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What I’ve Been Up To Lately
- Preparing a batch of pickled watermelon rinds in anticipation of @TheJewishDream & @david_wolkin's vista next month. 5 mins ago
- RT @Jerusalem: Great review of Shuk Bites! http://t.co/3qVN3nq1 Get your ticket here: http://t.co/pi6lNr5b #machaneyehuda #jerusalem 1 hr ago
- I've thought about it a bit more and no longer want to be a performance artist. 2 hrs ago
- More updates...
Help support coexistence in Israel
UPDATE: If you use Stumbleupon, please “stumble” this post. Also, if you have a Digg account I’d appreciate if you “dug” it as well. You can do so here.
My dear friend Yochai sends his two of his children to the Gesher Al Hawadi (Giser Al Hawadi/Bridge Over the Valley) school, created in 2003 is the first (and currently only) Jewish/Arab school in Israel located in an Arab Village (Kfar Kara). It is part of a network of bi-lingual, bi-cultural schools called Yad B’ Yad (Hand in Hand) and it serves to bring Israeli Jewish and Israeli Arab children from all over the Wadi Ara region closer through education.
Please read an article about the school here.
Financial support for this cause is mandatory for its survival and as well as for making it available to any and all interested parties.
There is currently a “Giving Challenge” on Facebook. There is a daily award of $1000 dollars for the cause with the most unique donors for that day. Just yesterday, a cause with 38 donors won the challenge. We figured that since tomorrow is Christmas day, Internet traffic will be low, so if we mobilize we’ll be able to easily win the daily prize. This contest will continue through February 1st when they will award $50,000 to the cause with the most unique donors. If you have a Facebook account and are interested in joining the cause that is making a real difference in children’s lives and can donate $10 ( though more would be appreciated of course) please click here. Gesher Al Hawadi subsidizes tuition so all who want to participate can enroll. One thousand dollars will cover tuition for a student for four months. So again, your small donation will make a huge difference.
Remember, the key here is donate on December 25 (Christmas Day). One thousand dollars may not sound like a lot of money to you but rest assured it can go a long way for the school.
Click here to join the cause.
Check out these videos about the school. I warn you, the second is soooooo cheesy.
Tags: gesher al hawadi, israel, wadi ara
[...] Read all about the Gesher Al Hawadi school on Harry’s new recently redesigned blog – The View From Here 3.0. Or enjoy our witty repartee [...]
Hey Harrison,
Thanks for all your support… hope this brings us the much needed help the school requires to stay alive!
Being an active part of this amazing project I can tell you that without a doubt in my mind that this is the answer to the conflict… over the past few years we have seen so many briges built between the kids and their families and hope to continue building bridges beteween the two communities…
Thanks for you help,
Yochai
So we should give money to support Jews and arabs going to school together? No thanks. We have enough intermarriage problems here. Schools like this , that obviously do nothing to promote Jewish identity and pride, are what is wrong with Israel today. You can build as many schools like this as you’d like. It’s not going to change Hamas. Dream on.
Marsha,
I’m not sure I see eye to eye with you on this one… I’m happy to share with you my own personal experience about “Jewish identity and pride”… I was the only Jew in my school growing up in Houston, Tx. and it strengthened my identity and Pride and I’m happy to let you know that after dating several non-Jews I’m happily married to a beautiful Jewish-Israeli woman…
As for the school, here too, we feel that by confronting another religion and interacting with another culture has actually strengthened our “Jewish identity and pride”… all the values that I believe should be passed on to our children at home, on Shabbat, on the Holidays get a whole new perspective!
So, get over your own personal fears of “intermarriage” and start taking responsibility for your own “identity and Pride” and the rest will follow… it’s all in your hands and no school which promotes dialogue and humanistic values of accepting the other for who he is without judging him will threaten your beliefs and values!
As for the Hamas, well I think you’re expecting a bit too much from a group of elemetry school children, but who knows what they will grow up to and what sort of changes they will be able to bring about…
Marsha, open your mind and stop being so afraid… fear is a dangerous thing which the terrorists thrive on!
Harry, you really think the second one was cheesey? I thought it was heart-warming. But then I believe the children are our future; teach them well and let them lead the way. Just imagine a world without pain or sorrow or discomfort or ickiness or putrid glop or…o.k. maybe I’ve gone too far, but I think you get my point.