Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel (Hebrew: יד ביד: המרכז לחינוך יהודי ערבי בישראל, Arabic: يدا بيد: مركز التربية اليهودي العربي في إسرائيل)is a network of award-winning bilingual (Hebrew-Arabic) schools where Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel can study together. Hand in Hand was co-founded by Israeli Arab educator Amin Khalaf and Israeli American educator Lee Gordon in 1997 with 50 students at two campuses.[1]
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Hand in Hand was founded in 1997 by two Israeli educators, one Arab and one Jewish. They founded the first two schools in 1998, one in the Galilee region near Misgav and one in Jerusalem. These first two schools grew, and in the summer of 2003, a group of interested parents from the Wadi Ara region in the Arab Triangle met to express interest in establishing a third Hand in Hand School in their region.
After delays which included difficulty winning recognition from the Israeli Ministry of Education, the Bridge over the Wadi (Gesher al HaWadi, Hebrew: גשר על הואדי) school opened on September 1, 2004, with 106 students.[2] Since then, enrollment at the Wadi Ara school has risen to 195. The teachers come from Jewish and Arab towns in the area. The school has the largest number of male teachers of any Hand in Hand school, and there are two co-principals, one Arab and one Jewish.[3]
Hand in Hand's fourth school opened in September 2007 in the city of Beer Sheva, where 60 Arab and Jewish students study in two kindergarten classes.[4] On October 21, 2007, Hand in Hand's Max Rayne school opened in Jerusalem's Pat neighborhood near the Arab village of Beit Safafa. The new campus was built with $11 million from donors including the Jerusalem Foundation, the Rayne Foundation, and other European donors.[5] Including the new Beer Sheva school, Hand in Hand now serves close to 1,000 students.[4]
Today nearly 1000 students study at the four Hand in Hand schools in Jerusalem, the Galilee Region, Wadi Ara, and Beer Sheva.[6]
•Hand in Hand Max Rayne Jerusalem School (founded 1998, 400 students)
•Hand in Hand Galilee School (founded 1998, 200 students)
•Hand in Hand "Gesher al HaWadi" School (founded 2004, 200 students)
•Hand in Hand Beer Sheva School (founded 2007, 60 students) [7]
Hand in Hand's approach to bilingual education aims to create equality, understanding, and coexistence between the Arab and Jewish populations of Israel, who often live segregated from one another. Classes at Hand in Hand schools are co-taught by an Arab and Jewish teacher, each teaching in his or her native language. Teachers do not translate, providing a strong incentive for students to attain fluency in the second language.[8]
In 2007, some neighbors reacted negatively to the Hand in Hand Max Rayne Jerusalem Bilingual school. While some residents harbored logistical concerns about issues such as traffic and parking, others were concerned about intermarriage and assimilation between Jewish and non-Jewish students.[9]