Oasis of Dreams : Teaching and Learning Peace in a Jewish-Palestinian Village in Israel

Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salam (the Hebrew and Arabic words for Oasis of Peace) is a community founded by Jews and Palestinians that is aimed at demonstrating the possibilities for living in peace while maintaining their respective cultural heritages and languages. The village schools represent a unique educational experience: an opportunity for Jewish and Palestinian children to learn together in a Hebrew-Arabic bilingual, bicultural, binational setting. This book, a result of the author's nine year study of the schools in the village, explores the psychological and social dimensions of this important educational endeavor. Award-winning author Grace Feuerverger explores teaching and learning in schools as a sacred life journey, a quest toward liberation. Written for teacher/educators who wish to make a real difference in the lives of their students, this book speaks to everyone who finds themselves, as she did, on winding and often treacherous paths, longing to discover the meaning and potential in their professional lives at school. A child of Holocaust survivors, Feuerverger wrote this book to tell how schools can be transformed into magical places where miracles happen. In an era of narrow agendas of 'efficiency' and 'control', this book dares to suggest that education is and should always be about uplifting the human spirit.