By Amichay Findling, Israel and Overseas Programs Manager
The Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor has been committed to promoting Jewish-Arab shared society in Israel for many years. The Federation supports “Hand in Hand Schools”, one of Israel’s most prominent educational initiatives, which has been bringing Jews and Arabs together to study in the same schools for more than a decade. Recently, Federation added an additional shared-society educational organization to its list of beneficiaries from the Annual Community Campaign: “A New Way.”
Oct. 7th brought horrific news, as well as some heartwarming news of unity within Israeli society. After that awful day, more news items followed, including news of growing tensions between Jews and Arabs in Israel. Because the Jewish Federation is invested in projects that promote the opposite of tension, the organization has decided to take a deep dive into the issue of Jews and Arabs in Israel, and to create a unique learning opportunity for the community.
With the generous help of its Israeli partner organizations and personal connections in the field, the Federation has recruited top lecturers to develop a series of Zoom and hybrid engagements from January-April 2025.
Save the date for the first engagement of the series!
Sunday, January 12 at 10 AM in the newly renovated Hebrew Day School Library:
In-person/virtual hybrid brunch and lecture with Dr. Arik Cheshin about Jews and Arabs at the University of Haifa, before and following Oct. 7th.
Dr. Cheshin is a visiting Professor in the University of Michigan Department of Psychology. His study focuses on emotions in organizations. Dr. Cheshin’s research addresses questions aimed at harnessing and utilizing the powerful role emotions play in our interactions at work. He is visiting from the University of Haifa, in northern Israel, which is, among Israeli higher education institutions, the University with the largest percentage (41%) of Arab Israeli students. It is also the only university in Israel that elected an Arab Israeli as a rector: Prof. Mouna Maroun. The University of Haifa does not actively promote an ideology of shared society, but an institution in which shared society is a given reality. It will be an intriguing discussion.
Additional engagements, also on Sunday mornings, by Zoom, will include representatives from Hand in Hand Schools and “A New Way,” both promoting shared society within Israel’s K-12 education system in different ways: whereas “Hand in Hand” operates special Jewish-Arab schools that put forth shared society as an ideology, and every participant (student or family) chooses to engage with the school, “A New Way” operates within regular Israeli public schools: school principals choose whether to participate, and then 11th grade students from those Jewish and Arabic public schools engage each other in a unique civic studies program that becomes part of their matriculation scores. The students themselves have no choice in participation. The two Zoom programs for the greater Ann Arbor community will give attendees a fascinating look into the differences between these two approaches, and more generally the strategies within the Israeli education system to promote shared society of Jews and Arabs.
The closing engagement in this series will be a Zoom interview with Mickey Gitzin, the Director of the New Israel Fund in Israel. The New Israel Fund is a major financial supporter and promoter of shared society organizations in Israel. Its works helps Israel live up to its founders’ vision of a society that ensures complete equality for all its inhabitants. Its aim is to advance liberal democracy, including freedom of speech and minority rights, and to fight the inequality, injustice and extremism that diminish Israel. Its director will therefore provide both a broad and deep perspective on current trends and issues in this field. The event is scheduled for April 6 at 10AM. Details about how to register will be available at JewishAnnArbor.org/Event.
For more information or to get involved in Israel-related programming at the Federation, contact Israel and Overseas Program Manager Amichay Findling at amichay@jewishannarbor.org.