The Open House in Ramle - a peace education center in Ramle, Israel
 

Latest Stories

  • Summer Camp 2024Summer Camp 2024

    by Lutfia Gnime, summer camp co-director   This year we opened our camp despite all the fears of the war, it was important for us to tell the world that we will continue to believe in our way,...Read more »
  • Summer Camp 2023Summer Camp 2023

    Summary of the 2023 summer Camp by Lutfia Gnime   The Peace Camp of Open House was held between July 3rd and July 21st, 2023, the Arab-Jewish camp that has existed for many years with the aim...Read more »
  • Summer Camp 2022Summer Camp 2022

    This year's summer camp was between the 3rd to the 21st of July, 2022. The Ramle municipality provided the grounds of the YRF learning center and we could accept 80 participants to full...Read more »
  • Summer Camp 2021Summer Camp 2021

    We are delighted to share with you what was happening at our end during 2021. First of all, the Ramle Municipality offered us the YRF grounds (Youth Renewal Fund) for our Summer Camp in Ramle...Read more »
 

Activities & Programs


 
Nursery School

The Nursery School at OPEN HOUSE is not only a warm nest where each child is treated as an individual, it is also an important basis for the continuing programs of OPEN HOUSE which they attend later on. These Arab toddlers come from Christian and Muslim homes, and, as they grow, they become volunteers and … more »

 
Summer Peace Camp

The OPEN HOUSE Summer Peace Camp enriches the educational and recreational possibilities for Arab and Jewish children, with about 100 peace campers.

 
Empowerment of Women

In the past 3 years Open House has been doing major work empowering women as individuals and in the community. Open House, in co-operation with the Kolech forum of religious Jewish women and the Interfaith Encounter Association…

 
Masa Masaar – The Journey

The Journey is meant to open young Arabs and Jews to the experience and narrative of The Other. As a rule, the young people are exposed only to the narratives and attitudes of their own community. It takes enormous courage, in the Israeli Palestinian context, to bear the pain of what we have done to each other throughout a prolonged conflict. It is natural to become defensive under such circumstances. Listening, acknowledgement, empathy, these are the qualities that we aim to seed in The Journey.

 
International Exchange Programs

Delegations of older OPEN HOUSE teens have traveled abroad over the past several summers, deepening friendships among themselves and fostering connections with their peers abroad.

 
Young Leaders Training Course

The greater Ramle environs have a very heterogeneous makeup in which different communities (religious, secular, Ethiopian, Russian, Muslim Arabs, Christian Arabs) live parallel lives but rarely meet and interact. The level of dialogue, if at all, is superficial and occasional. Open House sees itself as a neutral location where fruitful dialogue and shared community, based … more »

 
Workshops for Child Development
Workshops for Child Development

Throughout 2011, there were 9 sessions, held at Open House, designed for Arab women on the topic of the development of the sexuality of children. These topics are pretty much shunned in the Arab community and are a cause for embarrasement. The Muntada Foundation, based in Haifa, has made it its purpose to promote greater … more »

 
Day for Prayer and Action for Children (DPAC)

Open House, together with the spiritual center in Neve Shalom held the event on November 18th at the “Alamaria” school in Ramle.

 
Day of the Child 2011

November 20 is the Day of the Child, marking the anniversary of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Children. On Friday, November 18, Open House young adults led sessions on children’s rights at the Terra Santa school in Ramle. Here are the words of Bissan Salman, 19, who led the sessions together with Muhammad Kabua, 18, and Vivian Rabia: “First we brainstormed … more »

 
Celebrating Light

Celebrating the Light on Human Right’s Day, 10th of Dec, was the initiative of artist Shulamit Ashkenazi. After participating in our Interfaith course for women, Shulamit became quite an activist at Open House.

 
Olive Tree Project

The Olive Tree Project is a program we had been dreaming about the whole of last year. We wished to work with 2 schools–a Hebrew school and an Arab school which will create olive tree sculptures for each other.

 
Music in Common

On the occasion of The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 of Dec. 2011, we had another concert at Open House with FODfest, Friends of Daniel Pearl Festivel, also called Music in Common.

 
Postcards for Peace

NEVEI KODESH Synagogue members in Boulder Colorado, have taken initiative to help Open House by creating postcards from the art work of our Peace Camp and Nursery School. Members of Nevei Kodesh Congregation are holding a dialogue group with Christian and Muslim Palestinian Americans who together have taken on this project to raise funds for … more »

 
Discussing the war in Gaza

Dear Friends, I wish to share with you this open, trusting, and rare dialogue, a fruit of our work and training. On the 28th of February 2009, we convened at Open House, a group of young adult Arabs and Jews, with whom we have been working with for some time. Most of these young adults … more »

 
Jewish-Arab Parents’ Network

The Parents’ Network creates a nucleus of coexistence advocates within the local community by forging friendships between Jewish and Arab residents of Ramle. Fifty adults (sometimes joined by their 35 children) participate in weekend family outings to nature sites around the country, holiday celebrations, and regular meetings at OPEN HOUSE to hear guest speakers and … more »