The Seminar

So much has happened in such a short amount of time!

Last weekend I went away with my job for an overnight seminar. The seminar was for the program participants - it was their culminating meeting between all three groups and the end of their program. The way Windows works is that they work in a unique "triangle" formation with the three points being Israeli Jewish youth from Tel Aviv, Israeli Arab youth from varying locations and Palestinian youth from various places in the West Bank. The kids meet in their Single Identity Groups once a week for two years (there is also "open space" time which is optional time for them to come into the office. It is my understanding that this time is highly utilized). There they learn about the conflict, social justice, social justice work, and how to dialogue effectively. They are introduced to the other groups through pen-pal relationships. All three groups get together to dialogue and work 3-4 times a year. They develop friendships, have conversations and ultimately create a bi-lingual publication. Windows has been working since 1995 and has had delegations of youth meet in several European countries whose governments respect and helped fund some of the work. It is really incredible. Speaking with the youth made me realize how much they learn from one another - both simple things that seem obvious to me as a student educated in NYC public school where we learned about Ramadan in first grade but things that are widely unknown here, and highly sophisticated ideas and revelations that are a product of their highly contentious environment. Windows also runs tours and lecture series to educate the community about plurality and reality in Israeli society.

We, the interns, were mainly in charge of cooking/cleaning (in the outdoor kitchen with many many boxes of vegetables and bags of pasta). We also got to listen in on some of the sessions. Much of the work was done in Hebrew and Arabic with the adult facilitators translating back and forth from each language. Some of the small mixed group work was done in english, depending on the english level of the youth in that group. It was amazing to meet the kids - they were between 14-16 and so smart, intelligent and eloquent - in their second or third language! I sat in on a discussion about the role of women in Middle Eastern society which the girls self-facilitated. A lot of it was the Tel Avivian girls asking one girl from the West Bank why she wore a hijab and what she thought about veiling/the relationship between men and women. That was interesting because the girl from the West Bank said that she had never been asked these questions before, and the girls from Tel Aviv are all very feminist in the western liberal sense that I have become enculturated to in school. It is hard to explain that many women veil not as a response to men or as a act to protect themselves from other men for men, but as an act of self respect and personal religious observance. In fact, this is a point that many in the world seem to have missed (notably, the French government, FEMEN, and many many more). One of the Israeli Jewish girls had said "I can accept your religion and what others believe. But I think there are different ways for a woman to respect herself than covering herself." These kinds of nuanced statements were often. I was very impressed. They also spoke on honor killings (another tough topic to discuss, as this stems from an entirely different cultural mindset and way of reasoning/conceptualizing the family), the way women relate to one another in society, and how female politicians would influence the conflict. It was pretty incredible to see this totally calm conversation occur between a group of 16 year old girls (in english) with no outside self facilitation.

I made friends with one of the Israeli boys because we were both picky eaters (his mom is a chef) and South American (the chef is from Brasil). We talked about many things and all were interesting, but too private to blog here. It was fascinating and heart breaking. Reality here is such a crazy thing. I still cannot fathom it.

The cooking part was fun too. I feel like in America or at camp when you go camping you just cook the simplest thing. NOT HERE. We cooked pasta with 4 kinds of sauce, rice lentils and poyke (a kind of stew cooked for an hour over an open fire), constant fresh melon, fresh made palestinian style pita in the morning, never ending bowls of Israeli salad...it was constant work but it was fun (I did love being a camp aide)!  Also teaches ya to be resourceful. How we obtained the food was resourceful as well- we solicited some vegetable donations and the kids brought vegetables and pasta with them.The next day they did workshops in the morning (including little skits about how the Palestinian youth will feel when their Israeli friends go into the army which I wish I could have understood) and then went to the beach! The mediterranean ocean is SO WARM and beautiful. It was nice to see all the kids enjoying the ocean - but sad too, knowing that some of them are barely able to access it, while others can walk to it whenever they wish.

I think that this was the perfect way to orient myself to Windows. I got to see right away what the organization does, and who it serves. I could not have been more impressed by the youth - how poised, respectful and eloquent they were, and also how engaged. I am privileged to start work knowing exactly what - and who - I am working for. Several times over the weekend I thought back to the Seeds of Peace documentary we watched in school, and how the same process was unfolding right in front of me. Additionally, it was a good way to get to know my co-workers, all smart and friendly students from the US and Canada. There were five of us, but now Ashley has left and we are four. Notably, Maya is friends with Sasha at home and Leah at school!

Windows is in need of funding to be able to print the next edition of the magazine, to run school workshops in order to maximize its educational effect in Israel and to start planning its next cycle of programming (this is currently in limbo and depends on financing). If you want to learn more about windows, click here. To check out the campaign or make a donation, click here.