American Friends of Neve Shalom-Wahat Al-Salam

Mission

The American Friends of Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salam encourages, supports and publicizes the projects of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, the ?Oasis of Peace.? For more than thirty years, Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam has been dedicated to dialogue, cooperation and a genuine and durable peace between Arabs and Jews, Palestinians and Israelis. Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel have chosen to live and work together as equals in this community to promote trust, understanding and mutual respect well beyond its own borders. At Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, the bilingual, binational, multicultural Primary School, the School for Peace, the Pluralistic Spiritual Center, and other projects, serve the village and beyond reaching thousands of Jewish and Palestinian youth and adults.

Programs

Primary School: Almost 200 children, half Jewish-Israeli and half Palestinian-Israeli, from the village of NSWAS and surrounding communities attend the Primary School. The students spend their days in mixed Jewish-Arab classes with two teachers, one Jewish and one Arab who instruct in his/her own language. The Goodwin-Golder Language Center provides hands-on language-learning experiences so that all students learn to speak fluently in both Hebrew and Arabic. School for Peace: In existence since 1979, the School for Peace hosts 3-day encounter workshops for Jewish and Arab youth and adults. The workshops are designed to bring Arabs and Jews together in an informed dialogue about the conflict in Israel. During this experience, participants develop tools to manage conflict and to exert a positive influence on the situation around them. Other departments: The Center for Spiritual Pluralism, and Guest Center contribute to the overall mission of the village to reach beyond its borders to speak for peaceful coexistence.