First up is the after-school enrichment activities run by one of the Kiyum Meshutaf (shared existence) tzvatim (teams) in Sakhnin, an Arab-Israeli city in the north. The kids in these activities volunteered to stay after school in order to participate in these English-enrichment and activities run by Australians and New Zealanders, and the programmes are so popular that there's not enough space for all the kids that want to participate! In this programme, the kids made a "recipe" based on the different "ingredients" of their identity, which as you can see include family, Arab culture, friends, and Israel, and through this talk about how what dilemmas of identity they face and how they balance those different aspects.
Next is the Carmiel tzevet, which works with Jewish Israeli youth, both sabra and immigrant, in the Emda school in Carmiel - an amazing place for troubled teens that incorporates both small classes which try to strengthen the teens' formal education, and a lot of different informal activities including hiking and a new program of dog-training in a real kennel! On this day the school students were helping out in a work project to repaint their moadon (clubhouse) by the school, and the Shnatties were there working with them and having fun:
Another one of the Kiyum Meshutaf tzvatim, tzevet Tamra - an Arab village not far from Carmiel. The tzevet here spends the mornings teaching English classes in the local junior high school, and in the afternoons they run informal activities in the Hanoar Haoved ken next to the school - building up a deeper relationship with some of the kids from the school, including educational programmes about peace and coexistence, and sometimes just hanging out with the kids. Here they are in the Tamra ken (local chapter - equivalent to Habo House) waiting for the after-school activities to start:
Another mesima with Jewish youth is at the Dshanim School in Kiryat Ata (near Haifa), a school that takes dropout teens and gives them a smaller, more personal learning environment so they can try to overcome difficulties and succeed. The Shnatties tutor kids one on one in English, a subject usually considered to be hard and boring, but because our Shnatties are really cool and friendly, the kids all want to sign up for regular English tutoring with them! Some of the tutoring practices basic vocabulary, and some combines English vocabulary and important concepts for teenagers to discuss, like freedom of speech, equality, and responsibility. Here are two madrichim from the Dshanim tzevet in the school courtyard, during a break between classes:
Meanwhile, as the Shnatties have been dealing with some of the different populations within Israeli society and especially as they come into contact with its more troubled facets, they have also been learning through weekly courses about these different groups and what processes have led Israel to its current economic and social situation. The peak of that learning process was a two day Socio-Economic Seminar which dealt with the Zionist vision, the history of privatization, the current reality and the question of what their responsibility as Jews and Zionists is towards the issues they are meeting in their mesimot and in Kaveret generally. The seminar included a day siyur in Tel Aviv, both through some of the tougher neighborhoods of South Tel Aviv like the Shchunat Ha'argazim, Neve Sha'anan foreign workers' district, and the Hatikva Quarter:
As well as a visit to the posh Kikar Hamedina in North Tel Aviv, for a better understanding of the gaps:
The day concluded with challenging, very meaningful discussions of what their responsibility is for this situation, and for similar situations in New Zealand and Australia.
As a bonus, here are two of the Shnatties from the Akko house describing their culinary experiences on Kaveret:
