Hand In Hand Center For Jewish-Arab Education In Israel (American Friends)

Results: Hand in Hand’s work is recognized internationally as well as in Israel: * Hand in Hand is the recipient of the 2021 Global Pluralism Award which honors organizations that are founded on respect for diversity, and that protect and value human differences. * Hand in Hand has a longstanding alliance with USAID that helps promote civil society partnerships between Jews and Arabs. * Hand in Hand has won national and regional distinctions and awards for excellence in our educational model and pedagogy created by our dedicated staff. * Hand in Hand affects change on the society-wide level as well as on communities and individuals, for example: effective advocacy promoting bilingual and multicultural education, institutionalization of multicultural education, development of curricula for use in Israeli schools and partnerships with municipalities in mixed cities to train preschool educators in multiculturalism for heterogeneous student bodies.

Target demographics: Hand in Hand serves thousands of Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel from municipalities and regional councils around the country. Our students, parents and educators include members of all three major faiths - Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

Direct beneficiaries per year: 2,063 students and 3,000 parents and community members.

Geographic areas served: Israel: Jerusalem, Haifa, Wadi Ara, the Galilee, Kfar Saba and Tel Aviv-Jaffa.

Programs: NETWORK OF BILINGUAL, MULTICULTURAL SCHOOLS: Hand in Hand operates 7 schools with over 2,000 Jewish and Arab students. From preschool, our students from Jewish and Arab families study together in both Hebrew and Arabic, learning one another's language, history and heritage. Our Jewish-Arab co-teaching teams use innovative approaches that build students’ identities while fostering respect for one another. Equality, empathy, responsibility, and respect are the pillars of a Hand in Hand multicultural education. The ALUMNI PROGRAM supports our graduates in being civically active, advancing social change, modeling equality in their daily lives, and advocating for integration in a divided society. COMMUNITY-BUILDING is at the heart of Hand in Hand’s model. In a society in which Arab and Jewish families rarely engage with one another, we bring them together for peer-to-peer activities that nurture connection. By participating in joint events such as holiday celebrations, sporting competitions, field trips, language classes, and dialogue workshops, the adults create bonds of friendship and solidarity. A key community-building initiative is the MADRASSAH INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE PROGRAM: In Israel, the conflict permeates daily life. For Jewish and Arab students and family members to come together in a shared enterprise, they need to be able to freely communicate with one another, and learn to express their thoughts and feelings, however complex and difficult that may be. The Madrassah Program provides a framework for shared cross-cultural learning, utilizing historical, academic, and cultural texts and multimedia content, to open and equip participants to engage in substantive Jewish-Arab dialogue to generate a sense of shared responsibility and accountability that inspires community engagement. EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES CENTER: At the national and regional levels, Hand in Hand models the benefits and importance of bilingual, multicultural and values-based education, and supports schools in adopting and implementing our model. Over the years, Hand in Hand has developed curricula in a variety of core subjects that teach students to speak each other’s language, to appreciate each other’s cultures and traditions, and to respect one another despite differences. Our curricula expose students to multiple viewpoints and encourage critical thinking, as well as open and honest dialogue concerning complicated issues that arise daily in Israeli society.