News Highlights “A school in Jerusalem brings Arab and Jewish kids together to boost understanding”

“For our students, this is a safe place, a safe environment… They feel here that they have freedom of speech. That they’re not afraid to say how they feel. They’re not afraid to share their grief. Because they’ve been raised on these values of respecting one another, and being able to hold the grief of the other.” — Engie Wattad, the Palestinian vice principal at the Hand in Hand School in Haifa

Hebrew College’s current art exhibit “Hope Diaries” is in perfect step with the January 23, 2024 NPR article “A school in Jerusalem brings Arab and Jewish kids together to boost understanding” about the Hand in Hand School in Haifa. Across six campuses, the Hand in Hand School is committed to building inclusion and equality between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel through a growing network of bilingual, integrated schools and communities.

The new winter art exhibit, The Hope Diaries: A Collaborative Art Project, showcases work from 50 fifth through eighth graders from Jewish day and religious schools across Boston inspired by the prompt, “What does hope look like for you?” The Boston students assembled collage covers for diaries which were distributed to students at Yad B’Yad (Hand in Hand) school in Haifa, where Arab-Israeli and Jewish-Israeli youth learn together “hand-in-hand.” The diaries were delivered to Israel in early January for distribution to Hand in Hand students.