Intensive Arabic Semester

We are so excited to have so many great students signed up for our spring 2012 semester starting in January. We are busy preparing the kibbutz and our classroom for a new semester of Arabic students. There's still a month to register and we encourage anyone interested to email us and learn more about the program from one of our past participants. 

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We were mentioned in an article on E Jewish Philantrhopy.com about students who were studying Arabic in Egypt who are now settling into new programs in Israel.

Check it out HERE.

Photos and Text by Lydia Aisenberg
Thirty veteran members of Kibbutz Barkai recently met with overseas students participating in the 5‐month MASA‐Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester based at the kibbutz. The locals are used to seeing new faces in and around the 1949 founded Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz in Wadi Ara as this is the fourth term of the IAS program bringing students from the States, Britain, Germany, Bosnia, Czech Republic and Canada to live and study in their community.

American accents are certainly nothing new to be heard in Barkai being as a large number of founders hail from North America where they were members of the Hashomer Hatzair movement prior to aliya (immigration to Israel). Together with a group of Holocaust survivors and others they succeeded in settling, protecting and developing the small kibbutz on the lip of Wadi Ara a short distance from the 1949 Armistice Line between the State of Israel and the West Bank, the latter between 1949‐1967 under the jurisdiction of the Jordanians.

Gathered in the moadon (clubhouse) at Barkai, David Helfand, Rachel Goldberg and Matthew Monahan addressed Barkai veterans, sharing with their new neighbors a little of their backgrounds, what they had been doing prior to signing up for the Intensive Arabic Semester and also explaining what attracted them to the program in the first place.

The academic director of the Intensive Arabic Semester Dr. David Mendelsohn and the students also touched upon how things were looking with almost a month of the semester behind them whilst Kibbutz Barkai born and raised Uri Barel, a co‐founder of the program, touched on the logistics and marketing side. Kibbutz member Efrat Haas, the program’s in‐house administrator, gave an overview of where one could find graduates of the program and what they were doing in present times – either continuing their studies, working in their already acquired professions and she also spoke of the three former students who had decided to make Israel their home.

Matthew Monahan – a Bostonian – studied Arabic in Cairo for a number of months before coming to Israel. He came across the Intensive Arabic Semester when surfing the internet. David Helfand – from Massachusetts – studied Hebrew in Jerusalem and also completed an internship at the Palestine‐Israel Journal in that city. Rachel Goldberg interrupted her university studies in the States for the opportunity to study a semester in Israel and had also studied Hebrew in the past.
 
The kibbutzniks were intrigued as to why the students wanted to learn Arabic and asked what about Hebrew, how much of that language would they be studying as well. They also wanted to know what plans the students held for the future and upon hearing of their volunteering at a high‐school in the near‐by Israeli Arab Muslim city Baka al‐Gharbiya, where they teach English, the kibbutz folk fielded a few questions as to whether the students were getting to know the kibbutz community as well as the Arab community where they also have families to visit – as they do now in Barkai.

“The students are exposed to both the Arab and Jewish communities where they are working, studying and volunteering. They, in more ways than one, have become a bridge between those communities as they share with the Arabs they meet something about the Jewish community they are part of whilst doing the same when meeting with Jewish Israelis, whether it be in the kibbutz or when they go to visit family, friends in Israel in their free time,” explained David Mendelsohn.

“My wish is to speak both Hebrew and Arabic so as to be able to converse with all the peoples of Israel,” said David Halfend speaking in Hebrew to the best of his ability, as did fellow students Matthew and Rachel when they answered questions.

Syrian born kibbutz member Ovadia Shveika who made aliya in 1949 was curious to know how Matthew had been treated in Egypt. “Very well indeed,” answered Matthew.
“I was a bit apprehensive as to how it would work out but that was only in the beginning. Right from the outset I told them I was Jewish and that I had studied in Israel in the past and most people were very friendly and there were those who asked more about Israel. In general I felt comfortable in openly speaking about everything.”

