Sunday following the free morning, we heard a presentation on the challenges of equal education in Jaffa. The speakers were, as I recall, a superintendent from the public system and a principal of a private school in Jaffa. There are separate curricula in separate schools - for Jews and for Arabs. But it's not quite that simple. The Jewish schools are actually mixed and Arab families often perceive (rightly or wrongly) that these schools are better and so transfer their kids into these schools. At a certain critical mass of Arab students, the Jewish families tend to want a more Jewish environment and transfer their kids out. We heard about the challenge of devising appropriate curricula for the respective student bodies, funding challenges, and so on. I hesitate to write more on this presentation, important and interesting to me though it was. I was listening only with half an ear because I was busy preparing my remarks for the film introduction I was tasked to offer later that afternoon.

What caught my full attention, and that of everyone else, was when Adar Cohen, a fellow whose job is supervision of civic education in the Israeli educational system, was invited to comment following the presenters' session on education in Jaffa. In his remarks, Adar tried to convey why separate school systems for Jews and Arabs in Israel make sense in Israeli society. He described the system as "segregated." As one might imagine, his arguments were completely uncompelling to the group. The term "segregation" set off alarm bells. Adar's comments were a good example of how hard it was to convey the reality of Israeli society to this group of (mostly) outsiders. On the other hand, Jeremy Gunn, among the most broadly educated and experienced fellows, offered valuable comments from his experience around the world that countries striving to offer parallel, that is, separate, but equal education systems for different populations do not have a good record of success. That is, that these systems typically demonstrate what was famously established in American law, that "Separate but equal is inherently unequal."

Procedurally, Adar's comments were interesting because here he was, a fellow, being put in a position to represent Israeli policy. I was upset when some fellows, in response to my concerns about the lack of balance in the program, described his presence as an example of structural balance. I completely disagreed. A fellow should be a fellow - a learner - and should not be burdened with presenting a balanced view that is lacking in the structure of the program.

One fellow, Jeremy Lowe, posed a question - a challenge - to Adar during his remarks. Having been to Ram'allah that morning, Jeremy (and the other three fellows who traveled with him) was profoundly disturbed by what he'd seen. In the remaining days of the program, he described his morning visit to Ram'allah as the most powerful and affecting experience he had on the whole trip. What he saw was a city that is effectively a prison - surrounded by fencing and barbed wire - and its population prisoners. I wasn't there and I didn't see what he did, but clearly his encounter with the reality of the walled off life in the West Bank was very troubling to him. So he took the opportunity of Adar's comments on education in Israel to challenge Adar with the moral burden Occupation in general. After all, Adar is not only an Israeli citizen but a public servant. It was a pretty outrageous comment and surprising from Jeremy, who is a remarkably bright, educated, and thoughtful person (PhD candidate in religion at Emory). Later that evening Adam called Jeremy out on it and reminded the group to respect the ground rules of mutual respect for everyone in the program.

It was in the aftermath of Adam's rebuke to the group (Stavros, a lovely Greek Cypriot fellow described us all as being like "wet cats" in the wake of Adam's reprimand - I'm not sure I agree but I thought it a great comment!) that I was to introduce the screening of Eyes Wide Open. Time was short - discussions had gone long after the presentations. I offered what amounted to a glossary of the film - so people would have some concept of the value systems and practices of the Haredi world that the film showed. The film is very beautiful and sad, actually. A tragic love story of a man whose heart and soul open up when he allows himself to express his same-sex love, but whose life in community and family, of course, cannot bear that expression.

Following the film - and this is what I was so busy with in the morning - I took the few minutes I had available to me in the morning to share with the group some of the insanity, on the one hand, and tremendous openness, on the other evident in Israeli society with regard to homosexuals. For the insanity, I showed this famous picture http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/31/international/worldspecial/31gay.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=gay+march+jerusalem+united+religious+leaders+opposition&st=nyt (at Adam's suggestion) from the unified opposition of the clerical leaders in Jerusalem to the proposed 2005 Gay Pride parade (who else but gays can unify perpetual enemies?) and also this terrible image (scroll down to see the key picture) http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3926502,00.html of Haredi protesters who appealed to the courts (and lost) in their attempt to bring donkeys to this year's Gay Pride Parade, as they had last year. For the openness and hopefulness, I brought websites of several gay organizations in Israel, for the secular and the observant and also cited the IDF's record of facilitating the rescue and asylum applications of gay Palestinians. I mentioned the ways in which the challenge of gay identity in Israel reflects the divide between the traditional and the secular... My agenda was to show that Israel actually is progressive and protective of individual rights, and not only a discriminatory entity. I got positive feedback on my presentation, though there was so little actual time, or mental space, available for it that it came and went quickly in the context of the program.

In my week of vacation after the program I got to spend some time with volunteers who are leading some of the efforts to further expand opportunities for gay Jews in Israel. Here is their website: http://havruta.org.il/english. Tremendous.

More later.