News and Updates

As a parent who raised three children in Jerusalem, I insisted that they engage in some type of interreligious or Israeli-Palestinian dialogue initiative before they graduated from High School. Had I not placed such a condition, my children would have had no contact with the ‘other’ before starting their adult lives.

As we spend time with our families during Ramadan, Passover and Easter, stories will be shared between us. We often forget about the power of a story and how it shapes who we are – a lesson that was the focus for one of our groups over the past few months. Within the walls of an old house in Ramle, eleven students sat down together to start a conversation.

We were very excited to open the exhibition “Stories Beyond the Arches: Women’s Voices from Ramle” last week, to mark International Women’s Day. On this festive evening, over 100 people celebrated together, women and men, Israeli-Jews and Palestinians, young and elderly from different communities in the city – gathered side-by-side in the Open House.

Over the course of the Chanukah holiday, several different events raised questions about belonging in the Holy Land, and how we understand that connection.

Earlier this week far-right MK Bezalel Smotrich (leader of the Religious Zionism party) attacked the Arab members of Knesset and by inference at least, all Arab citizens of Israel saying, “You’re here by mistake, it’s a mistake that Ben-Gurion didn’t finish the job and didn’t throw you out in 1948.” The appalling cultural resonance of that remark makes the lack of condemnation by mainstream Jewish leaders all the more shameful.

At the beginning of the school year, both parents and children are eager to find out who their homeroom teacher will be, particularly in grade school. This year, one appointment reached the national news……