Givat Haviva
Dr. Dagmar Kopcanova from Bratislava, Slovakia and Dr. Yona Weiss (Israel) stand by a plaque commemorating the Slovakian born heroine Haviva Reik after whom Givat Haviva is named
Dr. Dagmar Kopcanova, Head of the Education Section, Slovak Commission for UNESCO, recently visited Givat Haviva accompanied by friend Dr. Yona Weiss who resides at Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek.
When the visitor from Bratislava read a commemorative plaque explaining about Haviva Reik she became visibly emotional and smiling broadly exclaimed: “She was from Slovakia – wow.”
Dr. Kopcanova is a psychologist and her friend Dr. Weiss a social worker. Yona Weiss teaches at the Safed College and also runs a private family health clinic in the Jezreel Valley town of Afula. She has been living in Mishmar HaEmek – where her husband is a medical doctor - for many years and had heard about Givat Haviva from a kibbutz neighbor but until this month had not actually visited the campus.
When Dr. Kopcanova, a psychologist and researcher at the Research Institute for Child Psychology in Bratislava, returned to Israel for a visit, Yona thought it a good opportunity to rectify the situation and called Lydia Aisenberg (the kibbutz neighbor) to see if they could come that day as in the morning Dagmar was leaving for Slovakia.
And so it came about!
The ladies met with Hilit Ben-Zvi, Director of the International Department, who explained about the workings of the different departments of Givat Haviva, of the Intensive Arabic Semester and the groups from overseas who come for seminars and tours of the region through her department and much more.
Hearing of a course due to open in the near future to train facilitators for Jewish-Arab encounters, Yona Weiss’s interest was caught and she is now seriously contemplating registering for the course.
“It is an area that I know little about, have no experience of really, and therefore really am interested,” said Yona who will be checking it out with the Noa/Nuah Center for Women and for Gender Studies at Givat Haviva.
A tour of the area ensued with Lydia guiding the friends to Harish, Dotan Valley, Barta’a and the Reichan checkpoint and along the Amir Mountain ridge – and home to Mishmar HaEmek.
“This has been an amazing experience,” said Dr. Kopcanova at the end of the campus visit and tour.
“I sincerely hope that we will be able to find areas of Bratislava-Givat Haviva cooperation in the future and look forward to returning to learn more next time I am in Israel.”
“I had no idea so much was going on at Givat Haviva and really glad to have had this wonderful opportunity of bringing Dagmar today and learning so much myself – and promise to be back,” commented Dr. Yona Weiss.
