NSWAS Week-by-Week

May 23 - 29 1999

Bulletins:

	Abdessalam Najjar is in Italy for various meetings between May 28 to June 6.
	Rayek Rizek and Nava Sonnenschein will be on a coast-to-coast speaking tour of the USA throughout the month of June. Details of engagements may be obtained from the American Friends of NSWAS.
	From July 6-8, The School for Peace staff will take 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 School for Peace

This was an extremely busy week for the SFP, including many and variegated activities, as well as participation in an international conference.

A conference

From May 28 to 29, Rabah Halabi and Michal Zak (rather than, as previously reported, Nava Sonnenschein) took part in an international conference in Arles, France: "Forging Regional Cooperation in the Mediterranean Basin." The conference was quite unique in that it brought together more than three hundred participants and distinguished guests from countries all over the Mediterranean world, including France, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Greece, Turkey, Palestine and Israel. Among the guests were academics, members of parliament, and business leaders. The SFP was quite exceptional as a grass roots organization involved in conflict group encounter work. Its panel (chaired by the SFP representatives and a lecturer from the Tel Aviv University course) was well attended and evoked much interest. And although the focus of this conference was upon commercial and State level cooperation, the majority of the participants said that a future conference should center more upon humanistic issues, such as language, education and culture.

A meeting between a Habonim Jewish youth group and Palestinian students

A group from a British Habonim Jewish youth group came for a week-long tour and encounter. The first part of the week was given to a politically oriented tour that included visits to Jaffa, Jerusalem (where they visited the Orient House) and the Negev (where they visited Bedouin villages that do not enjoy State recognition). The second part of the week included an encounter with Palestinian students from the Bir Zeit and Al-Kuds (E. Jerusalem) Universities. They were also given a complete tour of NSWAS. Bob Mark guided their visit to the Primary School. Coral Aron met with them for a presentation on the village. Coral's late husband and early NSWAS member Wellesley Aron, was the founder of Habonim in Britain. She gave the group an extract from an interview with Wellesley and his memoirs, entitled "Rebel with a Cause." Through this material, the young people were able to learn about the origins of the Movement as related personally by its founder.

Youth encounter

The SFP conducted a youth encounter between 61 high school students from Misgav and Nazareth high schools.

Facilitators course

The ongoing facilitators' course met for another weekend session.

University of Haifa meeting

Students of a Jewish - Arab group of Haifa University came for an additional encounter.

Conclusion of university courses

Three of the four university courses conducted this year concluded their final sessions of the semester. The students remarked enthusiastically about the course and what they had learned from it. One student said she had never participated in a course like this where, instead of drawing on theoretical material, she had to find the material inside herself. Another student, who commuted specially to the Beer Sheba course all the way from Haifa, said that she had found it so exciting, she never missed a session.

The Primary School

A musical performance

On Tuesday, May 25, children of the Primary School visited the Orthodox School in Ramle (a Christian Arab school attended by several of the older NSWAS children) to give a musical and choral performance.

Programs for teachers and teacher trainees

In the May 2 - 8 - 99 edition of NSWAS Week by Week it was reported that members of the NSWAS primary school attended a study day in Tel Aviv on the teaching of Arabic as a second language. Tel Aviv schools are unique in that they have adopted a program that teaches spoken, rather than literary, Arabic to Jewish pupils. This week, two of the developers of this program, Ruth Cooper and Ofra Inbar, came with a group of school principals and language teachers to visit the NSWAS Primary School. After the tour and presentation were concluded, the two remained to discuss possibilities for cooperation with the School staff. It was suggested that as a preliminary there could be a series of meetings where teaching methods would be discussed.

This year, the Primary School has hosted an unprecedented number of 13 groups of teachers and teacher trainees from all over Israel, many of whom came for half-day programs. The staff is therefore putting much thought into its presentation methods. The activities may prove to be the seeds of a future teacher-training program.

Instrumental in helping us to develop our educational system - particularly language training - as a model, has been a grant from the Abraham Fund. The grant was given last year specifically to develop programs at the School's Golder - Goodwin Language Center, with the goal of contributing to an improvement in the level of Arabic instruction throughout Israel. Part of this plan will involve the exposure of teachers to methods practiced here, in order to encourage development of new creative and imaginative methods of teaching.

The Kindergarten

Visit by Palestinian children

On Monday, May 24 the Kindergarten received a visit from a kindergarten group from the West Bank village of Idna, near Hebron. Some 25 children, in addition to accompanying adults, came on the visit. Besides touring the kindergarten and playing together with the children here, they joined also to enjoy a puppet theater show, presented in Arabic by the Bib Bam Bom puppet theater of Tel Aviv. The Idna Kindergarten invited our children or teachers for a reciprocal visit.

Volunteers

Between mid March till the end of May we had the good fortune to host Helga Ruth Wagner, who came specifically for the task of teaching German to some members of the village. The idea developed when Helga, who has been active in the German Friends' Association, met with Rayek Rizek at the annual meeting of the German Friends Association, last October. A qualified teacher of German as a foreign language, Helga agreed to teach German in exchange for taking part in courses here to learn Hebrew and Arabic. Not everything went according to plan. Courses in Hebrew and Arabic that were supposed to take place in the village did not materialize, but she was able to compensate by attending classes outside. This in itself brought rewarding and unexpected experiences.

Listening to Helga's account and impressions is interesting. Most of our volunteers arrive when they have just left school or university, and for many it is their first time abroad or away from home. Quite naturally, they have as much to learn about themselves as the country they are visiting. Helga, conversely, is a mature woman who has lived in several countries, East and West. Yet she thinks that her few weeks here were barely enough to "scratch the surface" of Israeli society, let alone understand it. Attending a university class in Ramallah, and then a language class for new immigrants in Beth Shemesh, she gained some inkling of the textures and sub-cultures that exist here. Her advice to travelers: "don't stick to a schedule, but be open to experiences," since the most interesting things are often the least expected. Helga plans to continue involvement in the village through the German Friends' Association.

While mentioning the volunteers, we thank Tineke van der Kooi from Holland, who has just returned home after 8 months of service to NSWAS.

Friends' Associations

Hermann Sieben of the German Friends of NShWAS reports that Mr. Wolfgang Thierse, the current Bundestagspräsident (Speaker of the House) of the German Parliament has agreed to preside over the association's honor board. He succeeds Prof. Rita Sußmuth in both positions. Hermann also reports the date scheduled for the next annual meeting of the German Friends to be September 3 - 5.

We received two sets of visitors from the British Friends of NSWAS during the last week. Nigel and Barbara Rustin, co-chairs of the Association, were here to celebrate the wedding of their son Charles. On the day following the wedding they invited members of the village to a festive luncheon in the guest house.

During the same week we were happy to host a new and energetic trustee of the British Friends, Mr. Robin Mills, who came together with his Israeli born wife, Tami. Mr. Mills brings with him the experience of a rich corporate career, an understanding of public relations and fundraising, an appreciation for the role of modern communications methods such as the Internet, and a keen dedication to the ideals upon which NSWAS is based.

Also from Britain, we have word of the formal launching of the "Young Friends of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam." To honor the event, the committee arranged the performance of a play entitled "The Garden of the Bustan" which was attended by some 200 people. The group is an exciting new offshoot of the Association that will involve students and young people. Committee member Ramin Kaweh says, "We plan to hold future events to raise the profile of Neve Shalom, where Jewish and Arab families live together in equality, and children learn both Hebrew and Arabic."