On Sept. 26, a small group of Israelis, both Arab and Jewish­, representing the Galilee Dreamers program, sat in a CESJDS Hebrew classroom where they answered questions about their lives during the Israel-Hamas War and their experiences as teenagers living in Northern Israel post-Oct. 7.
The Galilee Dreamers rotated throughout the day between Hebrew and Judaic studies classes in the high school. This visit to JDS was part of a larger trip to the United States in the program, meant to bring Jewish and Arab Israelis together.
“[This program] is a great way to connect together,” Galilee Dreamer and Jewish Israeli Uri Bahat said. “But I saw it also as an opportunity to come to [the] USA, as a way to explain [to] the communities here about the war in Israel, and how the situation is there and to show them that you don’t need to hate.”
After spending the day at JDS, the 20 Israelis returned to their host families’ houses, where they spent the night. The Galilee Dreamers then spent the next day touring D.C. and then continued on their trip through the United States. Following their first stop in New York, the group traveled to Baltimore County, after which they spent a day at JDS, before ending their trip in Philadelphia on Oct. 1.
Before coming to the United States, all 20 Israelis attended a multi-day camp in Kibbutz Kishur, where they had the opportunity to get to know one another before arriving in the United States. Some of the Israelis had already visited other schools in Israel as part of the organization’s programming, but this camp was the first time they all came together. This trip was an opportunity to integrate Jews and Arabs in Israel, who live close to each other, but go to separate schools and have different primary languages.
“[For] all my life in Israel, I’ve always thought about how I don’t know [how] to speak Arabic, [and how] I don’t really meet [Arab Israelis] and speak with them,” Bahat said. “And I started this opportunity to get to know them, their culture, to get new friends and it was really an honor.”
While they were at JDS, the Galilee Dreamers spoke during blocks, and each time, the 20 of them were split up between multiple classrooms. The Galilee Dreamers started by discussing the war and how their lives have changed since, but also answered a variety of questions about what it means to be and what it looks like being Jewish or Arab living in Israel now.
“It’s one thing to hear from our teachers and the news, but it’s another to hear from a firsthand experience, from someone who lived through it,” sophomore Brielle Bassin said. “One of the things that someone said that was really interesting to me is ‘we can tell you the story as much and in as much detail as we want, but to be there and to experience it is really just so different.’”
For Galilee Dreamer Bayan Ali, an Arab-Israeli, this was his first opportunity to create friendships with Arab-Israelis and Jewish-Israelis together. The program allowed participants to empathize with other young teenagers in Israel, regardless of their backgrounds.
“The program is not just about flying to countries,” Ali said. “It’s about showing people around the world that Arabs and Jews are not enemies [like] they say in the news. They can actually build peace and be friends. We’re all humans after all.”