Tolerance Programs at the Arab Jewish Community Center

 

 

As part of the AJCC's efforts to encourage strong, long-lasting cooperation between Arabs and Jews in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, the AJCC hosts a wide range of tolerance programs. These programs bring together Jewish and Arab participants for creative, collaborative projects in a fun, safe environment. Below are a few tolerance programs that the AJCC runs throughout each year:

 

 

Youth Parliament 

 

Youth represent the bright future of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. The AJCC provides special programming to support and encourage its youth members to become community leaders.

 

The AJCC's youth club, "Yafati," runs photography, graffiti art, and theater clubs, and hosts social events for teens.

 

In addition, "Yafati," is home to Jaffa's "Youth Parliament" (YP). YP a youth leadership club that teaches high school students about democratic processes and interfaith dialogue, and takes participants on group bonding and educational trips to various nature reserves and mixed cities in Israel.

 

YP requires that participants implement tangible community change in Tel Aviv-Jaffa throughout the year. Community change examples include renovating the homes of under-served seniors in Jaffa, and putting on holiday events such as the annual Purim party at the AJCC. 

 

 

The Class Exchange Program

 

The AJCC works to cultivate rapport between Arabs and Jews from a young age while their minds are still open to new ideas and developing positive opinions of cultures other than their own. The Class Exchange Program provides 3rd and 4th graders from Arab and Jewish elementary schools with the unique opportunity to learn about each other's cultures and develop friendships with one another twice a month throughout the school year. These class meetings coax cross-cultural collaboration through drama and music classes, and engage students in discussions about topics such as the importance of diversity and acceptance of cultures other than one's own.  

 

The project has been researched for the past three years by Dr. Rony Berger from Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion University, who specializes in conflict management and cross-cultural encounters. His findings ascertain the importance of early exposure of Jews and Arabs to one another, with students showing marked improvement in acceptance and reverence of one another (as well as friendship) by the end of each school year.