Research and reality indicate that Arab Israeli children do not have the same opportunities as Jewish Israeli children.
Local Jewish educators are determined to change that.
The S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation is working to improve access to and the quality of early childhood education in Israel’s Arab communities through a four-year-old initiative called Echad (“one” in Hebrew).
It is a unique program — few American federations work with disadvantaged Arab populations.
“The Jewish state, as does any state, has a responsibility to take care of all of its citizens equally,” said Julie Golde of JCF.
Yet Arab Israelis have fallen behind. In general, Arab Israelis — who account for one-fifth of the country’s population — are poorer, sicker and less educated than their Jewish neighbors.
Research indicates that the most important human development occurs between birth and age 6, and that children who attend preschool have a big advantage over those who do not.
Based on that, JCF recruited seven local education experts and 20 Israeli educators to improve early childhood opportunities for Arab Israeli families.
“This is completely apolitical — who can argue with enriching and building early childhood education?” Golde said.
Statistics show that Arab children need the help. For example, while 90 percent of Jewish Israeli children are in preschool, only 56 percent of Arab Israeli kids are.
“And Arab preschools don’t look like Jewish preschools,” said Gila Noam, who directs JCF’s office in Jerusalem. “In many areas the infrastructure is totally inadequate. There is a shortage of classrooms, inadequate training and parents who are desperately seeking guidance as to how to enhance their children’s development.”
Echad brings together JCF, the Israeli government and Ashalim, the leading organization in Israel for at-risk youth. The three are equal partners in funding the initiative. Echad costs about $1.3 million each year.
The Bay Area team meets with Echad’s Israel coalition — which includes Jews and Arabs — throughout the year via video-conferencing. In mid-June, the Bay Area educators went to Israel to meet face-to-face with their colleagues and to see the fruits of their labor firsthand.
Golde was moved by how well Echad’s diverse team worked together. “The Jews and Arab Israelis are colleagues, working toward a common goal, and have become friends,” she said. “This is really coexistence work.”
Bay Area educators visited Um El Fachem, the largest Muslim city in Israel; Lakiya and Abu Basma, Bedouin villages in the Negev desert; Haifa, a “mixed” city of Jews and Arabs; and Raine, a town near Haifa that includes Christians and Muslims.
Echad staff wants to improve education in the classroom and beyond. In each of their six sites, they’re working with a big cast of characters — mayors, city officials, social workers, health care workers, teachers as well as children and their parents.
At one of their sites in Raine, Echad built an early childhood center for parents and their children. The goal is to teach parents how to make playtime learning-time.
The center also will host support groups, including one for fathers, that will be “revolutionary in the Arab world,” said Janet Harris, director of early childhood and family education at the Osher Marin JCC.
“A lot of these children don’t have books or puzzles at home, nor are they in a formal learning environment,” she said. “So we’re giving parents an opportunity and space to play with their children.”
Already, Golde said, they’re seeing results. For instance, Echad conducted a training program to help teachers identify children with learning disabilities. The program has been so successful that the government has used it to train 600 teachers, she said.
But there’s another, more heartwarming, barometer of success. Everywhere Echad staff went, Arab Israeli parents thanked them for their attention and support. They are grateful, Noam said.
She also is grateful that Echad is proving worthwhile. She has come to believe the initiative is critical to the health and resiliency of her country.
“It’s widely acknowledged that the threats to Israel from within are no less serious than the external security challenges,” she said.
“Having a minority group that constitutes 20 percent of the population, disadvantaged along every parameter of socio-economic achievement is not in sync with the just society we aspire to, or with our Jewish values,” she continued. “Nor is it — from a pragmatic perspective — viable or smart.”
The Arab-Israeli achievement gap by the numbers:
• Half of all Arabs live below the poverty line, compared to a quarter of Israelis.
• Per-pupil spending in Israel is about 900 shekels (around $220) for Arab children, while their Israeli peers receive more than five times that amount.
• About 56 percent of Arab Israeli children are in preschool, compared with 90 percent of the Jewish Israeli neighbors.
• About 45 percent of Arab teens earn a Bagrut (matriculation) certificate, while 61 percent of Israeli teens do.
Source: S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and Knesset Member Hanna Swaid.