I had the absolute pleasure of organizing this heartwarming and fun meeting yesterday between Jewish teens from Cleveland, Ohio, (with program director Amnon Ophir) and Muslim teens from Kafr Manda -- a Palestinian-Israeli village five minutes from Hannaton, where I live in the Galilee.
It took fewer than five minutes to break the ice. I am not exaggerating. We had the kids sit next to someone from the other group and ask for help from the person sitting next to them to write their names in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. That was all they needed to start talking (in English, as I organized the event through my friend Rula Elias, the head of the school's English department, and she invited some of her best students, who came despite the fact that it was the first day of their summer vacation).
Then we had them go around the room and introduce themselves and name their hobbies, followed by a circle game (The Wind Blows) to get them moving and laughing and seeing how much they have in common despite their cultural differences.
Next, they broke up into smaller discussion groups with guiding questions, such as what traditional foods they eat at home and how a typical day in their life looks. Once they warmed up -- within minutes -- they tackled more serious questions like how they feel about the gun violence in both of their locales and how it affects their daily lives.
Then we returned to the big circle, where we talked more about life in Kafr Manda and in Cleveland, and the teens shared thoughts and feelings they were taking away from this encounter. The rapport among the teens was light, familiar, and comfortable by then, with laughing and inside jokes passing among them. It was delightful to see how quickly and seamlessly they became friends.
One participant after another said how the experience dispelled stereotypes they had about the other. As one young woman, Maryam, said: "I learned we have more in common than we have differences. We are all just teenagers who want to live a good life in peace."
We ended the afternoon with a spontaneous improvised song two young women, Shahed (who just graduated 12th grade) and Arielle (who just graduated 11th grade) who were in my discussion group and became instant friends, practiced for ten minutes outside with a counselor, Bnaya (an Israeli Jew just a year older than Shahed who was doing a year of pre-army national service in the Cleveland Jewish community), who had with him his guitar. THE CLIP IS BELOW.
I am sure they will all three stay in touch, as will others from the two groups. There was much exchange of contact information (especially instagram) going on as the Cleveland group got ready to leave. If only adults could have such an easy time breaking down barriers and getting along.