|  | Message from our CEO
Dear Friends,
These last months have been full of suffering, violence, fear, and hardship. Hope for the hostages’ return and horror at the sheer scope of human suffering in Gaza were never far from any of us. We at Givat Haviva understand that it is precisely at times like these that our role becomes more relevant than ever. Our work in educational, community, and social settings between Jews and Arabs within Israel has become a truly existential necessity. We never imagined we would be in this unbelievable situation, dealing with statements and decisions by the government that can only be explained as a twisted desire to cause unrest within the state of Israel. Almost every week, we learn about more outrageous decisions and statements that endanger us all and threaten to further damage the already wounded fabric of Israeli life. This is evident in the persecution and silencing of the Arab public, many of whom do not dare to voice legitimate opinions in the public sphere, in indiscriminate distribution of weapons, in massive cuts to all Arab society budgets, and in the threat to limit Muslim citizens’ freedom of worship at the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan - a threat that has currently only been removed from the table by security professionals warning the Prime Minister against its implementation. Faced with this, and in spite of it, along with exerting pressure on the political systems, we work every day to restore the trust and sense of security that have been undermined between Jews and Arabs in Israel. Our education, training, and leadership programs are working even harder. Our leading shared education teams at Younited, Givat Haviva’s International School, and at the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace, are dealing daily with challenges and questions that we never thought we would face. For every challenge, our professional staff finds a fitting educational solution, a response that enables children, youth, parents, educators, and even regional and political leaders to ask the difficult questions about each other, and to deal with them productively. The reality that those in power are trying to create here looks increasingly grim. It seems that never before have so many elected leaders in Israel invested so much energy and resources to create so much unnecessary suffering within our society. But I am happy to report that those who walk around our campus, from the International School, to the Shared Art Center, the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace, and the Institute of Arabic Studies, will see hundreds of teenagers, teachers, administrators, young artists, and groups that are still being educated here for a different present, and a saner future.
Michal Sella CEO, Givat Haviva | | Ramadan Greetings |  | On behalf of Givat Haviva’s management and staff, we wish all our Muslim friends and partners, and all of Arab society, a happy and blessed Ramadan. May it be signified by peace and hope, partnership, and the establishment of an equal, just, and democratic society for all. | | News from Givat Haviva The Jewish-Arab Center for Peace | | SAVE THE DATE The Office for Diversity, Inclusion, and Community at the University of Haifa and the Center for a Shared Society at Givat Haviva are pleased to invite you to a conference:
The Hebrew Language and the Young Generation in Arab Society in Israel: Barriers, Challenges, and Courses of Action
May 8, 2024 - 8:30 am - 3:00 pm Hall 0 in The Student Building, Carmel Campus, Haifa University. | | | A short, but full month of activity at the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace | An exciting meeting between “Through Other’s Eyes” participants
Through Other’s Eyes, our long-running photography program for Jewish and Arab youth, started the year with a special meeting for the graduates of cohort 23, who remained in contact and worked together during the year, with the members of the new cohort 24.
Janan Halabi, the program director, said: "The program shows that it is possible to bring a significant change and create a shared society while bridging social and cultural gaps. The youth prove that it is possible otherwise, despite the complex situation we live in." |
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| | Third Meeting of “Partners on the Way” Teacher Training
Dozens of Arab and Jewish teachers from all over the country attended the event at the Givat Haviva campus as part of the Hebrew Language Enrichment program.
In the “Partners on the Way” program, Jewish teachers who teach spoken Hebrew in Arab schools are paired with Arab colleagues at the school who act as mentors for them. The Jewish and Arab teachers participate in the training throughout the year, supporting the teachers’ relationship and the Hebrew Language Enrichment program. |
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| | Encounters Programs
Last month saw the return to significant activity with schools, after a long pause following the start of the war. Six meetings were held in various schools and on our campus.
The meetings’ format is adapted to the current atmosphere of conflict, each school meeting with facilitators in a uni-national environment. Among the goals of these meetings: providing an outlet for the strong emotions that we are all experiencing since October 7th, a place to voice existing needs, and an opportunity to ask difficult questions. Speakers from the other nationality respond to the questions in one of the seminar’s units, allowing participants to receive answers to issues that concern them. |
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| | A Hebrew language summit day, part of the Hebrew Language Enrichment program at the Al Najah school in Taibe. |
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| | A meeting of the Mediator Training program in Sakhnin, in preparation for the establishment of the sixth Mediation Center as part of the Community Mediation Center program in Arab society. |
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| | A joint study day at the Givat Haviva campus with Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salaam facilitators and more than 20 facilitators from various programs of the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace. |
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| | Givat Haviva Shared Art Center | | Shared Artists Residency Program - AIR Givat Haviva 2024 The young artists have begun the third and last month of their joint stay.
During the previous month, they worked on their projects and went on a field trip to Haifa. They were treated to a guided tour of Beit Hagefen’s permanent exhibitions "The Third Dimension" by curator Ina Berkovich, and followed the works of the "Museum without Walls" art tour in Wadi Nisnas. After a short visit to “Old Folks’ Falafel,” they continued to the Haifa Museum, where they were given a tour with the museum's curator Kobi Ben Meir, then continued to the "Place Art Incubator," the Haifa Museum's incubator project. There we met Maya Perat, curator of the exhibition "Fluxus: Instructions for a Different Life." In the end, they concluded the tour at the Mediterranean Biennale, accompanied by the exhibition’s curator Belo Pineiro, where a discussion of significant issues developed, which we will follow up with later.. They also met with the graduates of the first cohort, together with Sari Golan, curator of the Ramat Gan Museum and one of the experts in starting an artistic life beyond the academy. Together, the group led an art activity for a Jewish-Arab elementary school on the topic of bridges. This week they led an introduction and discussion day about art for Arab high school students, and created a video projection event called “Territory” for the general public. They were privileged to meet with the fascinating creators Assad Azi and Tomer Heyman. The group is not insulated from the situation in the country. It is ever present, some of it enters the works of art, some of it is found in downtime conversations and amidst challenges, and some of it takes on a different aspect, in a reality where things are experienced together, not separately.
|  | | The Givat Haviva Art Gallery: “Coming to Say” | The exhibition “Coming to Say” is in its final days. It has reverberated powerfully and received many reactions. This exhibition defies categorization. It is not a two-person or group exhibition; perhaps it is a spiral exhibition. This also reflects the women who created it, as the threads and the relationships between the works and between the artists themselves move on several levels. We are happy about the number of visitors, groups, and trainings that have taken place there. We consider its existence now to be an extremely important statement. |  | Manar Zuabi, Scratched Horizon, 2023, mixed media installation. Photo by Tal Badrak. | | | Last month we were happy to host many diverse groups of art lovers: teenagers, veterans, evacuees and tourists from all over the country. Schools, students, and staff experienced art workshops, guided tours of the exhibition, and recreation on Givat Haviva’s green campus. These included: An exhibition experience day for the Maase Institute for Leadership from Arab society from Haifa. Two-days including accommodation for grades 11-12 from Ramon high school from Hod Hasharon Hadera’s Beit Eliezer High School participated in an Air Brush workshop and guided activity in the exhibition, accompanied by collaborative charcoal drawing. A model drawing and graffiti drawing workshop by Brothers of Light for design major students at Tel Aviv Municipal High School 14. A group of teachers and school administrators from the 'Mafresh' program, a space for educational entrepreneurship, participated in a screen printing workshop and a guided tour of the exhibition. Municipal High School 11 from Modi'in stayed at the center for two days and experienced a variety of workshops including mural painting, model drawing, camera obscura photography, and printmaking. |  | | Younited Givat Haviva International School |
The International School had many activities last month, including the annual field trip. In light of the current situation, when planning the trip, we decided to dedicate a day to peer learning about living together during wartime. This included dividing the students into groups that went out to meet different characters and projects that presented aspects of the unifying theme. After the various meetings we came together as a community for a discussion of what it means to live together during wartime, what the challenges are, where the hope is, and what is the role of our school at this time. During this experience, we met representatives of various groups, and we want to thank them for their time sharing with us. We met activists in Jewish-Arab nonprofits who have been devoting their time in recent months to work in the field, some of them themselves being evacuated from their homes after October 7. We visited the Alziadna family, four of whose family members were kidnapped to Gaza, we heard the story of the release of two of the family members and the inconceivable difficulty with two of the family members still in captivity. We visited the joint Jewish-Arab headquarters, packed food parcels for families in need and truly got to experience the meaning of their slogan,"Shared Destiny - Shared Headquarters." We finished the day with an evening of songs and guitar playing around the fire, and went on a nature trail where we met the desert world that wakes up in winter, took a dip in the water that pools on the rocks, and challenged ourselves with rock climbing.
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