Nemashim (Youth Play Peace)
Final Report for 2005/6 activity year
The Kommuna of this year is comprised of 5 volunteers, in age of 18 – 19: three girls and two boys. Actually we initiate social and educational activities, through art – especially theatre, according to needs of the two communities, we are working with - of : Newe Yosef (Jewish) and Halissa (Arab). We are involved in activities with children, youth and adults. Has to be announced, that population of Newe Yosef is mostly of Oriental origin, mixed with new immigrants from Russia and Ethiopia, as well as a small community of Palestinian collaborators, who are rejected by both the Jewish and the Arab population in the neighborhood, as well as all over Israel.
We attempt to include especially youth of all ethnic, cultural and national groups who live in the two neighborhoods, in our activity, while we focus on building bridges, understanding and cooperation between people who live here.
We have also to announce the excellent cooperation we have, with the local Social Center, that is actually the most important social-cultural institution in all Eastern Haifa.
We are happy to share with you our second activity report, highlighting our volunteer work in the community.
Activities
Community television: Two groups of women and youth work intensively on sketches, T.V reports, and even a soap opera. They appear on N.Y.TV (Neve Yosef ), a television show centered in the community of Neve Yosef on the channel HOT T.V.
Womens' theatre class: As part of a women's empowerment program, a talented group of adult women is preparing a play on the delicate relationship between women and their mothers. Currently, a second class for Arab women is enthusiastically being put together. Ultimately, we hope to combine the classes.
Theater classes in elementary School: We teach elementary school-aged children how to express themselves through drama. We have received very positive feedback from the school management.
Halissa Forum: We are joining the efforts of Taayoush and the Community Committee in Halissa to improve the quality of life in this neighbourhood. We attended meetings and publicized gatherings that discussed community problems. We are facilitating the Community Committee of Halissa in obtaining funding for basic needs from the Haifa City Counsel. We also cooperate with other activists working to develop art programs for children. Ortal and Afeq facilitate a drama circle of 30 children that works in formof two weekly workshops.
Story hour: We introduce small children to folklore through interactive and theatrical story-telling. The children are very enthusiastic and learn many important values and facts.
Belly dancing groups: More than 70 Jewish and Arab, young and adult women attend Ortal's two classes and find dancing a healthy way to peel away the stress of their daily lives.
We also tutor and mentor children, often on a one-on-one, regular basis. One of our tutoring ventures is in the "Orot" girls' center in Halisa. In this center we also give guitar lessons and teach belly-dancing.
Special activities and productions:
The Baloon Kingdom: This was the first play we presented to children and their relatives, and it had excellent reviews. It was based on a children story about a kingdom made of balloons. Hundreds of children came to the performance with their parents. In the near future we are going to perform this play in more children garden and elementary schools, over all Haifa.
Blah Blah, our second theater play was performed before children of Newe Yosef and Halissa several times, starting mid-March. The play – like the former one - enjoyed great success and became subject of conversations between people of the two communities – and great pride for us.
3 Belly dancing parties: Over the course of 3 weekends we organized Middle-Eastern belly dancing parties for women only. More than a hundred women from the whole area came to each party. There were performances of belly-dancing teachers from all over the country. Noticeably the fame of these parties went far beyond our neighborhoods and attracted many Jewish and Arab women from all over Haifa.
Street shows: Michael and Javiar appeared periodically all over Haifa in a satirical comedy about diseases of Israeli society. The act was also performed at the Arab theatre Al-Midan.
In December 2 young Arab artists joined the team: they performed together more street improvisations over Haifa main streets.
Leo Beck bi-national event: 130 Jewish and Arab children from after-school programs met in December for the Holiday of Holidays, a multicultural celebration of Ramadan, Hanukah, and Christmas in the in Leo Beck Center. We participated the event together with students from the Halissa chapter of the "Open House project", a university voluteering program. We gave a variety of classes for children including music class with emphasis on drumming, as well as classes in capuera, theatre, belly- dancing, arts and crafts. We also created a musical pantomime performed by Ortal, Hila, and Afek. We were told by the organizers that it was the best performance during the Holiday of Holidays in five years.
