American student Danielle Barta visits her namesake village Barta’a
The seminar schedule of the International Department for Winter 2007/2008 has kept staff on their toes with groups almost daily pouring through the classroom doors – and out again of course!
With so many folks coming and going it is difficult after a period of time to remember exactly who is who but one young student from Rutgers University certainly left her mark – and name – deeply embedded in staff member Lydia Aisenberg’s memory box.
The student in mind is Danielle Barta from New Jersey and as part of her program in Givat Haviva Danielle was taken with the rest of her group to visit her namesake village, Barta’a in Wadi Ara – a popular venue for the International Department seminar groups dealing with different aspects of the Middle East conflict.
Givat Haviva lecturer and guide Aisenberg did a double take when she saw the nametag dangling from Danielle’s neck and hence the rather special photograph above. Danielle Barta is standing on the rooftop of a home in the village of Barta’a – one mosque (to Danielle’s left) inside the State of Israel and the yellow domed mosque to her right in East Barta’a in the West Bank.
Danielle came to Givat Haviva with a group of Hasbara Fellowships, a program spearheaded by Aish International. Hasbara educates and trains university students to be effective campus activists in the United States and Canada.
Starting in 2001 in conjunction with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hasbara Fellowships brings hundreds of students to Israel every year – and most groups have a Givat Haviva seminar organized by the International Department on their Israel tour program.
Unlike the majority of students groups from abroad visiting Israel, Hasbara Fellowship tours are made up of Jewish students who are either already involved in campus activism or on the threshold of such activities. Many have been to Israel before, some for extended study periods and are always accompanied by highly experienced and professional Hasbara staff.
The Hasbara Fellowship students are amongst some of the most challenging dealt with in our seminars and also at the end of the day, amongst our most appreciative participants.
Hasbara Fellowship students take a short break for prayers on the Amir
mountain range in Wadi Ara.
Following a recent seminar one of the students commented: “I have been studying the Middle East for a few years, high-school and university, and yet there were topics touched upon today that I knew little to nothing about – this has been an awesome experience and I definitely will return.”
During the month of December 2007 and January 2008 three groups of Hasbara Fellowships passed through the International Department classrooms and tour tracks of Wadi Ara with one or more of our staff members.
Over the years a warm relationship has built up between the Hasbara Fellowships staff in Israel and abroad and that of Givat Haviva’s International Department, a relationship greatly valued by both sides of the educational stormy waters.
A SIGN OF THE TIMES
(Hasbara groups never without the Fellowships banner to wave in public)
By Lydia Aisenberg
