January 4, 2018, was the third day of the Australian Educators Study Tour in Israel, as part of a teachers’ seminar that was organized by the KKL-JNF Education Division’s Overseas Department together with the Resource Development Department and JNF Australia. The day began in Tzfat, the capital of the Upper Galilee and one of Israel’s four sacred cities, which is also known as a place characterized by mysticism and spirituality.
At the Friedman Gallery in the Old City of Tzfat, which focuses on art inspired by Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), one half of the group met David Friedman, who immigrated to Israel from the United States about forty years ago. “The Kabbalah is the soul of the Torah,” he said, while showing the group how he integrates elements of Jewish mystical tradition into his art. After they got their impressions of the art and the explanations, the group engaged in some Jewish meditation.
The other half of the group went for a parallel visit to the Tzfat Mystical Art Gallery of Avraham Lowenthal, an artist who creates drawings and prints in the spirit of the Kabbalah. He related how he came for a visit to Israel from the USA twenty years ago, fell in love with the country and stayed. He gave a short explanation to his guests of what Kabbalah is about for him: “The only reason for our being here is to experience the greatest possible good. This is an amazing idea - the only problem with it is reality. However, we learn that every stage in our life is temporary, and its purpose is to prepare us for experiencing goodness.”
“I visited Israel many times in the past, but during the last few days I saw places that I’d never been before, and I’m very moved by what I’ve seen,” said Annette Wester from Melbourne. “This tour has also opened my eyes up to what KKL-JNF has accomplished here, and it turns out that it’s about much more than just trees. It seems like KKL-JNF is everywhere!”
Misgav: Connecting between Communities
From the peaks of the ancient Kabbalistic city of Tzfat, the delegation continued on to a somewhat more modern form of settling the Galilee. The Misgav regional council is comprised of 35 communities, including kibbutzim, moshavim, community villages and Bedouin communities. Settlement in Misgav began towards the end of the 1970s, and today about 27,000 inhabitants live in this region.
“Our vision is to create a mosaic of communities, each one of which has its own unique story,” Misgav Regional Council Mayor Ron Shani said to the group. “We are all equal, but we don’t want everyone to be the same. We are living in a multicultural region, and we need to get to know and respect each other.”
Shani presented some of the projects that are based on multicultural cooperation, including the bilingual school, where students of all religions learn in both Arabic and Hebrew.
Yusra Sua’ad, a social worker from the Bedouin community of Kamana, spoke about her work and coexistence in the region. “We have various types of coordination between people of different religions. One of the challenges that we face is encouraging the younger generation to preserve Bedouin culture.”
Ze’ev Kedem, who accompanied the group, told them that the land that the Misgav communities are built on was developed thanks to the support of JNF Australia, including land preparation and building a sports center with a swimming pool and tennis courts. JNF Australia didn’t stop there - over the past few years an ecological garden and classroom were also built at the local school with their support. The structure was built according to the principles of green construction, which include the use of recycled materials and a green roof with plants and trees to create shade. The site serves as a center for the study of sustainability and the environment, subjects that are very close to the hearts of many of the inhabitants of the regional council.
Australian Park, which was created in appreciation of the cooperation with Australia, is dedicated to friends of KKL-JNF from “down under”. The well-cared for landscaping in the park combines cultivated vegetation with trees indigenous to Israel. The site also includes playground equipment and an open-air amphitheater for performances. A stone relief of the KKL-JNF Blue Box was installed on a map of Australia to mark the strong bind between Australia, Israel, JNF Australia and KKL-JNF.
“This is my first time in Israel, and I already love this country very much, especially when it’s sunny,” said Pete Osborn, who is from Sydney, with a smile. “As someone who is not Jewish and who teaches in a Jewish school, it’s interesting for me to get firsthand knowledge of the culture and to see the places that we speak about in the classroom.”
Oranim College: Sustainability, Judaism and Identity
The next stop was Oranim College, one of the most outstanding institutions for teacher’s training. The college was established in 1951 by members of the Kibbutz Movement and adheres to a belief in the power of education to create an equal, just and sustainable society.
The institution trains nursery school teachers along with teachers for junior high school and high school. In addition to a teaching certificate, the college awards bachelor’s degrees in education, the sciences, the social sciences and the humanities, along with a master’s degree in education.
A joint program of Oranim College, Monash University in Melbourne and JNF Australia invites Education students from Monash University to specialize in the field of ecology and sustainability at Oranim College and other schools in Israel.
The Australian students share their knowledge on environmental topics with the Israeli schools, along with encouraging a variety of volunteer projects. They also take part in environmental studies at the college together with their Israeli counterparts.
Professor David Mittelberg, Chairman of the Oranim College International School, was a partner to creating this program. “The encounter with people from different places enriches everyone involved. We share common goals, and we need to build our common future together.”
The program puts special emphasis on environmental and sustainability studies, in light of the central position of this field in the educational systems of both Australia and Israel. Oranim serves as one of the most important centers in Israel for environmental studies and is defined as a green campus by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Professor Mittelberg gave a lecture to the delegation on the subject of Jewish identity and the ties between Israel and the Diaspora, saying that we live “in a heterogenic society. The world is not only local or global, but ‘glocal’, a combination of them both. Technology makes it possible for us to be in different places at the same time.” This situation creates a unique opportunity, in his opinion: “If we are successful at creating ties between the schools, we will also create connections between the students and between their sense of belonging to the Jewish people.”
Lori Abramson, Director of Jewish Peoplehood Programs at Oranim, translated these ideas into practical programs together with the members of the delegation. They split up into discussion groups and talked about contents that strengthen Jewish identity, which could be implemented in their schools.
Oranim College was their last stop of the day, and also the end of the northern part of their journey. The delegation continued to Jerusalem in anticipation of the coming days, during which they will be visiting Israel’s central and southern regions.