit Chacham and three originally written in Arabic by Hadeel Nashef, Al-Tayeb Ghanayem, and Sheikha Hussain Haliwa. These stories were then translated into Arabic and Hebrew, respectively. Stories in the book focus on Jewish, Muslim and Christian holidays. Happy reading!

 

Filled to the gills

Filled to the gills

Stay tuned for more of the Arabic classes’ cultural events.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their continuing support of this program.