Students for a day at Givat Haviva
North American career counselors trying their hand – and ears – at spoken Arabic in Givat Haviva
A dozen university directors of career counseling services for graduating students, became students themselves for a day during a recent visit to the International Department's MASA-Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester program.
Visiting Israel under the auspices of MASA, an organization offering overseas students a broad spectrum of extremely diverse long-term programs in Israel, the North American's were introduced to Givat Haviva by spokesperson Dudu Amitai.
Following an explanation by Mr. Amitai with regard the background of Givat Haviva and brief description of some of the educational projects undertaken by the organization, Dr. David Mendelsohn, academic director of the MASA-Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester project, spoke about the program and the North American and one British student who are about to graduate the first 5-month program.
"One of the most encouraging experiences for me whilst working with this program was to see a young man, quite convinced he wouldn't be able to speak Arabic, after some months actually chatting with local people in their language, and looking most comfortable doing so!" Dr. Mendelsohn, a social linguist who has Hebrew and Arabic notches on his belt of many languages, told the guests.
To get the feel of things, the North American visitors then participated in a 20 minute Arabic language lesson with Galit Kellner, director of the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace Arabic language studies. Learning how to say their names and various other phrases in Arabic proved to be one of the day's most popular highlights.
A short visit to The Sarah and Yaacov Eshel Peace Library on campus (pictured above) brought the career counselors to encounter the Arabic language of the written kind, as in newspapers from sixty and more years ago – part of the rare collection of Arabic language newspapers that were recently digitized and nowadays available on line.
As library director Ms. Samira Mahameed opened one of the cardboard boxes containing yellowing and tattered edged newspapers in Arabic - dated 1948 - the visitors stood in awe.
"This is truly amazing. Even if I don't understand the language, just to know that this contains the thoughts and attitudes of Arabs in this land so many years ago is mind-blowing," commented one of the visitors.
Over lunch in the Givat Haviva dining-room, the American academics – who were accompanied by New York based Aaron Goldberg, the MASA director of Post College Programming, and Noa David, Academic Programs Director in Israel – chatted with the present group of Intensive Arabic Semester students and heard first hand about their experiences studying and interacting with the local Arab and Jewish populations in Wadi Ara.
Dr. David Mendelsohn, Marva Jennings (Executive Director, George Washington University Career Services) and Arabic student Josh Klein talking over lunch
A visit to the village of Arara – the location where the MASA students engage in community work – was next on the itinerary and kicked off with a visit to the Yad L'Kolam Center for the Advancement of Art and Culture in Wadi Ara where they were welcomed by director Mohammad Ma'ari and Arara Deputy-Mayor, Fathi Marzook.
"We are honored to have you visit us here in Arara and proud to have the Givat Haviva students work in our community," Deputy Mayor Marzook said.
He explained that the Arara municipality included two other villages – Ara and Ein al-Saleh – encompassing some 17,500 residents.
Arara Deputy-Mayor Fahti Marzook and Yad L'Kolam director and artist, Mohammad Ma'ari.
"We have many of our young people studying abroad, mostly in Europe but also in North America, and this is of course a huge economic strain on their families here in the villages. There's a higher percentage of our students abroad than studying here in Israel, primarily because the standards set by the Israeli universities are so high – particularly in the field of medicine – and therefore little choice but to go out of the country," explained Marzook, who also spoke about local efforts to develop tourism in the village and surrounding Wadi Ara region.
"We are very keen to develop tourism of different kinds, whether it is small family guest rooms or just to walk around the natural beauty of the region with local people – we also see this as a tool for better co-existence between Jews and Arabs in Israel."
Sitting in the gallery with attractive paintings and sculptures, work of local artists, hanging on the surrounding walls, the American visitors asked the MASA Intensive Arabic Semester students more about their course, and of their volunteering in the Arara schools.
Rachel, Adina and Samantha have been working with high-school students in preparing a play in the English language.
"Working with 8th graders has proved extremely challenging and we just hope they remember their lines when the time comes," Rachel – who hails from Michigan - said with a laugh.
Josh Klein, a lawyer from Delaware, has been working with 7th graders and also used the term 'challenge' to describe his experience in the Arara school.
"I don't think it is news to educators that working with this age group is a real challenge, but also rewarding," remarked Josh, who spoke about his energetic pupils excessive exuberance during his after school English language sessions.
"Altogether, the experience of participating in the Intensive Arabic Semester has been a very rewarding experience for me," Josh told the university folks from the States and Canada.
"One can learn in a classroom anywhere, but being involved here you have the opportunity to chip away at layers of complexities, and sometimes have to understand – I don't understand," he said with a smile.
New Yorker Adina Arpadi has also been involved in helping mapping out a Galilean village where an Arab and Jewish engineer and local activists are attempting to introduce a system of street names and the numbering of houses.
Working with mostly girls in the high-school, Adina said she found them highly motivated to learn English, and Samantha touched on the subject of some of the girls being religious and some not, of the enthusiasm the girls showed and how the interaction between her and the young ladies had helped improve her Arabic skills. Mark, an adventurous Englishman who quickly made ties with Arab folk in a nearby Israel Muslim city, Umm el-Fahm, spoke of the "wonderful opportunity for merging with the Arab population."
The students emphasized that living in a kibbutz, where the formal studies took place, and working in the Arab community, had given them the opportunity to make friends in both communities and possibly be able to bring about a more positive relationship between them.
In the past Adina Arpadi participated in a Seeds for Peace program. "We came to make peace and then realized it's not so easy," she said. "I have to say that it took a while for me to feel that what I am doing right now is of importance, but now realize it surely is."
The visit to Arara included a stop at the oldest house in the village and meeting with local personality Mohammad Younis. These days an octogenarian, the well-known and highly respected former Mapam party activist, told the group of how the oldest house in the village had been renovated, part of which now opened to the general public.
The grandson of the original owner resides in the house in present times, the well and courtyard having been reconstructed for the purposes of keeping alive the culture of their past, explained Mr. Younis.
As the visit drew to a close, the tired but well satisfied visitors from North America made their way back to the bus and headed for Tel Aviv.
"This has been the most interesting day of our visit to Israel so far, and I really think this is a wonderful program to offer students from abroad," commented one of the visitors as he boarded the bus.
Arabic language student Mark Laichena speaking with the American academics in the courtyard of the oldest house in Arara (left) and right, Mr. Mohammad Younis at the front door of the abode.
The overseas visitors were:
Wayne Wallace, Florida
Burt Nadler, Rochester
Marcia Harris, UNC
Jack Rayman, Penn State
Mark Smith, Washington
Joe Dupont, Brandeis
Jean Papalia, Tufts
Leslie Lumsden, University of Western Ontario
Dick Leger, BU
Trudy Steinfeld, New York
Manny Contamonlis, RIT/NACE
Marva Jennings, GWU
Richard White, Rutgers
Photos & text: Lydia Aisenberg
May 2009
