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
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