Israeli media cover diversity project's new book
The Israeli Venezia Institute for Diversity and Multi-Culturalism, which runs a foundation-funded project in Israel, has featured in Israeli newspaper Haaretz after the publication of its book about children "This is me - My Story". The below article is translated from Haaretz's Academia supplement No. 38, July-August 2006.
The Israeli Venezia Institute for Diversity and Multi-Culturalism and the Anna Franck Home in Amsterdam joined forces in producing a new children's book: "This is Me – My Story".
The book holds true stories about kindergarten aged children from a variety of cultures or children with special needs. The stories evolve through a process in which the writer and a photographer meet with a child and his family and create the story out of his daily experiences.
The purpose of the book is to help educators create an educational environment supportive of articulating the children's different identities in Israel's multi-cultured society. The Venezia Institute for Diversity and Multi-Culturalism leads the project: "Developing a multi culturalist kindergarten environment" now operating under the auspices of the Bernard Van Leer Foundation in Holland.
For the benefit of this project, the Institute together with the Anna Franck Home in Amsterdam and the Lir theater developed unique tools which will enable the creation of emotional empathy towards children of different cultures. The book is one of those tools.
Another tool is the play "He She", which deals with social issues, allowing the children to watch and connect with the various ways of coping with the Other.
In the Israeli version the book holds stories about three children:
- Adi – a six year old suffering from Cerebral Palsy. Written by Yehuda Atlas; photographed by Ronit Shani
- George – an Arab four and a half year old. Written by Denise As'ad; photographed by Raf'at Zreik
- Elisheva – a five year old new immigrant from Ethiopia. Written by Naomi Shmuel; photographed by Har'el Stanton.
Three stories about children in Holland are also included in the book.
The format of the book is unique. It is made in the shape of a stand, on one side of which is the text the kindergarten teacher can read from, and on the other are pictures the children can look at.
The book is bilingual, written in both Hebrew and Arabic. Its purpose is to connect the children with a variety of feelings, thoughts, opinions and life styles and to create a dialogue with the children in the story and children in the kindergarten and society at large.
The program is lead by the Director of the Venezia Institute – Nili Venezia, and Avi Scharfman, Director of the Lir Theater.