Open House students: Since the beginning of November, Nemashim participants worked in cooperation with students from Haifa University who came to volunteer to Neve Yosef Social Center, as part of the "Open House project". Participants of the project, both Arab and Jewish, live in Neve Yosef and Halisa and they work one day a week in educational and social project – as return for accommodation. Hila was cooperating with one of the students to develop an Arabic -Hebrew newspaper written by youths of the two communities. Michael and Hila attended a drama class for Arab and Ethiopian girls that was organized by an "Open House" volunteer. One of the drama students, Hamudi, is cooperating with us to assist a group of young men who are going to become a youth theater class.
Recruiting for next year: The Kommuna members invested great efforts, in search for nominees to take part in theatre workshop, that we organize. Participants of these workshops made the basis for the next year's volunteers of Nemashim.
Hebron and Bilin: We volunteered to pick olives in Hebron and toured Bilin to see the village and the wall. We enjoyed both trips and created relationships with people of the village, one of which came to visit us here in Haifa.
Woman's Day: We performed satirical street theater as part of a Women's Day celebration.
Movie project: Javier, Afek, from the Kommuna and Chaled (a counselor at the center) are creating a movie in cooperation with Arab youths from the Ramot Remez Community Center.
Neighborhood Theater Festival: The Social Center of Newe Yosef that we cooperate with, decided to organize a two full day long festival of happenings, music and theater. Actual organization was done by the Nemashim Kommuna members, while in addition to preparing and organizing all the program of about 30 different performances, the Kommuna members participated directly in 9 of them. The Festival, in participation of amateur music and theater groups from all over Newe Yosef and Halissa was a tremendous " Finale" of the Kommuna volunteers work all along the last year, in these neighborhoods.
Independence Night of Israel Shefi – Nemashim's final project: an anti-militarist play, performed for adult audience. It was planned to be performed in an outdoor theatre in Haifa, but as a result of the War and continuous shelling of Haifa by Hizbullah, the play was performed in Jaffa, in theatre "Hasimta". The three performances of this play attracted great audience and all performances run before full house, with great success. In the end of the last performance, this year's Nemashim members ceremonially passed over the keys of the Kommuna to the fresh group. Practically speaking, the real change will happen in mid-August ( supposing that the War will end until then).
Nemashim members learned along the year about theater through seeing productions, attending Uri's (Project director) theater lessons, and performing. They also started to learn Arabic.
In addition to the two co-Directors – Uri and Shadi, the Kommuna was accompanied by Sharon, the social envoy of the group. While Uri and Shadi directed the professional aspect of the Volunteers' work, Sharon coped with their internal, personal problems, as well as with their relationships with the environment they lived in.
Theatre Workshops
A few weeks after the Kommuna started its functioning, we started to recruite the next year's group. Our staff together with the present Kommuna members visited in drama classes of Jewish and Arab high schools, in order to attract youngsters to our Jewish – Arab Theatre Circle. The plan was to accomplish 5 weekends of theatre workshops, in purpose to select among the participants a group of 5 – 6 volunteers for the next year's Kommuna of Nemashim. First workshop was hold in November 2005. Participated
14 youngsters. This number increased to 16 along following workshops. Last one was hold in April 2006.
". . . For the final theater workshop of the 2005-2006 Nemashim project, participants were asked to become one of the many characters they had played during the five workshops. The other actors then entered one by one as someone related to the character and played a short scene. The exercise was very challenging, and also brought together the skills of reacting and ‘taking’ what the other actor has to give, improvisation, physical comedy and depth of character.
The workshop ended with separate Hebrew and Arabic processing sessions where participants were asked for their general opinion of the workshops. After fond farewells, each participant headed home, many with hopes that this meeting would not be the end of their participation in the Nemashim program . . . ."
A few weeks after this last workshop Uri* and Shadi* determined the makeup of the 2006-2007 Kommuna in Newe Yosef. As of now the Commune is limited by financial constraints, as are the length and depth of workshop sessions; we could afford 5 weekend workshops for the new group preparation and only up to 6 participants in this wonderful project.
* Our Project and Stage Directors
