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November 12, 2004 - Image 5

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2004-11-12

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

int
jarc

Can Times Change?

Nazareth IIlit
e must believe that the Palestinian people, under
new leadership, no longer will teach their kids to
hate Jews and to die for Allah by murdering the
Zionist enemy.
This belief is a key piece of the elusive puzzle that is the
beleaguered Middle East, says the chief professional of the
Jerusalem-based Frankel Center for Jewish Family
Education.
I concur with Dr. Etti Serok that it's not wild-eyed to
think that, under the right political and security conditions,
Palestinian and Israeli students could take
part in a school exchange to learn about
each other's culture and discover that they
really can get along.
"I have to believe that it is possible," said
Dr. Serok, executive vice president of the
Frankel center. "I would love to see it.
Otherwise, we Jews have no hope of living
in Israel if there is no hope
ROBERT A. for change."
SKLAR
Sure, she's a dreamer. But
Editor
I can't say she's wrong.
Hope is what keeps Israelis
going.
That's my impression after chatting with
Dr. Serok in the hallway of Gilad School on
Tuesday. The middle-class magnet arts
school stresses the arts, music, social interac-
tion and Jewish values. It lies in the south-
ern part of Upper Nazareth, amid the
rolling hills of Israel's Central Galilee. More
than 200 Jewish students overshadow their
Arab counterparts, but every student is
treated equally.
Dr. Serok
Gilad School is supported by the Frankel
Center. The center strives to develop stud-
ies, train teachers and create family programs that boost
Jewish identity. It seeks to bring schools and parents together
in teaching pluralistic Jewish values, traditions and pride.
The metro Detroit and Washtenaw County federations sup-
port the center.

W

Palestinian Influence

I was in Israel this week to evaluate the 10-year anniversary
of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's support
for Partnership 2000 — an economic, cultural, educational
and social exchange program of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
The armed guard at the gate of the fenced grounds at
Gilad School cast a sharp reminder of 49 months of
Palestinian terror that has left more than 1,000 Israel resi-
dents and visitors dead. As kids hurried by between classes,
Dr. Serok spoke deliberately about "the Palestinian nation
that is being born now from a culture that celebrates death."
"We have to try and see how we can work with the new
Palestinian leaders — to work in helping them create a new
culture that celebrates life," she said, as Yasser Arafat lay on
his deathbed in a Paris hospital.
I wanted to hear more.
As I listened, I harkened to a new Palestinian Media
Watch bulletin that revealed the Palestinian Authority active-
ly uses kids to aid terrorists in Gaza — a haunting example
of how P.A. textbooks and music videos have indoctrinated
young children.
So I felt that Dr. Serok understood the Jewish ideal to try

to save lives even at grave cost. Israeli soldiers put their lives
on the line each day to defend our ancestral homeland from
would-be Arab destroyers of the Jewish state. U.S. and other
coalition soldiers are dying in Iraq to bring stability and local
rule in the face of a guerilla insurgency.

A High Hurdle

Dr. Serok envisions the vehicle of education driving home a
dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians that could lead to
cooperative efforts celebrating life. I'm skeptical because
hatred among Palestinian kids is so ingrained and Islamic
teachings have been so twisted. But I wonder if more
Palestinian parents than we think are open to exacting
change and seeing the wisdom in giving their kids a chance
at life — if not a Western caliber of living. I buy into Dr.
Serok's notion that not every Palestinian is blind to the cloak
of hate so prevalent in the territories.
"We have to mobilize young Palestinian families that are
pro peace," she said. "And we have to somehow
get into their schools to create a dialogue."
A fragile partnership between Palestinian and
Israeli parents existed near Jerusalem until the
intifada broke out, she reminds.
I don't know if Palestinian families are ready to
share their traditions with Israelis — to find the
building blocks of dialogue about raising kids in
shared values and concerns. But who's to say that
Dr. Serok's dream of such a dialogue, despite
clashing cultures, is improbable if Israel had the
right partners in Gaza City and Ramallah?
I know it could take a generation to undo the
damage done by the potent propaganda machine
run by the P.A. Steps will be small. But enough
of them could mean something tangible in lead-
ing the way to joint programs in education.
The Detroit and Ann Arbor federations have
found it hard to continue coexistence programs involving
Israeli Jews and Arabs given the turmoil that has gripped the
Middle East. The P2K Central Galilee-Michigan steering
committee, for example, is wrestling with how to keep
Jewish-Arab connections intact in programs that it funds.
"We seed projects with dollars, then step back and see
what happens," said steering committee volunteer Mark
Milgrom of Farmington Hills. "We hope the Israeli Arabs
who partner with us see the benefit and agree to fund the
programs themselves although there is typically no cultural
basis to do that."
For starters, I envision more Israeli schools in the partner-
ship region embracing a program on Jewish-Arab relations
for its students and the neighborhood — like Gilad plans to
do.
"We have no choice but to live with the Arabs and they
have no choice but to live with us," Principal Reuveni Uri
said. "We all need to get to know each other better."
Milgrom hit the bull's eye in wondering about funding a
Jewish-Arab soccer program, for example, that isn't likely to
succeed on its own. "At this time of reduced funds avail-
able," he asked, "where do our responsibilities lie?"
Another committee member, Sharon Lipton of Waterford,
echoed Dr. Serok in not giving in to uncertainty.
Fiscal accountability is the right path, but sometimes so is
a calculated risk.
As Lipton put it: "You can't give up hope that something
won't work until you know for sure.

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