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The First Arab Waldorf School in Israel: El Zeitoun |
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The First Arab Waldorf School in Israel: El Zeitoun
El Zeitoun, The Olive Tree, was established in 2004 by a group of parents, educators and entrepreneurs, both Arab and Jewish, who believed that Waldorf education, with its emphasis on universal human values and healing orientation for children, could become a unifying force in a society torn by a century of bloodshed and mistrust.
Previous to this, if Arab parents wanted a Waldorf education for their child, they would have to send them to a Jewish Waldorf school where their children would be taught in Hebrew and celebrate Jewish seasonal festivals. The founders of El Zeitoun thought that it was important for the Arab children in Israel to have their own identity firmly grounded in the Arab culture and Arab language.
Fulfilling a dream for many Arab families in Israel, El Zeitoun is the beginning of a parallel school system offering the Arab equivalent of the Waldorf educational movement that many parents in Israel’s Jewish communities have embraced for their children. El Zeitoun is located in the lower Galilee in Shfar’am, a Arab town in Israel of over 30,000 inhabitants of mixed Arab population: Muslims (about 50%), Christians (about 35%) and Druze (about 15%). El Zeitoun began as one kindergarten and today it consists of two kindergartens and elementary grades one through four, with an enrollment of over 100 students. It is the only school in the city that includes Muslim, Christian and Druze in the same educational environment. The children celebrate the holidays of the three religions, and live their customs and ceremonies on an everyday basis. The children’s parents meet each other, and create a lively, warm community that is stronger than the religious differences.
There are plans for the children who finish the eighth grade at El Zeitoun to join the Jewish children of Harduf Waldorf School to begin an integrated Waldorf high school. By the eighth grade, before transitioning them into an integrated high school, the teachers intend to combine classes in subjects such as music, English, painting, woodwork, handwork, iron work and basket weaving El Zeitoun not only contributes to creating a peaceful society within its country’s borders, it also has been instrumental in helping the Israeli Waldorf community develop a unique working relationship with a Palestinian educational community within the West Bank. The classrooms of El Zeitoun provide an educational model for visiting Palestinian educators who come to observe how Waldorf education integrates the Arab culture and the Muslim religion into its curriculum. El Zeitoun means The Olive Tree, which is often used as a symbol for peace in the Middle East. Oil from the olive tree has been used for cooking food and burned for light for thousands of years.
May this little Olive Tree be the first sapling of what some day will grow into a grove large enough to nourish and light up the whole Middle East.
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The First Jewish/Arab Waldorf Kindergarten in Israel: Ein Bustan |
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The First Jewish/Arab Waldorf Kindergarten in Israel: Ein Bustan
In the mixed Jewish Arab kindergarten of Ein Bustan, the children gather in a circle to welcome the Sabbath together, a candle is lit, and they sing:
With God’s help we shall live in peace,
Your light is small, but in my heart the light is great,
With God’s help we shall live in peace.
Ein Bustan, Spring in the Garden, is the first integrated Jewish/Arab Waldorf kindergarten in Israel. The founders of El Zeitoun saw the Waldorf method as an approach well-suited to their mission of peace and coexistence. While the standard educational system keeps Arabs and Jews apart, this kindergarten is bringing them together. Established in 2005, it is situated in the Arab village of Hilf, near Kiryat Tivon, in the lower Galilee. Ein Bustan operates two kindergartens/schools: a preschool for the youngest children, ages 2-4, and a kindergarten for the older children, ages 4-7. The 30 children of Ein Bustan come from Kiryat Tivon, (a Jewish town) and the surrounding Bedouin Arab villages Hilf, Zbidat, Zarzir and Bosmat Tab’un.
The children know they are Arab or Jewish. But, language rather than politics, ethnicity or religion draws that distinction. The teachers only distinguish students as Arabic-speaking or Hebrew-speaking, if at all. The two classes are team-taught by two instructors—one Arab and the other Jewish. Each is bilingual, though they speak in one language during class. Everything is Arabic and Hebrew, from the signs the teachers write to the songs the children sing. Since almost all schools in Israel are segregated, most instructors read stories to their students in one language. The teachers in this school alternate between two. As other schools celebrate either Rosh Hashanah or Eid al-Fitr, the students here celebrate them both.
Through the kindergarten, Arab and Jewish parents also meet on a regular basis. Paths often cross when dropping and picking up their kids. They join in to celebrate holidays and attend after school meetings.
Parents end up learning the culture alongside their children. In a country where the mainstream education system keeps Arabs and Jews apart, this kindergarten is bringing them together.Plans are being developed to begin a first grade in 2011.
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Palestinian Waldorf Kindergarten Teacher Training |
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Palestinian Waldorf Kindergarten Teacher Training
“As a teacher, I have seen Waldorf educational methods protect and deeply nurture, not only the children, but the families and communities that embrace it. By bringing Waldorf educational methods to the Middle East, the Salaam Shalom Educational Foundation is giving Arab and Jewish children the chance to recognize and mutually admire their humanity and potential for peaceful living. In a time of uncertainty and instability, it is this nurturing and vision that will allow children to imagine and build peace in the future.” Anjum Mir, Teacher, Westside Waldorf School, Santa Monica, California
ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN EDUCATORS WORKING TOGETHER FOR A NEW FUTURE
The earlier phase of our training program involved the diplomatic work of bringing Palestinian kindergarten teachers from the West Bank area of Jenin into Israel to introduce them to elements of Waldorf education. We have successfully completed the first phase of our training and have started our second phase.
In phase II of Salaam Shalom’s Training program, Waldorf teachers from Israel travel weekly into the West Bank to mentor Palestinian kindergarten teachers at the Jenin Charitable Society. The Palestinian teachers learn how to create a warm and nurturing classroom and how, through stories and other activities, they can teach respect for all human beings. There are six kindergarten classes at the Jenin Charitable Society, with about 25 children in each, who are benefiting from this training. One mentor teacher coming from Israel to Jenin to head this training started the first Waldorf kindergarten in Israel in 1989. Her work has born much fruit as today in Israel there are over a hundred such kindergartens. The other mentor teacher works in the kindergarten at the first Arab Waldorf School in Israel, El Zeitoun. This teacher is the daughter of a respected Bedouin leader of over 40,000 Bedouins in the Galilee who is well known for working as a peacemaker in the region.
El Zeitoun, the first Arab Waldorf School in Israel provides a model for Palestinians in the West Bank on how Waldorf education can be integrated into an Arab culture based on Muslim values. The training involves child development studies, nonviolent parent education, arts and craft skills, music and storytelling, health, illness and proper nutrition. Because of the numerous Waldorf schools in the Jewish communities in Israel and the education’s emphasis on universal human values, Israeli and Palestinian educational communities involved in the Waldorf approach can find a common ground for joint cooperation as they strive together to educate their students
"As a medical doctor and director of a school for Palestinian children, I am convinced that our students can receive great benefits from the teacher training provided by Salaam Shalom Educational Foundation. We need to foster a new generation of visionary leaders who can contribute to creating a culture of peace in the Middle East. Salaam Shalom Educational Foundation plays an important role in this process. They do this while promoting a healing and compassionate education in a region traumatized by conflict. This organization deserves to be supported by all those who care for the welfare of children and those who long to see peace come to the Middle East." Dr. Khalil Toukan, Jenin Charitable Society |
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