Arab school principals across Israel phoned their Jewish teachers the day after the October 7, 2023, mass terror attacks to check if they and their families were okay.
“It was a human relationship that held them together,” says Dikla Tomer Kaial, director of Givat Haviva’s Education Department. “The way Arab principals approached Jewish teachers in their schools made the difference. They all came back to work in Arab towns and villages.”
Jewish instructors are vital to the Shared Language Program, an initiative of Givat Haviva, the oldest and largest organization working on Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, to improve Hebrew language proficiency among Arab children. Twenty percent of Israel’s citizens are Arab. They attend schools in their communities where the language of instruction is Arabic.
Hebrew aptitude, however, is essential for advancing in Israeli society, from graduating high school to attending college or university to pursuing many careers. While Israel’s Education Ministry provides five hours of weekly Hebrew language instruction, taught by Arab teachers, from elementary through high school in Arab schools, it is not sufficient.
More class time is needed, considering that Hebrew actually is their third language after spoken and literary Arabic. The Education Ministry has supported the Givat Haviva supplemental program since its inception 11 years ago as a way of amplifying Hebrew instruction, as well as facilitating constructive interactions between Jewish teachers and Arab students.
Tomer Kaial says the presence of a Jewish teacher in front of Arab pupils is a changemaker in a society where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impinges on all aspects of daily life. “It often is the first time Arab kids meet a Jewish person in person, someone that smiles at them, who asks for their concerns, and who cares about them,” in contrast to encountering soldiers or police, she explains.
Building bridges through Hebrew education
Concerns that the Shared Language Program, as well as other educational programs promoting meaningful interactions between Jewish and Arab citizens, might collapse were prevalent after October 7. Fears of intercommunal aggression in Israel were genuine, based on previous occasional clashes, notably the violence that occurred in Israeli cities during the Israel-Hamas confrontation in May 2021.
Tomer Kaial points out that the Israeli government wants Arab citizens to study in Israel to dissuade them from attending colleges or universities in the West Bank or Jordan because, after returning to Israel, they still lack sufficient knowledge of Hebrew needed to more fully integrate into Israeli society.
Only 53% of Arabs rated their Hebrew as “good” to “very good,” according to a 2020 Israel Central Bureau of Statistics survey, which found that 47% of Arab-Israeli respondents said they speak between “medium” and “almost zero” Hebrew.
“Many young Arab kids are not motivated to learn Hebrew, especially when times are hard like now,” notes Tomer Kaial. However, “once they meet someone who is nice, it’s easier for them.”
The government’s commitment was reflected in the allocation of another NIS 744 million ($202 m.) in December 2024 for teaching Hebrew to Arab citizens through the end of 2026. This measure, Government Resolution 2618, followed significant government investments in Arab society over the past decade, in resolutions 922 and 550, that yielded considerable increases in Arab high school graduation and admissions to colleges and universities in Israel.
Moreover, additional Education Ministry support enabled the Givat Haviva program to expand for the current school year. Currently, 40 Jewish teachers are in 66 Arab schools for weekly one-hour sessions, reaching 23,000 students.
Looking ahead, Tomer Kaial told me she would like to see the Shared Language Program grow to cover two or three hours per week in classrooms. In addition, she would like to arrange for extra hours at the end of the day for “Zoom meetings with the students for them to meet more Jewish people, to practice their Hebrew.”
The value of civil society organizations in facilitating improvements in Jewish-Arab relations is consequential. In this apparent niche aspect of education in Israel, sending Jewish teachers into Arab schools to help pupils master Hebrew in order to further their ability to progress in education and employment and to participate more fully in Israeli society should be encouraged.
Kenneth Bandler is the media relations advisor for Friends of Givat Haviva. He served as the American Jewish Committee’s Director of Media Relations, 1998-2023.