LA event: Jewish-Arab equality through bilingual Hebrew-Arabic education in Israel

Meretz USA is delighted to host a special breakfast gathering to introduce you to the Hagar Association, which, since 2006, has been creating bilingual, multicultural educational frameworks in Beer Sheva to promote equality, tolerance and mutual understanding among the Jewish and Arab residents of the city and throughout the Negev region.

Our guest speaker will be Ms. Lauren Joseph of Hagar.  Lauren will share Hagar's story, and discuss Hagar's community of coexistence in Beer Sheva and the work they are doing to bring equality and peace to the region.

The breakfast will take place on:
Friday, December 3rd, 8am
Factor's Deli
9420 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(1/2 block East of Beverly Drive)
Breakfast Buffet: $15 per person 

More information about the Hagar Association can be found below and by going to www.hajar.org.il.
      
This event is being co-sponsored by Americans for Peace Now.

More about Hagar:

In 2006, a group of Beer-Sheva parents, academics and community activists founded the Hagar Association as a response to the present reality in the Negev, where about 600,000 citizens, a quarter of them Arabs, live side by side but in segregated spaces.  Up until 2007, there was not one educational or social framework in the Negev in which Jewish and Arab children could meet and engage in meaningful activity together.  The Hagar founders believe that creating such a shared bilingual educational framework can promote knowledge and understanding of the "other's" heritage, religion and customs, and thus help to bring about positive change in the region.

The Hagar kindergarten, preschool and school offer the community in the South a unique educational framework, based on the values of Jewish-Arab partnership and providing a high quality education and a warm, supportive environment that enables every child to develop his or her unique talents. The school brings together Jewish and Arab children in an egalitarian and tolerant space, which emphasizes respect for the other and the will to live together in peace and understanding. The school program is committed to democratic and humanistic values and to the awareness and learning of the respective cultures, identities and languages of the two communities.

Lauren Joseph writes "I am glad to be a part of the Hagar community, working towards equality and coexistence. This is part of our story -  to make sure that we understand the other, that we are not afraid of the other, but more importantly, that we can live together in peace."

Lauren seeks to "give others hope that peace does have a chance - that grassroots efforts exist in Israel to create equality and coexistence between Arabs and Jews."