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Givat Haviva American Update
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Jonathan Lack
Executive Director
& Board Member
Friends of Givat Haviva
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As we begin a new chapter at Friends of Givat Haviva, I would like to take a moment to express our deep gratitude to David Heller for his exceptional leadership over the past two years as Board Chair. David guided the organization through one of the most complex and challenging periods in the Middle East with steadiness, clarity, and unwavering commitment to our mission. His leadership helped ensure that Givat Haviva’s work not only continued, but remained impactful and relevant during a time when shared society initiatives are more important than ever.
At the same time, I am pleased to welcome Jeff Goodman as our new Board Chair. Jeff, who resides in the Boston area, brings a strong background in community leadership, including his involvement with the Boston JCRC and longstanding engagement with AIPAC. Earlier this year, Jeff visited the Givat Haviva campus in central Israel, where he experienced firsthand the depth and impact of the organization’s work.
As you will see in his accompanying video message, Jeff is fully committed to building on the strong foundation established under David’s leadership. He shares our vision of elevating and institutionalizing shared society initiatives within the pro-Israel American Jewish and Christian communities.
At a time when Israel is facing ongoing security challenges across multiple fronts—externally, with continued regional conflict, and internally, with heightened tensions and unrest, including in the West Bank—Givat Haviva’s work remains both challenged and essential. As reflected in this newsletter, our programs continue to adapt and operate—from education initiatives reaching tens of thousands of students to the return of in-person dialogue and cultural engagement on campus. You will also meet some of the dedicated individuals whose work brings this mission to life every day, advancing the work of building shared society—person by person, peace by peace.
We also invite you to learn more about our emergency initiative to construct safe rooms on campus to ensure the safety of students, staff, and visitors during this period of heightened security risk.
We are grateful for David’s service, energized by Jeff’s leadership, and stand more committed than ever to engaging Americans in helping to build a better future for both Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel.
I also want to remind you of our upcoming quarterly live update from Israel featuring Mohammad Darawshe, Director of Strategy at Givat Haviva, on May 20 at 1:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM CT / 10:00 AM PT. Please click HERE to register for the live update.
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FOGH Chair Jeff Goodman Video Message
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“Even amidst deep divides that exist in Israeli society today, Givat Haviva’s programming brings forward in concrete, meaningful ways the hope and strength derived from building bonds between people, person by person, peace by peace,” states Jeff Goodman, who became Chair of the Friends of Givat Haviva Board on April 1. He filmed the two-minutes video while visiting the Givat Haviva campus in February.
Click HERE to watch the video.
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Feature: Youssef Jabreen & Matan Segal
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Behind every educational program, intercultural meeting, and cultural festival at Givat Haviva is a team of individuals deeply committed to our mission, not just as educators or organizers, but as living models of shared society. In this series, we'll get to know the people behind the work—who they are, how they found their way here, and what keeps them motivated during challenging times. Understanding Givat Haviva starts with understanding the people who shape it. This month we are featuring Youssef Jabreen, who manages Bara’em High-Tech Seeds, and Matan Segal, program manager of Kick It Out.
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Youssef Jabreen Leads High-Tech Education for Arab High School Students
Youssef Jabreen manages Bara’em High-Tech Seeds, an educational program launched by Givat Haviva in 2014 to help Arab students enter Israel’s high-tech industry – a sector widely seen as the engine of the country’s economy but one in which Arab citizens remain significantly underrepresented. The program allows selected students to begin studying computer science in middle school and continue their studies through high school, enabling them to earn a bachelor’s degree by the age of 19. “Every year, it brings me motivation,” says Jabreen. “I’m proud of the students. It’s really, really rewarding.”
