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Daytime:
Mon. 1 p.m. • Tues. Thurs. 9:30 a.m. & 12:30 p.m.
Evening:
Tues. & Wed. 6 p.m. • Thurs. 6:30 p.m.

-

WZPS/ Niss im Lev

*FREE BABYSITTING FOR LADIES' DAYTIME LEAGUES

MIXED

Mon. 7:30 p.m. • Wed. 8:45 p.m. • Fri. 6:30 p.m. & 8:45 p.m. e/o week
Sat. 6:00 p.m. e/o week • Sunday 5:30 p.m. & 7:45 p.m. e/o week

MEN

Mon. 7:30 p.m. • Tues. 9:15 p.m.
Wed. 8:30 p.m.
Thurs. 9:30 p.m • Sunday 9:30 a.m.

***

Party Facilities
& Catering Available!

Israeli and Arab teen-agers at the Institute for Arabic Studies, Givat
Haviva.

7

e \ \

OFF
I
I Valid for up to ONE HOUR '1
OF TIME BOWLING at 50%
off the regular price.
\ \ (organized
groups or parties excluded) 1

For more details and information
call 855-9555

VALID ANYTIME
\ (regular open bowling rates only) /
(one coupon per
lane per day)
\
.,,./
Exp. 9/30/91

•

HAPPINESS & HEALTH

IDLY- JOUR FIRS

FROM

26333 SOUTHFIELD AT 10 1/2 MILE • LATHRUP VILLAGE
HOURS: M-F 10am-9pm, SAT 9am-6pm, SUN 12n-5pm •559-7334

170

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1991

J

Coexistence Learned
As Children. Teach

By CAROL NOVIS

Special to The Jewish News

C

urrent events have
made Arabs and Jews
in Israel understan-
dably mistrustful and fearful.
Indeed, many now wonder if
the two peoples have any
chance of achieving a degree
of understanding and
cooperation in this land that
both desire.
Stanley Ringer knows they
have.
Mr. Ringer heads an in-
novative program called
"Children Teaching
Children" at the Givat
Haviva Institute near
Hadera, which aims to lessen
mistrust and fear through in-
tegration. Inspired, in part,
by the experience of civil
rights workers in the United
States, it has been labeled no
less than a revolutionary ap-
proach to improving Jewish-
Arab relations.
Some 1,000 children are in-
volved in the program and
studies show that it works.
Now in its fourth year, the
number of participants has
almost doubled in spite of re-
cent tensions. Most impor-
tant, both Arabs and Jews
have come to feel a
demonstrable lessening of
fear and dislike for the other.
Mr. Ringer, a Reform rabbi
from the United States who
made aliyah five years ago, is
director of Program Develop-
ment for the Givat Haviva In-
stitute, the national educa-
tional center of the Kibbutz
Artzi federation.
Among the programs he
runs are a Jewish-Arab
human relations youth pro-
gram which brings high-
schoolers together for three-
day sessions. This was the

precursor of the "Children
Teaching Children" program.
"Studies showed us that
there has been a deepening of
ill-will between the two com-
munities. One reason is that
they live in separate
geographical areas. Arabs go
to Arab schools, Jews to
Jewish schools and there is
virtually no opportunity for
young people to meet one
another. The result is ig-
norance, stereotyping, even
hatred," said Mr. Riger.
"The intifada has exacer-
bated all this. Many Jews
tend to generalize about
Arabs; they see them as
threatening and a fifth col-
umn within the country,
while many Arabs see Jews
as forcefully denying them
their rights.
"After careful preparation,
we bring classes together for
three days, after which they
are talking freely about how
they feel. It comes as a revela-
tion to Arabs, for example,
how heavily the Holocaust
weighs on the Jews, and the
Jews, for their part, are sur-
prised to hear the experience
of growing up as a minority."
A study conducted by the
Guttman Institute for Ap-
plied Social Science Research
one year after the start of the
intifada concluded that the
program "effectively shat-
tered stereotypes, diminished
feelings of fear and hatred
and gave participants a sense
of optimism over the possibili-
ty of finding a way of coex-
istence, though it did not
change basic political
attitudes.
"That's all we aim to do. We
have no political line, other
than our interest in having
them communicate as
citizens of the same state who
must find a way to live