Building a society of inclusion, equality and justice for all of Israel’s citizens is a moral imperative with the potential to positively impact every sector, social and economic.
JCF supports three programs committed to educating and promoting shared values and strengthening civil society in this area: an education forum and fund, a social venture fund and a school in Beer Sheva. Current funding provides $110,000 to the three programs; next year’s funding will total $120,000.
Hagar: Jewish-Arab Bilingual Kindergarten and School in Beer Sheva
In 2006, a group of Beer-Sheva parents, academics and community activists in Beer Sheva and its environs, 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 bi-lingual 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.
Hagar: Jewish-Arab Education for Equality is a spring-board for social change through its bilingual, multicultural school and community programming. Hagar advances relationships between Arabs and Jews for children- who study and learn together- and parents- who seek to optimize their children’s educational opportunity and to create a peaceful future.
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