Questions at Peace Players

It is important to me that while I’m studying at Pardes I don’t become disconnected from Jerusalem itself, the people and the tensions they face. Isn’t that sort of the point of service learning? Without realizing it, I could just study at Pardes everyday, hang out in my neighborhood of Emek Refaim, and forget to connect the Jewish learning I do during the day with my actions outside of the beit midrash. While I fully embrace Torah l'shma, I also view Torah as a means for changing society. Learning can be the easier part, but taking that learning and doing something meaningful with it requires time, energy, patience and coordination. Every Tuesday afternoon Pardesniks spend a few hours volunteering at different non-profits around Jerusalem. It’s not a requirement, but it’s highly encouraged. Many tutor kids who live in vulnerable neighborhoods like East Talpiyot near Pardes, visit with Ethiopian families or sing at a home for the elderly.

Pardes' community service would be strengthened if occasionally our learning tied into our service, but that can be something I do on my own.

I have just started volunteering with Peace Players, an agency which ventures into conflict areas around the world and uses basketball as a means to combat hatred and ignorance. Israel’s Peace Players is based in several schools around the country. Arab and Jewish Israelis play on basketball teams together and compete against other schools. I and several other Pardesniks go to the Yad V’Yad ("Hand in Hand")School in the Pat neighborhood of Jerusalem. So far, I've been once. Yad V’Yad is the only school of its kind, so I’ve been told, in Jerusalem. The K-10 school has a Hebrew speaking and an Arabic speaking teacher in every classroom. The students, a balanced mix of Arab and Jewish, graduate confidently speaking Arabic and Hebrew. When it comes to teaching religious subjects like Tanakh or Qur’an, the classes split up. I’m interested in learning more about the curriculum at this school—for instance how is the holocaust taught? The nakba, Israeli history? The Arab schools in Jerusalem do not have as many resources as the Jewish ones, and Yad V’Yad has an excellent reputation academically and as a model for coexistence.

The middle school boys team we are playing with have been involved with Peace Players for three years, but they have only been a unified team for one year. The team is made up of Jewish students not from Yad V’Yad and Arab students from the school. During the first year, the kids play on “single identity” teams: the Jewish boys from West Jerusalem on one team and the Arab students on another team. Then, in the second year, Peace Players brings the teams together for friendly competitions so they can get to know each other, and by the third year, they mix with other teams. The teams play together through high school. Some students drop off along the way, but many stick with it, Jenny, a Peace Players coordinator told me.

The head coach, Osnat, talks to the kids like a military commander addressing her soldiers. We participated in the basketball drills and played a scrimmage with the kids. I got to talk with a few of them, trying to learn names and personalities. I’m hoping to observe their team dynamics—are they mixing socially? How well do they work together? What does this team mean to them? It's difficult, as it would be getting to know any middle school boys, but especially because of our language barriers. I can tell the kids are excited and intimidated by our presence. I'm going to work hard to communicate with them.

I only heard Hebrew being spoken by the players, and Osnat only spoke in Hebrew. I asked Jenny about this, and she said sometimes they have coaches who speak in Arabic. Language plays such a crucial role in building community at the school, that I wonder how shared and not-shared language impacts this team.

Yad V'Yad: http://www.handinhandk12.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=content.display&pageID=72