On Friday, September 4, after the arson attack on the SFP classrooms, a Leaders in Shared Cities course met at the Fred Segal Peace and Friendship Library.

The group members shared their painful feelings about the fire and went on to discuss the issue of the struggle of Mizrachi Jews against oppression and this struggle’s connection with that of Palestinians. The discussion was very emotional and painful and towards the end of the session. The Palestinian group shared its disappointment regarding the fact that Jewish members of the group or their family members serve in the Israeli military.

The second unit focused on the initiatives of the participants and the main goal of the meeting was to divide into working groups. Among the initiatives developing in the group:

1. Adding signs to the streets of Jaffa with their historical names from before 1948.
2. Living room remembrance meetings on the Palestinian Nakba.
3. An autobiographical writing class for women, in collaboration with an Arab biotherapist from Haifa called “Grandma’s Stories”.

In the last unit, there was a guest lecture and discussion by Maha Frij. Maha is a resident of Dearborn, Michigan and director of the ACCESS National Foundation for American Arabs.
Maha spoke about the American Arab community and the experience in Dearborn, Michigan, a city with 40% Arabs and an active Arab community. She described the work of her organization, whose 500 employees provide comprehensive services that include welfare, supportive education and social work. At the end of the lecture, she recommended that leaders in Israel form broad coalitions, that they should not withdraw from dialogue and involvement, or ignore situations in which racism and the rejection of the minority occur.

Photo used in article intro: Alan L, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons