Israeli Jews and Arabs Will Come to Louisville for Triwizard Event

Israeli Jews and Arabs Will Come to Louisville for Triwizard Event

http://www.jewishlouisville.org/page.html?ArticleID=142793

If you are a fan of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, when you hear the word “triwizard,” it immediately conjures up images of the dangerous and demanding competition that brought students from schools in three countries together for a year-long competition among school champions.

The wizarding tournament in the book was conceived as a way to bring youngsters from different communities together to get to know each other, to learn about each other’s culture and language and to foster understanding and cooperation.

Well, on March 18-21, there will be a Triwizard event in Louisville. Instead of young wizards, however, 10 Israeli teens – five Jewish and five Arab – and their teachers will be coming to Louisville to engage in a three-way discussion with their American counterparts at local high schools and at meetings with Jewish youth groups.

Although all 10 teens live in Akko, in the Western Galilee (Louisville’s Partnership with Israel region), the Jews attend Ort Darsky High School and Arabs attend Ort Chilmi Shafee High School. They would not have had much opportunity to interact in the normal course of their lives.

It was a special Holocaust study program through the Ghetto Fighters Museum that changed their paths. Through their participation in a joint learning activity related to tolerance and mutual understanding, all the teens learned about the danger of stereotypes and prejudice and came to understand the importance of co-existence.

They started their discussions in Israel, and now they are traveling together, talking together, and sharing their concerns, their hopes and their dreams with each other and with some of the American communities in the Partnership.

The Triwizard project was originated with the Canton Jewish community, and is now coming to other communities in the consortium.

Partnership with Israel (originally Partnership 2000) is a JAFI program that matches communities in Israel with communities in the United States. Louisville has been part of a Midwest consortium of communities partnered with the Western Galilee since the program’s inception in 1998.

The program offers many opportunities for people on both sides of the ocean to work together in the fields of medicine, arts, education, culture and business. Additional opportunities can be developed for you, tailored to your individual interests, talents and skills.

For more information about the Triwizard event or Partnership, contact Shlicha Alexandra Shklar, 451-8840 or alexandras@jcfl.com.

Arab, Jewish teens look for common ground

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=344008

Arab, Jewish teens look for common ground

Saturday, March 24, 2007BY

Edd Pritchard REPOSITORY STAFF WRITER

PLAIN TWP. Nofar Carmeli used to see Arabs as people who hated her because she is Jewish. She thought they wanted to kill her.

Today she knows that's not the case. "I saw it's not that way.

They do want friends. And they want to get along in life, like I do," Carmeli said.

She has been learning the lesson over the past two years as one of five Jewish Israeli high-school students in a program dubbed "Triwizard."

It includes five Arab Israeli students and a dozen GlenOak High School students.

All of the Israeli students are from Akko, a city on the Mediterranean Sea.

Jews and Arabs live in separate neighborhoods. The Israeli students attend separate high schools, one for Arabs and one for Jews.

COMING TOGETHER Students said they and their friends were skeptical when the program to bring together Jewish and Arab Israeli teens began. "Some of my friends thought the idea was hopeless," said Yasmin Mansour, an Arab student.

Bringing Jews and Arabs together would never work. "I've seen it work." Martha Lottman, working with the Jewish Community Federation, helped start the program. "Putting it together was not easy," Lottman said.

Finding teachers to help proved to be the biggest problem. There was hesitation and plenty of concern about where the program was going.

Steve Robbins, a social studies teacher at GlenOak, traveled to Israel and Washington, D.C., to meet with Aiche Morsy, an Arab teacher, and then Yaffit Cohen, a Jewish teacher. Students slowly started meeting each other by exchanging letters and e-mail. They also talked together during a video conference.

Sunday, the Israeli students arrived in the United States, going to Louisville, Ky., which is a sister city to Akko.

They arrived in the Canton area late Wednesday. Lottman said she expects several of the students will remain friends for many years, and hopes the friendships help other people learn. "The proof of success will come in the future," Lottman told the students.

COMMON GROUND Ibrahem Bakri thanked Lottman for her work. "You make great things." The program has brought this group together, and Bakri hopes it will spread to others. "We solve problems by talking," he said. "I am here to make peace." GlenOak students agreed that much of the prejudice they carried before starting the program came from not knowing the real story.

Opinions were based on perceptions. And many in the United States have the wrong impression of the Middle East.

Patrice Allen said she expected people from the Middle East to dress differently. She never expected Israeli high-school students would like the same music. She was wrong. "It's been eye-opening," Allen said.

"We see that everybody's the same." Students said they have learned that they can live with their differences. "We don't have to agree about everything, but we can accept each others' opinions," said Moshe Shamir, an Arab student.

Shani Dadoun, a Jewish student, said she hopes to use what she has learned to change the opinions of others. "I really think that peace will come one day," Dadoun said. "I really hope I live to see it."

Reach Repository writer Edd Pritchard at (330) 580-8484 or e-mail: edd.pritchard@cantonrep.com REPOSITORY JULIE VENNITTI BATTLING PREJUDICE

Yasmin Mansour, an Arab Israeli high-school student, talks about knocking down prejudice and hatred during a meeting Friday in the Stark County Library branch at GlenOak High School. Jewish and Arab Israeli students along with GlenOak students have spent the past two years exchanging letters and information, and learning that they have more in common then they realized. REPOSITORY JULIE VENNITTI COEXIST Religious symbols are used to spell the word "coexist" on T-shirts worn by high school students from Israel and GlenOak. The students have been part of a program geared toward finding common ground between Arab and Jewish teenagers. LOTTMAN