Intensive Arabic Semester

Photos and text by Lydia Aisenberg 
 
Over a period of years octogenarian Gerhilde Merz from Austria has taken it upon herself to translate from English to German articles by this writer dealing with Givat Haviva projects as well as events and stories from the daily life of the Israeli Jews and Arabs of Wadi Ara and Palestinians living in the nearby Dotan Valley in the West Bank.

Gerhilde volunteered her translating abilities following a visit to Givat Haviva quite some years ago and her efforts have enabled many a German visitor to read about complicated issues, topics and life stories which are certainly complex enough to understand even when reading the material in one’s native tongue never mind in another.

Grateful for Gerhilde’s time and efforts and an exchange of lengthy emails over the years – and taking into consideration that we have met only twice, briefly at that ‐ one can say that a friendship has built up and absolutely nothing of the mutual respect developed has been lost in translation so to say!

Gerhilde, an activist for the Protestant church for many years including stints in Africa, is a member of Pax Christi – a nonprofit, non‐governmental peace movement working on a global scale on a wide variety of issues in the fields of human rights, human security, disarmament and demilitarization, and a just world order. She is also an ardent supporter of the Ecumenical Accompaniment program of assistance to the Palestinian people in the West Bank whereby people from all over the world volunteer their services for 3 months in different parts of the region under the auspices of the World Council of Churches.

“When I came to Givat Haviva with a Pax Christi group you showed us around and took us on a tour of the Green Line and introduced us to some of the people living in the area,” wrote Gerhilde recently. “During this tour I became familiar with the people and places you later described in your articles and can now honestly say that I truly understand the difficulties of living together ‐ and living apart.

“For many years I was involved with the Austrian Protestant Women’s Desk paper and I remember I was searching through material and found an article in English I really not only related to but translated and spoke about many times. That article had been written by you, Lydia – and then I met you and look what we have achieved together since,” writes Gerhilde.