Ayala Snir
Annual Kiah Conference – 'Courage in Education and Society', International Conference Center, Ashkelon College
How symbolic. On the night of lighting the Hannukah candle, Kiah held its annual conference, the subject of which was courage in education. Because, as a courageous educational organization, which has the desire and ability to work with disadvantaged populations, we light the lights by encouraging innovative thinking, or in other words – creating change.
The workshops in the conference dealt with the meanings of educational and human courage – involvement, for example, or the mixture of different areas: religion, language, and art. All of these were presented by the mixed staff – Arabs and Jews from the Kiah School for the Deaf in Jerusalem, who talked about dealing with the community of teachers and pupils at the school; and also touched on the shocking and contemporary addiction involving new technology and in educating anew using detoxification – this was covered by a film and discussion on internet addiction.
I moved between a workshop about national service work in the Bedouin sector (with an emphasis on women) to a phototherapy workshop led by Li Orlev involving artists who do experiential work with youth and risk and make magic. And how poetry functions as an activist tool, one that lights up eyes and educates? 'Ars-poetica' wasn't left out either – the poet and social activist Shlomi Hatucha gave an exciting workshop on the courageous function of poetry; the artist Hadassah Fruman, educator, widow and continuer of the way of Rav Menachem Fruman from Tekoa, lit up hearts with a workshop on national education, and many more.
Yehuda Maimaran (Kol Israel Haverim CEO) welcomed the participants. And, as is our tradition, we had a Jewish-social learning trip where we met a teacher who dared to believe in his pupils and helped them succeed, and the rabbi from Tripoli who faced a difficult educational reality in his community and worked to fix it despite the opposition, because his words and action were equal. And what could be more suitable than to finish this experiential day, where the courageous heroes from the stories of the Midrash boldly walked together with the organizers of the workshop (each one in their turn), than to light a small light and to dare and to work for change? This came in the form of a musical performance featuring the poet David Menachem and the singer Shem Tov Levi, with a wonderful mixture of Israeli music and piyyutim.
I took from the side not only sweet doughnuts and lights in people's eyes, but also the lessons of a poem by Uzi Hitman: the understanding or the knowledge that nobody has a monopoly on wisdom allows us to release the cables, to dare and to succeed.
