
Jonathan Shorr, September 30, 2024
“We all live different lives, shaped by different stories.”

Seventeen Arab and Jewish high school seniors from northern Israel participated in the Galilee Dreamers program this year. (Photo by Robyn Stevens Brody)
“People think the only way for different groups to understand each other is through serious conversation,” said Rabbi Paul D. Schneider, “but sometimes it’s just about yo-yos.”
Rabbi Schneider was carefully watching students of Chizuk Amuno Congregation’s Glazer High School Program and Israeli Jewish and Arab teenagers laughing and indulging in the fine art of using yo-yos.
The Israeli teens were participants of the Galilee Dreamers program, which promotes dialogue and peaceful existence between Jewish and Arab high school students in northern Israel.
The students, a fairly equal representation of Jews and Arabs, get together about once a month to engage in activities and conversations to find common ground.
“I’ve realized that not everything is black and white, and just because someone’s truth differs from mine doesn’t mean they’re wrong,” said Ron Manor, a 12th grade student from Kibbutz Ayelet Hashahar and one of the Dreamers who recently visited Baltimore from Sept. 22-26. “We all live different lives, shaped by different stories.”
Formerly known as Sparks of Change, the Dreamers program is spearheaded by the Oranim International School near Haifa. Now in its eighth year, the program annually brings together Arab and Jewish high school students from the Galilee region to the United States and other countries to discover common ground and meet peers from around the world.
The program was co-founded by Rabbi Schneider, former headmaster of Pikesville’s Krieger Schechter Day School, and Dr. Desmond M. Kaplan, an Israeli-American psychiatrist who lives in Baltimore.
A native of South Africa, Dr. Kaplan said growing up under the apartheid regime sensitized him and other South African Jews about suffering, discrimination and inequality.
“Many of us decided that because we’re Jews, we should work to eliminate that same kind of suffering in Israel where the class distinctions were directed at Arabs rather than at Blacks,” he said. “Israeli Jews live in a separate world from Palestinians, from Arabs. They need to live together if they’re going to survive.”

Rabbi Paul D. Schneider and Dr. Rachel Revsin-Ravid, director of Galilee Dreamers, speak at the Sept. 25 dessert reception for participants and supporters of the program. (Photo by Robyn Stevens Brody)
Several of the visiting students noted that before joining the Dreamers, they had never met anyone else from the other culture.
“I realized that just like me this is their home, too, and they want things to be good here,” said Ofri Harel, who lives in Kibbutz Sde Nehemia.
Bayan Ali, a Deir Al-Assad High School student, said he previously believed Jews and Arabs could never be friends.
“But this program showed me that they can be,” he said, “and today Jews are some of my best friends.”
Barack Maor, a Dreamers alumnus who accompanied the group as a chaperone, said before joining the program, “I’d get onto a bus and see all the Arabs as potential terrorists. Now, I see them as potential friends.”
Because of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, last year’s trip was cancelled. As a result, the group visiting Baltimore, New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia this year consisted of 17 high school seniors rather than the typical 11th graders.
The group’s local activities included spending time with students at Park School in Brooklandville; discussing Robert Frost’s narrative poem “The Road Not Taken” with students at St. Timothy’s School in Stevenson; and lunching with Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community Day School’s current events club and attending a Jewish history class there. At Krieger Schechter, the Dreamers enjoyed a breakfast with eighth grade students who will visit Israel later this academic year.
“Our diverse student body appreciated the varied perspectives these students represented,” said Randy S. Stevens, St. Timothy’s head of school. “It was refreshing to have students who are living among such conflict express such hope and peace. They seemed like such a bright light in this very dark world we find ourselves in. It was a gift to have the contact.”
The Dreamers also participated in an “Art with a Heart” project with participants of the Elijah Cummings Youth Program in Israel, and attended a study session of the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies in Towson. In addition, they spent time with the Towson University Hillel.
The Dreamers’ visit to Baltimore culminated in a dessert reception for the group’s attendees, local leadership and supporters at the Reisterstown home of Neil and Dixie Leikach.
“We’re relying on you, we’re counting on you,” Chizuk Amuno’s Rabbi Joshua Z. Gruenberg told the Dreamers at the reception. “The only way the future is going to be better is if you lead.”
At a time when Israel’s conflict with its neighbors is intensifying and escalating at a frightening speed, the Dreamers’ visit was viewed by some as a hopeful omen for the future.
“Without hope, there’s no meaning in living your life, in what you’re doing,” said Yasmin Masaari, an English teacher at Deir Al-Asad High School and one of the trip’s chaperones.
Since Oct. 7, Rabbi Schneider said communities and institutions in Israel and the U.S. are more skeptical of the Dreamers’ programming and objectives. “Now they’re much less tolerant of the other side,” he said. “But once the visit happens, every place we’ve gone has wanted us to come back.”
Rabbi Schneider said the best evidence of the program’s success is its alumni, many of whom continue to be involved and supportive. “I don’t think that would be true if they thought the program didn’t have value for bridging gaps between Jews and Arabs,” he said.
For information on the Galilee Dreamers, go to galileedreamers.com.
Jonathan Shorr is a local freelance writer.