229

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When Nadwa Jabar and her three children were violently attacked by racist thugs, she responded, “We must be ambassadors of peace. We can live together and do a lot to change this reality.” Nadwa teaches at the Primary School where, every day in every subject, Israeli Palestinian and Jewish children learn the art of living and learning together. When Nadwa, Principal Carmella Ferber and four Primary School teachers were invited to the Knesset for a special meeting on hate crimes and the promotion of bilingual education, Nadwa was invited to speak. Her public appeal to Israel’s leaders to address the violence and hate, along with the public recognition that Nad-wa and her three children were victims of terror, opens the door to empathy- the first step in building peace bridges. When the Italians looked for re-newed inspiration in doing the work of peace, they commemorated Fr. Bruno Hussar, the founder of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam.

The Italian Association for Jewish and Christian Friendship received hundreds of messages of peace from Italian students supporting their dedi-cation to the art of peace. NSWAS Primary School students reciprocated with their own messages of peace. It’s an international reminder to get focused on reaching ‘out and across’. It’s not easy to share a treasure, but 20 year veteran Primary School teacher Yasmin al-Kalek has been selected to serve as

Principal of the Orthodox School in Ramle. When Yasmin reflected on her time

at Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, she noted that “..parents send their children for ideological reasons, to support the idea of peacebuilding and bilin-gualism, as well as to learn

about different religions and narratives. Our main challenge

is to go beyond simply educating children to coexist, and to get also the parents to participate in our special programs and social

We mustbe ambassadors of peace. We can live together and do a lot to change this

reality.

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“

“

Answering violence with a commitment to peace!

Summer is the time for reflecting on what has gone well during the past year and preparing for work in the coming year, but at Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, summer is still a time when the work of peace-building goes on. This remarkable community serves, not only as the place that houses the first bilingual, bicultural primary school in Israel, the ever-expanding School for Peace programs that crosses borders and boundaries with work that builds the future, the Spiritual Center that offers space to build tolerance, respect and a shared future among those who often have an unheard voice…it serves as Israel’s incubator for peace-building It is a living laboratory, 365 days a year, not only for the commu-nity’s long-term and evolving projects but for the wider Israeli society’s groups that want to hold their meetings in a place that inspires trust-building and reconciliation. Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam serves so many beyond the community’s borders that even the eco-tourism industry has found a way to bring hikers and bikers to the village for inspiration, for time to experience sitting in a café where Hebrew and Arabic are spoken interchangeably by everyone, children and adults. Like a breath of fresh air, or a drink of water, the village and programs of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam are available for teaching, learning, inspiration and experimentation every day, all year. Take a look at what happens in the quiet of the summer, when everyone is on vacation!

Summer in Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam: no one is resting here!

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Supporting a 60 year-old Bedouin village under threat of destruction sometimes means that School For Peace faculty and their children will establish a library in that village, offering encour-agement - a needed resource as a vision for a future. The village of Umm al-Hiran became a

living project in a School for Peace environmental justice course, which also connected with the southern Hebron hills. Villages in this region were being assisted by COMET-ME, an organization providing green energy and water to unrecognized villages. School for Peace students experienced

activities. In this way, not just children, but their parents and families, can become agents of change in our society.” We know that Yasmin will bring that same perspective, of education as a tool to go beyond coexistence, to her new school. Engaging whole families as agents of change in their communities is a powerful tool to extend the impact of the Primary School beyond the classroom walls. If we become what we think about, then the Primary School is making certain that the children have “food for thought” that help build tolerance, mutual respect and compassion along with academic information! The 2016-2017 school year begins with the opening of a transformed school library. Accommodating a full range of learning styles and technologies, donations from British, Swedish and American Friends have made it possible to have a rich supply of Hebrew,

Arabic and English books and teaching tools. The evolving collaboration between the Primary School and the Hagar School in Be’er Sheva continues the extension of the Neve Shalom/ Wahat al-Salam model across Israel, and brings new bilingual, bicultural literature, materials and strategies into the libraries and classrooms. The Primary School opens its doors in September to a whole new world of possibility. Watch for the updates over the next several months!

