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We asked Israeli school kids, both Jewish and Arab (yes, many
Israelis are of Arabic heritage), what they learned from workshops
on The Way to HappinessÒbooklet.
Here are some replies:
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Arab
teachers study TWTH near Ramallah, seat
of Palestinian government
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10th
Grade Workshop Graduates
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I
understood that there’s a good way of resolving problems
– the way of peace. -Khaled,
16-year-old Arab boy
I
learned one must not behave violently. — Lipaz,
10-year-old Jewish girl
I
learned to do good deeds so that other people will be
well. —
Rajuan, 13-year-old Arab boy
I
learned that I should be forgiving. — Mahdi,
15-year-old Arab boy
I
learned that one doesn’t need to use violence. —
Chen, 13-year-old Jewish boy
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Could
these kids be part of a “peace movement” in the Israeli schools?
Violence
Declines Among Israeli Youth
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Israeli
Firemen's Workshop
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Arab
teachers act out a skit in a workshop
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On October 25th, a news story broke on a hot issue in Israel –
youth violence. In the last decade, Israel has been on the Top Ten
list of countries for this sad statistic. The big news? In recent
years, Israel has begun licking its problem.
Israel’s
Channel 2 T.V. station reported that violence among Israeli youth
declined by a remarkable 17% over a seven year period, and the
decline has accelerated since 2002. Israel fell from 10th
in violence rates among 36 countries to 26th place. It
rose above 16 other countries in its ability to handle youth
violence.
These
declines coincide with The Way to Happiness campaign in
Israel that is being conducted by two sister chapters of The Way to
Happiness Foundation International. These are the Association for
Peace and Understanding in the Middle East (APUME) and the
Association for Prosperity and Security in the Middle East (APSME).
This table shows the decline of youth violence in relation to our
campaign.
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Year
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%
of Youth Involved in Violence
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Cumulative
number of TWTH Booklets Distributed by the fall or winter
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Cumulative
number of TWTH Workshops delivered by December
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1997
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47%
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0
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0
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2000
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No
data
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20,000
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0
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2002
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38%
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645,000
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0
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2003
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No
Data
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1,619,000
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336
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2004
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30%
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2,212,000
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930
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While we do not have the research which shows that the campaign is
responsible for the decline in school violence, the figures
certainly are suggestive.
Workshop
Participants Speak
As
of October, over 35,000 Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, had
participated in The Way to Happiness workshops. The vast
majority of these workshops were conducted in Israeli schools. Here
are some of the voices for peace and understanding that our
supporters have brought to life in the Middle East!
The following letter is from the parents of an Israeli student, Alon
Ronen. Alon is a representative of The Way to Happiness
campaign in his school. He solves arguments and disagreements
between kids using principles of booklet.
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There
are those who can be persuaded and those who don’t know
unless a small eight-year-old boy called Alon Ronen
appears before them with the will and apparently also the
ability to bring to the awareness of young children that
there is another preferable alternative way to live life.
Alon knows this and applies it every day. Thank you from
all my heart,—Chantelle
Cohen and Razi Ronen
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An
adult workshop participant commented –
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In
these days of confusion, who doesn’t want to be a little
more happy? There is no shortage of troubles and we have a
few.
So
I wish to thank you on behalf of myself and my friends for
the beautiful and interesting lectures. I ask you to
continue to be in touch with us and do not change your
subject matter. Thank you.—Rachel
Gazit
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What
Are the Workshops?
Each week, about 15 Israeli trained volunteers dedicate half a day
to a full day to drive all over Israel to present workshops.
In the workshops, children and adults talk about how the principles
of the booklet relate to their lives and act out little skits about
the principles. Workshops are given for both Jewish and Arab
Israelis. They are given for school children, teachers and school
administrators, youth in summer camps, the elderly, the unemployed
and women’s groups. In the last 20 months since the workshops
started, over 35,000 children and adults participated in 930
workshops.
At the end of each workshop, volunteers hand out The Way to
Happiness booklets to all participants. If the workshop is given
to a class, volunteers also give the teacher an illustrated poster
of the precepts as well as a teaching guide so that the teacher can
continue the lessons on a weekly basis. Booklets, posters and
teaching guides are all funded by donations to The Way to
Happiness campaign in the Middle East.
SPECIAL
ANNOUNCEMENT!
Don’t
Miss This Historic Opportunity to Meet the Pioneers of the Campaign!
In November, the
Executive Director and the President of the Israeli chapter of The
Way to Happiness campaign will both be flying to the U.S. to
brief you personally on the situation on the ground. Danny
Vidislavski, Executive Director, founded The Way to Happiness
campaign in Israel in 2000 to address renewed violence in the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Major (Retired) Shuki Mizrachi, of the
Israeli Defense Forces, is President of the campaign. As the first
of our the workshop leaders, Major Mizrachi travels the length and
breadth of Israel to deliver workshops to Hebrew-speaking and
Arabic-speaking children.
Both these pioneers will be speaking about their experiences and
answering your questions at evening benefits in Los Angeles
(November 20th) and Clearwater, Florida (November 23rd).
The benefits will also feature sumptuous Middle Eastern feasts and
exotic Middle Eastern entertainment. For more information about the
Los Angeles briefing, call Hagit Raviv at (818) 708-8879. For more
information about the Clearwater briefing, call Sue Minkoff at (727)
492-7237.
Over
90 Workshops Scheduled as of Nov. 7th and $4,000 Needed
to Meet Demand for Posters alone!
Your support of this campaign is desperately needed. The demand for
workshops is huge --- as attested by the rapidly accelerating
numbers of workshops being given – close to double the number in
2004 compared with 2003. Workshop leaders currently have
insufficient funds to meet the demand for The Way to Happiness
posters in Hebrew and Arabic – over 90 workshops are scheduled
right now. At this time, we are completely out of posters – we are
not being able to give a poster to each class so that the kids can
refer to it throughout the school year. We need $4,000 to print the
next batch of 4,000 classroom posters in both Hebrew and Arabic.
Please donate now to our Middle East campaign!
$40
buys The Way to Happiness posters for 40 classrooms
$100
buys The Way to Happiness posters for 100 classrooms
Make sure to note that your donation is for the campaign in the
Middle East. Please donate Now!
Alexandra Hopkins alexandrahop@yahoo.com
Editor
Association for Peace & Understanding in the Middle East
www.apume.org
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