By ROBERT FUSELIER
Los Alamos
With all the division in our country and world, and the fear, anger, and hatred that flows from it and contributes to it, it can be easy to be pessimistic about our future. The news, whether delivered by cable, network, or internet, seems to be full of the bad with little of the good. Social media loves to keep us scrolling – and their ad revenue up – by taking advantage of the fact that bad news and divisiveness are big attention-getters. Hope seems like a lost dream. But is it?
Our community, state, nation, and world are full of dedicated organizations doing great things. Yes, all these organizations are stretched lately with the needs that have been growing. But they are still here, and many have done and are still doing amazing work bringing people together, some even in places that are currently in the middle of division and war.
One such organizations is the Hand In Hand School system in Israel. Hand in Hand is the only integrated, bilingual public school system in Israel. Founded by a Jewish American-Israeli and a Muslim Palestinian-Israeli, the school began with 50 students who were taught by an Arab teacher and a Jewish teacher teaching side by side in Hebrew and Arabic. Hand in Hand now has six schools and over 2000 students.
Hand in Hand’s approach to conflict resolution is simple: let the children lead the way. Over time, the students, who saw each other as classmates and friends since kindergarten, began to bring their Arab and Jewish families together. Today, over 3000 adults are active in the Hand in Hand communities. These integrated social communities impact over 10,000 Jewish and Arab citizens.
Los Alamos is fortunate to have one of the founders, Lee Gordon, coming here to give a presentation about Hand in Hand at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 11 at SALA. Susie and I have known Lee for many years and have supported Hand in Hand during that time. We highly recommend this presentation to anyone interested in learning about sustainable and effective solutions to long-term conflicts.
If you’d like a preview of what Hand in Hand is all about, please check out a TED talk on YouTube by one of Hand In Hand’s principals, Mohammad Kundos. Your hope will return.