NSWAS Week-by-Week

  July 4 - July 10  1999

Bulletins:

	Courses in Arabic for Hebrew speakers.
	Encounter weekends for Palestinian and Jewish families in the NSWAS hotel.

From July 6-8, The School for Peace staff, together with other members of NSWAS, took part in a national symposium at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev: "Group Work and Group Therapy in a Multicultural Society: Encounter and Difference." The SFP staff spoke twice at the meeting. Rabah Halabi spoke on July 8 as one of the five speakers in the panel entitled: "Is a true inter-cultural encounter possible and [if so] what is that contribution of small groups in such an encounter?" Then, Nava Sonnenschein, Michal Zak and Wafaa Srour took part in a round table discussion. Nava Sonnenschein spoke about "Identity Change," which is the subject of her doctoral thesis. Michal Zak spoke about "Co-facilitation in encounter work," and Wafaa Srour spoke about "the SFP's methodology in the Palestinian-Jewish youth encounter." An interesting feature of the symposium as a whole was that the approach of the SFP was discussed and referenced again and again as the leading representative of the "inter-group" approach to conflict group work, as against the "inter-personal" approach which continues to be the more prevalent among organizations involved in encounter work.

The evolution of a research, documentation and publications center at the School for Peace

At the beginning of the 1998-99 academic year, the SFP declared its intention to open a research, documentation and publications center. Preparation work has proceeded towards this throughout the year, and the first research project is expected to get underway in the 1999-2000 scholastic year. Rabah Halabi, who has just completed his term as SFP director, will take charge of organizing the new Center. A physical location will be assigned to it and work will begin on equipping this with the appropriate equipment, such as video and dictaphone gear. The first research project, to be carried out by Rabah and two lecturers of the Hebrew University, will examine ethnic identity change among youth encounter participants. The project will be based upon qualitative research, including interviews before and after sessions and observation of the group work.

In addition to its own research, the Center will provide resources and assistance for students who wish to do research of their own upon work conducted by the SFP. The last few years have seen an increasing number of approaches by students wishing to do such research. Currently there is one student engaged in writing a doctoral thesis on the basis of two years of Rosenthal-type qualitative analysis of the SFP's work with graduate groups in Beer Sheba University. Another student is writing a doctoral thesis based on a Freudian approach. A third student is writing his MA thesis on attitude change among SFP youth encounter graduates, on the basis of questionnaires distributed at the time of the encounter and one year later. In the coming months, two foreign and one Israeli student will begin research projects of their own. The SFP now seeks to encourage such projects, on condition that these will be arranged through the researcher's university.

The center will include a library of relevant materials, and will also be in charge of publications produced by the SFP. As in an academic institution, the faculty will be encouraged to write monographs and articles.

Summer Camp

The Achva/Okhowa summer camp completed its first week of work, with 40 children from NSWAS and the area - not all of whom are enrolled during the school year. Every day they are involved in different activities, brought by a number of teachers and artists. Next week they will also be going away together for a few days to the Galilee.

The children of the village who took music classes gave a joint performance for the pleasure of parents and members of the village. The popular instruments were recorders and electric organ.

The Group Visits branch reports summer visits by an extraordinary number of Israeli school teachers. During the coming weeks, some 800 will visit to receive a tour of the village, including the school and kindergarten. They come in the framework of activities arranged by the national teachers' union, and are interested to see the workings of the village and its unique binational educational system.

Germany

The newsletter of the German Friends' Association, which appears usually on a biannual basis, is produced by Hermann and Heidi Sieben. The newsletter reports on activities in the village as well as activities of the Friends' Association and other interesting features. The June 1999 issue was sent out last month and has now - for the first time - been placed on the internet at http://nswas.com/deutsch/rundbrief.htm.

USA

Newsletter of the the Baltimore Friends of NSWAS

The Baltimore Friends of NSWAS, have produced Volume 1, Issue 1 of their newsletter, for June 1999. A copy can be obtained by writing to Alan Eytan at aecdg@erols.com. The newsletter details many interesting new contacts, spotlights successes such as the generous gift of $125,000 of the Weinberg Foundation, and the Robert Nathan testimonial dinner, as well as mentioning exciting plans for coming months. The Baltimore Friends are an independent support group formed less than a year ago. A board of directors has been established with many eminent figures from the Baltimore area, and co-chairs have been appointed. These are Elias Shomali and Ilene Vogelstein. Elias Shomali is director of the Trade Finance Program within the Office of International Business for the State of Maryland. He is a prominent Palestinian-Catholic American. He was nominated by another Baltimore friend - His Eminence William Cardinal Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore. Says Mr. Shomali: "When a Cardinal asks you to do something on his behalf, you cannot refuse. But I never would have anyway since the cause of NS~WAS is very dear to me and my family." Joining Elias Shomali as co-chair is Ilene Vogelstein. She is a leading Jewish early childhood educator, a distinguished academic, and director of Machom L'Morim - a professional development program for Jewish early childhood educators.

We have received a copy of an article that appeared on NSWAS in the May 2 issue of the American Catholic News weekly, Our Sunday Visitor (circulation 79,000) and word of an upcoming article in the American national monthly Catholic Digest (circulation 502,000), both by journalist Mar? Ruiz Scaperlanda.

Pictures from the summer camp

Concert:

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Copyright ? 1999 by Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam.  All rights reserved.
Revised: 06/21/01 08:04:45 -0400.