Now for the 27th year our summer camp this year took place between the  1st of July to the 19th for 98 Arab and Jewish children between the ages of six to thirteen.

We had 12 staff members with the directors, including Khader Alkalak who was managing all the complex financial matters behind the scenes, and 9 volunteers to add selected out of the many teenagers who applied. These ‘veterans’ wished to continue their summer camp experience yet another year. 

Our participants were bused from Ramle, Lod, Modi’in and the various kibbutzim around Ramle, to Neve Shalom where there is an outdoor expanse and  indoor  class rooms in the bi-lingual school. In the classrooms several activities can go on at the same time. So, while in one room they can learn to experience and create musical instruments, in another they can have laboratory experiments, yet in another prepare a theater piece or practice a group dance. This sort of activities are lead by professionals whom we hire. 

The small group format is a great help. Ahead of time, we strive to group the participants according to age with a Jewish and an Arab counselor each. 

 

Lutfia Gnime, an Arabic language teacher in the bi-lingual school in Neve Shalom, is the summer camp organizer and sees that on the ground things are kept as planned. With so many participants coming from so many places, organization is very complex and there is naturally a lot of problem solving to do on the ground as well.

Mary Manassa, now an art therapist, has been leading  painting and sculpture in our summer camps for many years.

Costa Mansour, long time co-manager of the summer camp, is a guide in the Society for the Protection of Nature. He inspires the kids with enthusiasm sensitivity and love for Nature.

 

 

 

 

 

Beginning with a tour of the Old City Walls, continuing to the Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion the site of Mary’s ascension, going to King David’s tomb nearby and then the Upper Room of the Last Supper on top of David’s tomb which was turned into a mosque in the 16th C. by the Ottomans and then returned to its original destination.

 

 

What twists and turns have our holy places taken throughout history, What interconnections among the 3 Abrahamic traditions!

We wish we had the opportunity at their age to be exposed to such cultural richness, history and interfaith layers..

 

 

At the end of the summer camp we had a party

 

 

 

Liron, a Jewish parent writes,