Photos & text: Lydia Aisenberg
Childhood friends from Newcastle, England, Judith Sischy and Lynn Leon
Ross were among the many visitors to the recently opened HAMSIN-50 exhibition
at the Givat Haviva Collaborative Art Center & Peace Gallery.
The friends had visited the Givat Haviva campus in the past, but never
together. Lynn, who emigrated to Israel
in 2010 and lives in Hofit, a rural community in central Israel, actually had
an exhibtion of her very powerful art work - entitled Identities - shown
at the Givat Haviva gallery in 1995 after which the exhibition moved to Haifa
for another successful showing.
Lynn’s 1995 solo exhibition of drawings and photographs was officially
opened at Givat Haviva by the then British Ambassador Andrew Burns who was not
only very impressed with the British born artists creations but also at the
time made very positive comments about Givat Haviva’s achievements and
aspirations for the future. He also presented
a number of books to the Givat Haviva Peace Library.
“Wow, that’s going back some time but it was a wonderful experience,” a
reminiscing Lynn told Anat Lidror, Director of the Givat Haviva Collaborative
Art Center and Peace Gallery, who took time out from her busy schedule to
explain to Lynn and Judith about many of the works of art by Jewish and Arab
artists on display in the HAMSIN-50 exhibition.
The exhibition halls were crowded with a large group of Israeli Arab and
Jewish teens who attend schools in the catchment area of the Megiddo Regional
Council (representing 13 Jewish communities) and the Ma’ale Iron Regional
Council (representing 5 Arab communities), two of the participant municipal and
regional partnerships created through an innovative and highly successful Givat
Haviva project that is slowly, but surely, incorporating Israeli Arab and
Jewish municipalities situated in close proximity one to the other, but never
the twain met as the saying goes … until Givat Haviva stepped into the void
building bridges of mutual respect, cooperation and eventual partnerships that
is.
Judith Sischy, who has lived
in Edinburgh, Scotland, for many years, retired a few years ago from her post
as Chief Executive of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools and has been
closely involved in national initiatives, served on many Government bodies
including the General Teaching Council for Scotland and the Scottish
Qualifications Authority and was honored with an OBE (Order of the British
Empire) for educational and voluntary services.
Although still very involved
in educational and voluntary organizations, Judith is also nowadays working as
a tutor of adult literacy in disadvantaged areas of Edinburgh and since 2007
involved with Windows for Peace, an organization founded 25 years ago by
Israeli Rutie Atzmon and based in Tel Aviv.
Windows for Peace encourages
young Israelis and Palestinians to write about their experiences and exchange
their views through the printed and social media and publish a joint annual
magazine.
“I was very moved by the
simple way they shared their daily experiences and through this to begin to
better understand how ‘the other side’ live,” explained Judith. “Windows created the contact and the
written commentary penned by 14 year-olds, who call themselves young
journalists, eventually leading to the magazine and as the youngsters remained
in the program until they were 18 it gradually became the 4-year program it is
today,” she said.
“I was so inspired by what I
saw, heard and of course by Ruti herself, that I suggested a group of the
Israeli Jewish and Arab teenagers together with Palestinian peers come for a
summer visit to Edinburgh where they could physically meet and discuss
difficult issues in a safe and secure environment.”
In 2008 and 2010 Judith,
assisted by the late Brenda Beecham and the Manchester based Windows for
Peace U.K., was able to secure the funding for 21 teens, 7 from each group,
together with 3 facilitators, a translator and Ruti Atzmon by approaching
various Jewish and other educational charities who were moved by the project.
“Each summer school ended with
a special open day in Edinburgh and both times we were astounded by the scores
of people from the across the interfaith communities who came, including
priests, ministers, rabbis & imams.
Last December Ruti Atzmon and
colleague addressed a meeting of 40 people in Edinburgh and this has once more
spurred interest in the possibility of inviting another group of 14 year-olds
to come to Scotland next year.
“Many of Windows for
Peace youngsters have remained in contact with each other over the years and
in adulthood, have become peace activists,” commented Judy as she stood in the
Givat Haviva Collaborative Art Center watching the young Jewish and Arab
visitors for the day taking in the exhibition of Israeli Jewish and Arab
artists, making notes, discussing the art works, commenting on what each saw in
the same work of art and discovering that although they have their very many
differences, the areas of commonality between them are far more than they had
realized before their schools joined the Givat Haviva created program of
encounters through their local municipalities.
“This is amazing,” Judith said
with a broad smile.
“This exhibition and the visit
to Givat Haviva, especially seeing all these young Jewish and Arab teens
interacting here in the Art Center, has been the best thing to see and
experience before my return home,” concluded Judith.
“I left it far too long before
coming back again to visit Givat Haviva but be assured, I have always admired
the work of the organization and being here today, experiencing the buzz of
activity around this exceptional exhibition by these young Jewish and Arab
Israelis, is remarkable,” added Lynn Leon-Ross.
June, 2017
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