The Village inspires international peace work For the ninth consecutive year, NSWAS youth were a central part of a three-week intercultural youth leadership program. Held at the Artsbridge Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Nadine Nashef and Karin Shbeta brought their considerable youth-club skills (Nadi) leadership skills to their work as counselors, helping guide 30 Israeli, Palestinian and American youth through an intensive leadership program. Focused on building partnerships and

overcoming cultural differences through art and facilitated open dialogue, the program challenges preconceived notions of culture, religion and friendship. In August, Yahel-Israel Service Learning, an international educational organization offering social action programs in Israel, concluded their Onward Israel Diversity & Pluralism summer internship program with time at NSWAS. With 35 years and counting of peaceful coexistence, pioneering educational, social, professional and spiritual programs, NSWAS is an invaluable resource and, more significantly, it is an inspiration for international and local peace-based work. The Winsipration Day award, given in recognition for outstanding work and dedication toward peace, honored the community and projects of NSWAS at their annual ceremony in Austria. Palestinian-Israeli journalist Ranin Boulos and Jewish- Israeli educator Bob Mark, both longtime residents of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, were present to receive the award. The work of the NSWAS community is having an impact in Europe that may begin as an inspiration, but it will deepen over time to serve as a role model.

The School for Peace in action

the challenges these Israeli villages face. Whether it is a library or clean water, they experienced being part of the solution to those challenges. Forty young emerging politicians are being prepared by the School for Peace, through year-long seminars and projects, to be future leaders invested in working toward peace through a program designed to connect theory, actions and consequences. This exciting, European Union and US supported program is training young Israeli and West-Bank Palestinian politicians, together, to develop and share the common goal of the common good. We will be reporting on their projects later this Fall. Can we imagine the outcome as this academic year unfolds, of several dozen high school teachers from across Israel choosing to spend some of their summer vacation focusing on the struggle against racism, or learning how to teach Palestinian poetry in Jewish classrooms? School for Peace graduates and facilitators from the SFP program “Two People Write from Right to Left” lead the way, but the teachers will be opening and challenging student’s hearts and minds all during this coming year. Director of the SFP and long-time member of the community of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam - Dr. Nava Sonnenschein - has written a book profiling Jewish and Palestinian graduates of training pro-grams at the School for Peace. Currently awaiting publication, Conflict and Conscience: A Personal Journey to Public Action contains 20 interviews of individuals whose lives were changed through a SFP course. Reaching well beyond the course, as the graduates change lives in their work going forward, the collection of interviews helps each future reader see the world through new eyes. “At Neve Shalom, I finally understood my connection to all the conquests and expulsions: not a legal connection, but one of silence, of ac-quiescence, of resigning myself to let it happen. It’s about responsibility.”-Michael Sfard, human rights attorney and SFP graduate. It was the impact of the School for Peace courses that led Michael Sfard into his life’s work where he has become one of the most significant human rights attorneys in Israel. His has impacted individual, family and community throughout Israel.

By the end of 2016, The Peace Museum will be transformed into a living archive for the village: it’s history, ideology, cultural roots and vision for the future. With the support from friends around the world, the Peace Museum is a place for local and international groups to experience NSWAS’s more than 30 year journey towards peace through art, text, film and photographs. Currently used as a space for exhibitions and celebrations, the museum’s renovations will house art and ar-chives, temporary and permanent, reflecting the multicultural community of NSWAS and similar communities from around the world. Both guided and self-directed experiences are planned and available.

The Forest of the Righteous begins to grow

The Peace Museum: Sharing the journey toward peace

The Forest of the Righteous celebrated the inaugural honorees of this inspiring me-morial. The Muslim Circassian village whose residents- at great personal risk - saved the lives of thirty-two Jewish children at the height of WWII, are the first of those to be commemorated in this motivating, uplifting reminder that ordinary people can do extraor-dinary things. The Forest of the Righteous at NSWAS has already been incorporated into the “Garden of the Righteous Worldwide” net-work, an organization based in Italy that has helped launch similar projects in Rwanda, Ar-menia and Poland. “Anyone who risks his life to save another human being, and it doesn’t matter who that human being is, for me that is the ultimate act of grace. Such individuals must be honored.” - Dr. Yair Auron, resident of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, scholar of genocide studies at The Open University, and co-chair of the Forest of the Righteous project.