El Zeitun - The Shfaram Waldorf Initiative
The Vision
After years of working together at the Waldorf School of Kibbutz Harduf, we, a group of Jewish and Arab Israeli educators have decided to continue our collaboration in an attempt to establish a Waldorf Kindergarten and elementary school in the Arab town of Shfaram. We feel that also among Arab parents there is a growing sense of disappointment with the conventional educational system and with it a growing interest in alternative methods of schooling. But, is Waldorf education the proper alternative in the Arab Israeli context?. We believe it is though we are aware of the challenges stemming from the strong western orientation of the Waldorf system. We do have some good experience with Arab students in the Harduf school still it became clear to us that at least in elementary school Arab pupils should be taught by Arab teachers in their own cultural environment and in a mode that emphasizes and promotes their traditional values. But we also sincerely believe that Waldorf education with its emphasize on universal human values could become a unifying force in a society torn by a century of bloodshed and mistrust and our vision is that at some point in time, perhaps after elementary schooling the two schools, the Arab school in Shfaram and the Jewish school of Harduf will join into one Waldorf high school with mixed classes and nearly identical curriculum respecting and promoting the two cultures. Of course the joining of the two schools will take place gradually and start during elementary school years with joint activities of increased frequency. As this will become the first Waldorf institution in an Arab community in Israel it was clear to us that the first step needs to be the establishment of a Waldorf Education Teachers Seminar, a training for the Arab educators who will undertake most of the responsibilities from the earliest stages of the project.
The Context
Kibbutz Harduf
Kibbutz Harduf was established in 1982 by a group of young people dedicated to anthroposophy and to alternative lifestyles. It is 
located on a hill in the Lower Galilee overlooking biblical Mount Carmel, the Valley of Zevulun, and the modern city of Haifa. The population of Harduf today is about 300 mainly Jewish/Israeli plus some members from other countries, mainly from Europe and there is one member of Arab origin married to a Jewish woman of American descent. Kibbutz Harduf grew rapidly as more young people with similar aspirations joined, many of them after training for several years in Europe in various anthroposophic institutions. Most Harduf members are engaged in one of the educational/therapeutic initiatives on the hill.
The largest of these is the Waldorf School that gradually grew from elementary to high school and now has 450 students. Harduf Waldorf School is pan-regional and its students come from over 50, mainly rural settlements in the northern part of Israel. Many of the teachers live in Harduf while the others commute daily like the students. The school has been recognized by the Israeli Ministry of Education, the teachers receive their salaries from the ministry and the local authorities support Harduf in the construction of the school buildings. At the end of the high school years the students attend the Israeli national matriculation exams.
In addition to the school Harduf hosts a Seminar Center for arts and anthroposophy; a Waldorf Teachers Seminar; a special teachers seminar for Arabic speaking students; a therapeutic boarding house "Tuvia", for children aged 7-18 of various problem backgrounds who need special education; a boarding community "Beit Elisha", of grown ups with severe organic handicaps; 
a workshop center and hostel "Hiram", for grown ups recovering from mental breakdown; a center for inter-cultural meetings named "Shaar La'Adam - Bab lil'Insan" ; and an anthroposophic medical clinic. Yeshayahu Ben Aharon, among the founders of Harduf who lives and operates from Harduf has recently founded ICS (Israel Civil Society) dedicated to the creation of a nation-wide citizens movement functioning through local and regional citizens councils and through a national citizens "parliament".
But Harduf is not only about education, therapy and social activism. It has a bio-dynamic farm, a bio-dynamic cowshed, an experimental R&D and semi-commercial center for organic seeds and a distribution system of organic and bio-dynamic products of its own farm and of other producers who carry Harduf's label that has become known all over Israel as the symbol of high quality organic produce.
Go to Harduf Organic Produce web-site in Hebrew
Kibbutz Harduf is an energetic, ever changing, innovative and daring community and among the most rapidly growing settlements in Israel. In that and in its spiritual impulse and with the power of ideological inclination and sincere dedication of its members it is almost unique in the Kibbutz movement that has suffered in the past decade from an accelerated process of painful decline, disintegration and loss of direction.
Harduf and the neighboring Arab communities - an ongoing experiment in coexistence and cooperation
Kibbutz Harduf shares the hill with two Arab villages, Caabiye and Sawayed Chmire that grew in the past fifty years from encampments of nomadic and semi-nomadic Bedouin communities into thriving villages. A bit further to the north of Harduf is Shfaram, one of the largest Arab settlements in Israel with over 30, 000 inhabitants. Harduf members, from the onset devoted thought and effort into building good relations with their Arab neighbors.
