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62
September 25 • 2014
DI
U-M grad learns Hebrew and Arabic
with the hope of building bridges.
hrough language, Lindsay
p Acker,
25, of Huntington
aneany ilimmu I NMI
Ning
west
Peacemaker
ROBIN SCHWARTZ I CONTRIBUTING WRITER
FALL
COLLECTION
2014
123 West Maple Road
Birmingham, MI 48009
>> ... Next Generation ...
Woods says she has
unique insight into two
worlds — the lives and cultures
of both Jews and Arabs living in
the Middle East and elsewhere.
The University of Michigan
graduate completed her coursework
in arts and ideas, women and gender
studies, and Judaic studies in 2012,
graduating with a 4.0 grade point
average. She then temporarily left
behind her parents, Caryn and Gerald
Acker (of the Southfield law firm
Goodman Acker), and brother, Jordan,
30, and set off to explore the world.
"I moved to Israel in the fall
after I graduated," she says. "I had
studied Israel and its history, politics
and culture, and I felt like to really
understand what was going on in the
region, I needed to move there."
Acker also studied Hebrew in college
and lived on a kibbutz in Israel as part
of an intensive Hebrew studies program
her sophomore year. She says she
watched 250 Israeli movies in order to
pick up the right accent and learn other
nuances in the language. She now
speaks Hebrew fluently.
"Once you learn a language, you
don't just learn grammar and words;
you have this incredible access to the
culture," she says. "It's a whole other
world."
For that reason, Acker also took
on the challenge of becoming fluent
in Arabic. She learned the language
during a five-month stay at the Jewish-
Arab Center for Peace near the West
Bank. Her time there included visiting
with Arab and Jewish host families and
tutoring Muslim, Jewish and Christian-
Arab children in English. The previous
year, in Tel Aviv, she worked with
bereaved Palestinian and Israeli families
who lost children in the ongoing
conflict.
"Arabic is similar to Hebrew, so
it really made sense to me," Acker
explains. "It's a language that 25
percent of Israelis speak. I felt in order
to understand the political situation,
I needed to understand the Arabic
language. I discovered the immense
literature, poetry and culture that have
come out of the language in a way I
didn't realize."
This summer, Acker moved back
home to Metro Detroit. She's now
pursuing job opportunities where she
can use the peacemaking and language
skills she developed during her time in
minuour
AR'
Lindsay Acker at a White House
Chanukah party in 2012 holding
a sign that reads, "I want peace
back in the picture" in English,
Hebrew and Arabic.
Israel to build relationships here. She's
reluctant to talk politics, but Acker
considers herself a Zionist and believes
peace is attainable.
"I learned the humanity in
everyone," she says. "I learned that
everyone is a human being and when
you learn someone's language you
begin to humanize them."
Still, she says, members of the
Arab community are often surprised
to discover she can speak their
language as she recently found out
while attending a national interfaith
conference at Wayne State University.
"People were excited," Acker says.
"They have so many questions for me
about Israel — people are genuinely
excited to hear that a young Jewish
American woman learned Arabic.
They've never met anyone who speaks
Arabic who has lived in Israel and also
considers themselves a Zionist."
Her goals for the future include re-
engaging young Jewish Americans with
the established Jewish community and
building a coalition of young Jewish
and Muslim activists to rally around
important causes like the availability of
water, improving public transportation
and rebuilding Detroit. She's also in an
all-female garage doo-wop band called
Double Winter. Acker plans return trips
to Israel in the future.
"I hope my life will always be
connected with Israel, and I hope to go
back many times," she says. "I learned
a lot there, and I learned the incredible
ways that dialogue and addressing
each other and listening to each other
can help overcome years of tension
and hostility and war. We have to talk
to each other to find solutions. I think
peace will come from governments, but
it really happens from people." ❑