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New York (JTA) — Although
Abraham fathered two nations,
he could not bring them togeth-
er. Now an American organiza-
tion whose goal is Jewish-Arab
coexistence in Israel is trying to
mend this 3,000-year-old broth-
erly rift.
Since its inception five years
ago, the Abraham Fund — found-
ed by New York businessman
and philanthropist Alan Slifka
and Eugene Weiner, an Ameri-
can born professor of sociology at
the University of Haifa — has
supported 67 projects in Israel
that bring Jews and Arabs to-
gether through culture and ed-
ucation.
"I went to Israel, and two peo-
ple told me that there was no
mainstream effort being made in
the field of Jewish-Arab coexis-
tence," Mr. Slifka said recently.
He added that one of these peo-
ple was the former mayor of
Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek.
"The Jewish community had
not had this as a priority item.
Their interests were survival,
aliyah and security," he said.
"Someone told me that if one
looked at Israel for the next 50
years, we would have to make
this a priority issue." This unso-
licited advice became a reality in
1989, when Mr. Slifka and Mr.
Weiner teamed up and embarked
on an exhaustive resource direc-
tory — the "bible" of the fund —
which lists nearly 300 coexistence
programs and projects in Israel.
The emphasis of the fund's
American founders has always
been financial, which leaves the
actual implementation of its pro-
grams to the Israel-based orga-
nizations it sponsors.
"Because I am a financial per-
son, if there is no money, then
nothing is being done," said Mr.
Slifka, who noted that the fund
receives donations ranging from
$5 to $100,000 that are allocated
to different projects and overseen
by committees made up of both
American Arabs and Jews.
Since its inception, the fund
has raised almost $1.6 million for
Jewish-Arab coexistence pro-
grams from both individuals and
private foundations.
In 1994, the fund offered a to-
tal of $933,504 in grants to orga-
nizations in Israel, a 61 percent
increase from the previous year.
Headquartered in Manhattan,
the fund has representatives in
Canada and Israel. It also hires
full-time advisors such as Elie
Rekhess, an expert on Jewish-
Arab relations, and the former
president of Israel, Yitzhak
Navon, who chairs the advisory
program in Israel.
After 46 years of turbulent co-
existence between Jews and
Arabs in the state of Israel, and
in the wake of years of peace ef-
forts, the fund's officials believe
that the need for internal peace
within Israel has become an im-
perative.
There are 4.2 million Jews and
850,000 Arabs, both Christian
and Muslim, currently residing
in Israel. While Arabs make up
a minority of Israel's total popu-
lation, they are also an integral
and established part of the state.
"Not only is coexistence pos-
sible, but there is no other alter-
native — it is inevitable," said Mr.
Rekhess, a professor at Tel-Aviv
University who was visiting New
York recently.
The Abraham Fund currently
allocates its funds to 67 projects
in Israel that run the gamut from
theater education for Jewish and
Arab youths to drug-prevention
and welfare services for the un-
derprivileged.
All of the grants fall under four
categories that promote multi-
The fund also
supports both Arab
and Jewish women's
shelters.
cultural awareness, leadership,
cooperation and equal distribu-
tions of social services.
As a result of some of the
fund's programs, Bedouin chil-
dren can take karate lessons, and
Jewish and Arab children can
play together at cross-cultural
summer camps.
The fund also supports both
Arab and Jewish women's shel-
ters, provides help to underde-
veloped communities and
supports educational programs
aimed at increasing tolerance.
There are also 'bridging" pro-
grams, where Arab and Jewish
youths visit each other's schools.
Language plays an important
role in the process of coexistence.
While both Hebrew and Arabic
are spoken in Israel, Hebrew is
the dominant language, with
more Arabs speaking Hebrew
than Jews speaking Arabic.
Still, not all Arabs are fluent
in Hebrew and even fewer Jews
are fluent in Arabic. The fund
sponsors a variety of programs
that offer Hebrew and Arabic lan-
guage classes and an organiza-
tion that translates teaching
material into Arabic.