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Matan Segal Heads Kicking Racism Out of Israeli Soccer
For many Israelis football (soccer) has never been just about the game itself. It’s about the community, the devotion, the sense of belonging one gets from identifying with a team. But the sport also breeds something darker than mere passion. “Soccer fans reflect the extreme of society where hate and racism blow up,” says Matan Segal, program manager of Kick It Out, an initiative that fights racism on and beyond the soccer field. Segal and forty volunteers attend soccer matches across the country, documenting incidents and producing periodic reports for the Ministry of Culture and Sports. “I truly believe that football can make peace,” Segal says.
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Art and Shared Society Conference
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The Givat Haviva Art and Shared Society Conference marked a powerful return to public cultural life after weeks in which the Givat Haviva campus had been largely empty due to the security situation. The conference, entitled "The Muses Do Not Remain Silent 2026", brought together Arab and Jewish directors and managers of art institutions, artists, educators, and leading curators from across Israel. Participants shared insights into contemporary initiatives and ongoing work, highlighting the ways in which cultural institutions continue to foster dialogue and cooperation between Jewish and Arab communities.
Expressions of gratitude to Anat Lidror, who has served as head of the Shared Arts Center for the past decade, and is leaving Givat Haviva, echoed throughout the day. Givat Haviva CEO Michal Sella described the conference as a milestone marking the end of Lidror’s “amazing and successful decade at the Center,” adding, “we thank you for the way you established and developed the Center.”
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Teaching Through Sirens: Shared Language Reslience During War
The war with Iran continues to keep everyone in Israel, Arabs and Jews alike, on edge and close to home. Givat Haviva has continued some programs online. One is Shared Language, a Hebrew enrichment program for Arab youths. “Thanks to this program, Arab students learn to use Hebrew authentically, from a teacher for whom it is a native language,” says Yasmin Tsafar, the Education Programming Coordinator of Shared Language. The program operates in 66 Arab schools and has reached tens of thousands of students since its founding in 2011. Tsafar expresses cautious optimism about a swift end to the war and a return to normal routines. Schools, she notes, play a central role in restoring stability for children and adolescents. “The teachers are doing their best to help students continue their education despite the war,” she says. “I know they are eagerly awaiting the moment when they can welcome their students back to school.”
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Through Others' Eyes Returns to Campus, Cameras in Hand
After more than a month of meeting over Zoom, the twenty students in the Through Others’ Eyes program reunited in person. “They were so happy to finally see each other again,” said TOE Coordinator Jenan Halabi. The program never fully stopped during the war with Iran that began on February 28. Halabi kept the group connected through Zoom, adapting the curriculum to what was possible from home. Still, “teaching photography on Zoom is a significant challenge. There is no substitute for in-person meetings, working with cameras, and the hands-on experience,” states Halabi.
When the teens reconvened, Halabi invited them to share how they had been feeling. Some students, particularly Arab youths without safe rooms, described feeling fear during the war, while others spoke about the stress of sirens or, in some cases, a sense of relief at the lack of schoolwork. “They all had different experiences,” Halabi said. But all have been eager to get back to using the program’s cameras, being together in person, and to prepare for showing their photographs at the exhibit on campus in the summer.
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Artists in Residency Exhibit: No Space Between Us
Givat Haviva’s Artists in Residency program is unique in the field of Israeli art. Living and working together the young Arab and Jewish artists are influenced by each other, and get to know, often for the first time in their lives, the culture and way of life of people from the other society. For this year’s cohort, nine young artists, Jews and Arabs, were selected to participate for a period of five months that included three months of communal living and creating on the Givat Haviva campus. “No Space Between Us”, their closing exhibition at the Shared Art Center Gallery, presents the works they created throughout this period in painting, sculpture, photography, video, and sound.
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Urgent Appeal for Safe Rooms on Campus
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The war with Iran has been a reminder of an urgent need for shelters to protect Israelis from missile attacks. Friends of Givat Haviva Emergency Security Initiative is seeking funds to immediately construct six reinforced safe houses across the 42-acre campus to protect students, staff and visitors and ensure that critical programs can continue safely even during wartime. Please donate to strengthen the campus’ long-term emergency preparedness.
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