Some Arab educators after meeting the Harduf community and with the support of Harduf studied in Europe and are now Waldorf teachers in Harduf. Mazan Ayub from Shfaram who trained at Emerson College in England taught the Arabic language and culture in Harduf in the past eight years and Amin, from the Sawayed Bedouin community who trained as a Bothmer gymnastics instructor in Germany is in charge of all physical education in the elementary and the high schools of Waldorf Harduf. There are also some Arab students from neighboring communities in the Harduf school. In addition youngsters and grown ups from Arab communities around Harduf participated in various seminars in Ha
rduf and school classes from the neighboring Arab schools met on a regular basis with same age classes from Harduf.
The relations with the Arab communities around Harduf were not limited to the field of education. Harduf members use regularly the commercial, medical, banking and other services of Shfaram, and although Shfaram is a bit nearer to Harduf than the Jewish towns to the west this is definitely not a very common occurrence. Harduf helped its nearest neighbor, the Bedouin community of Sawayed Chmire in its long struggle for legal recognition by the Israel authorities and supported it also in its struggle to have access to running water. When it came to sensitive issues of land and boundaries there was also an attempt to work together on a land use plan in a participatory process. Harduf in these matters acted sometimes against "its own good" and against the authorities that systematically preferred positions that were hard on the Bedouins and advantageous to Harduf.
During the Galilean riots of October 2000 Harduf members initiated meetings and joint activities with their Arab neighbors to help pacify the tense and volatile situation and established coordination and cooperation mechanisms to be applied in times of conflict and unrest.
At the individual level there are many examples of long lasting friendships between members of Harduf and Arabs in the settlements around. People visit each other in their homes, invite each other for celebrations such as weddings and keep in touch on a regular basis.
Although modest in its scope this experiment in friendly and active coexistence is quite unique in the present situation in Israel.
All this and more finally lead to our present Arab/Jewish joint initiative - the Shfaram Waldorf School - the first in an Arab community in Israel.
What we have done so far and our future plans
The Waldorf Shfaram Project was launched last year (2002) when we opened here in Kibbutz Harduf for the first time in Israel a Waldorf Teacher Seminar for Arabic speaking students. 10 women enrolled for the first class of this pioneering project. This year (2003) we opened another class with 15 additional students, this time men and women, some of Christian others of Moslem
and some of Bedouin origin. Some of the students are experienced teachers and others have no previous educational experience and they mostly come from the Arab settlements - villages and towns - in the surroundings of Kibbutz Harduf: Caabiye, Sawayed Chmire, Caucab, Shfaram, and from the larger and mixed cities of Nazareth and Haifa. The decision to establish a special seminar for Arabic speaking students stems from the different cultural background of the students. One of the objectives of the seminar is to facilitate a process of understanding and awareness of the traditional values of the Arab community and their integration with the principles and ideas of Waldorf education.
Most of the Arab students come from families of limited economic capacities and so we decided to cut the costs commonly charged in the seminar by half. The rest of the seminar's budget was financed by little contributions from individuals collected abroad in Europe. The teachers in the seminar, agreed to cut their salaries by half or even more in some cases. Others work for the initiative on a voluntary basis.
In the next year (2004) we plan to inaugurate the Waldorf Kindergarten in Shfaram, a town of over 30, 000 inhabitants of mixed Arab population - Moslems (abt 50%), Christians (abt 35%) and Druze (abt 15%). The Kindergarten in our plan will gradually grow and lead in two to three years to the establishment of the first elementary Waldorf School in the Arab community of Israel.
We are now standing at a crucial point in our visionary project - the founding of the Kindergarten in the coming month of September. We have just launched a series of open meetings in the homes of interested families in Shfaram. We have also surveyed the town of Shfaram and examined several buildings for the Kindergarten. A great effort will be required to adapt the building and its surroundings to our needs.
The Kindergarten and later the school children will mostly come from families of rather limited financial capabilities and so we'll need external financial support in addition to what fees the families will be able to contribute. We are in an ongoing contact with a group of individual contributors in Europe and in a process of broadening the circle.
Harduf, December 2003
Text, photography and web design by Jonathan Glass, a friend of the initiative