Rachel Goldberg is from Delaware and has taken time out from her studies in the States for a semester in Israel. “My family was concerned about my living so far away but in the end they agreed to my joining the program. When I tried to explain to my friends what the concept of kibbutz was and why I really wanted to have a kibbutz experience as well, they really thought I was crazy,” she said with a smile. “They were right!” murmured a few of the veterans in good-humor. “My family thought the same fifty years ago," joked someone else.

Eighty-something native New Yorker Mitzi Alper, one of the veteran members of the kibbutz and familiar face on the nearby Givat Haviva campus where she has been volunteering for many years at the Art Center as a teaching assistant commented after meeting the students that she had really enjoyed listening to the MASA-Givat Haviva program trio.

“I was particularly interested in what motivated these young people to embark on such an intensive language program. They look upon the acquisition of language as one of the first steps in social action. I find it encouraging to meet young people who want to have an impact on the social interchange between Arabs, Christians and Jews,”

“I was quite impressed with their ability to express themselves in Hebrew and hopefully we will have the opportunity to meet, and talk with, the other members of the group,” she added.

The students received a number of invitations for tea or dinner in the veteran’s individual homes and the evening in the moadon was, it would seem, just the beginning of better things to come – for both the students and the veterans!

Within the space of a few weeks after the second MASA-Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester finished, students began rolling in for the third IAS program.  Students, teachers and administrative staff alike are picking up the challenge of yet another five month program involving dedicated educators dealing in the Arabic language and some Hebrew, Middle East studies and host of other topics connected to the wider mosaic of Judaism, Islam, Christianity and much more.

With the heat of the summer not being allowed to affect the beat of preparations, Efrat Hass has been sprucing up the rooms, class and recreation areas and figuring out all the do’s and do not’s for the new folks. Uri Barel pouring over figures literally figuring out logistics and budgets whilst Hilit Ben-Zvi, overall director of the program, has been sitting on top of a pressure pot as last minute hiccups need sorting out.  Marketing man Inon Tagner, eager to meet the new students is also already with his head down throwing out his cyber net to trawl in students for the fourth Intensive Arabic Semester due to start 15th January, 2011.

In an emotional last get together before the students of the second IAS went their separate ways, students and staff gathered in the courtyard of the Hass family abode in Kibbutz Barkai for a barbecue, last minute thoughts and a great deal of hugs and promises to stay in touch. Eight of the nine students were present as the ninth graduate William Robbins had to return home to be best man at a friends wedding before the final days of the program.  However although not physically present Will was at the gathering, albeit smiling at everybody from the screen of a laptop being held by Matthew Keston, one of the Brits in the group. Even though rather out of it in Birmingham, Alabama, Will heard and saw the goings on in the kibbutz gathering and even added some positive words about the innovative program started in 2009. L’hitraot to our second IAS student group and Shalom to the newcomers and anyone interested in the next Intensive Arabic Semester then please mark your calendars for January, 2011.

The Intensive Arabic Semester students participating in the Givat Haviva-MASA 5-month Arabic language and culture, Hebrew and Middle East studies program, took some time out from the classroom this week to plant eucalyptus trees along the perimeter fence of the Givat Haviva campus.

In true Tu Bishvat tradition, the students – who hail from England, Scotland, North America and Columbia - literally got down on their knees to leave their mark (or rather green mark) and roots at Givat Haviva. Eucalyptus trees are abundant on campus and in the nearby towns of Karkur, Pardes Hanna and Binyamina. The eucalyptus trees are certainly not native to Israel and so possibly fitting for overseas students to be planting an 'outsider' although the native Australian trees are well settled in the country since first being planted in 1884 at the Mikveh Yisrael Agricultural School.  Very quickly after that, eucalyptus was planted in many new communities throughout the country.

Associated with helping drain excess water in the swampy areas of Israel, the eucalyptus was also planted alongside roads to create shade and in some areas, protect them from enemy snipers taking pot shots at those traveling the highways and byways, particularly in the northern part of the country.