Hand In Hand: Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel (American Friends)

Beyond the walls of our many classrooms, Hand in Hand engages thousands of Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel (parents and community members) in coming together for shared community programs. By participating in joint events, such as holiday celebrations, sporting competitions, field trips, language classes, and dialogue workshops, the adults create bonds of friendship and solidarity, and a powerful sense of togetherness.

Our model is built on a three-pronged approach of schools, communities and public sector partnership - integrating a multi-dimensional framework that enables large-scale, sustainable change. Our approach fosters an interdependent network of engagement across all ages: children, youth, and adults, and at all levels of society, from grassroots to local and national government. With each new student, school, community, and partner we send out ripples of change that forge a more equitable and shared society for Arabs and Jews across Israel.

These strategies and activities are possible thanks to our generous donors from Israel and around the world.

Hand In Hand’s partners include:

• Israel’s Ministry of Education
• Various municipalities and their Departments of Education
• Philanthropic partners
• Grassroots coalitions and NGOs
• Educators
• Academic researchers

Hand in Hand works closely with the Ministry of Education—which accredits our schools and provides public funding—and with municipalities and their education departments. For instance, Hand in Hand’s schools in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and Kfar Saba are all housed in municipally-owned buildings. Grassroots coalition-building helps us create new communities of influence, as do our partnerships with academic researchers from colleges and universities across Israel.

Hand in Hand’s work is recognized internationally as well as in Israel. Hand in Hand is the recipient of a US government grant through USAID that helps promote civil society partnerships between Jews and Arabs.

On the international level, Hand in Hand won the Global Pluralism Award; at the Israeli national level, Hand in Hand has won local and regional distinctions and awards for excellence in our educational model and pedagogy created by our dedicated staff.

Hand in Hand aspires to have a wider impact far beyond the individuals, schools and communities in our network.
Following are some examples of systemic impact:

Shared Society on the National Agenda:
Following the eruption of violence in May 2021, Hand in Hand’s CEO, Dani Elazar, was invited to make two presentations in the Knesset on the power of integrated education as a vehicle for instilling shared society values among the next generation. He also spoke of the need to offer families in many more cities the alternative of sending their children to an integrated Jewish-Arab school. Government officials have committed to promoting legislation that will advance integrated Jewish-Arab schools as a governmentally institutionalized option.

Partnering with the Ministry of Education to Mainstream Shared Society:
Hand in Hand is providing the Ministry of Education with our unique Shared Holidays Curriculum, which the Ministry will be making available to teachers across the country. The Ministry has decided to approve this innovative curriculum as a first step to fill the vacuum of teaching materials advancing multiculturalism in the public school system. Through this new public endorsement, this educational curriculum can eventually reach students nation-wide.

Multicultural Program in Preschools:
In Jaffa and Nof Hagalil municipalities, many Arab children are enrolled in Hebrew-stream preschools. Education officials recognized the critical need to offer these children a culturally relevant education, as well as the value of providing both them and their Jewish classmates with more inclusive programming. Hand in Hand developed a teacher training workshop and accompanying curricula that is currently being implemented in fifteen preschools.