For over 60 years Givat Haviva has been the foremost leader in Shared Society work, advocating for and working towards establishing equality, collaboration and understanding between Jews and Arabs in Israel. We are writing to you now with wonderful news, this year alone Givat Haviva has touched over 300,000 Israeli Arab and Jewish community members, collaborated with 35 Arab Israeli mayors, taught 2,754 Arab students practical Hebrew skills, facilitated intensive encounters between more than 582 Jewish and Arab teens, and brought together 8 leading NGOs in the field to establish a Joint Vision for Shared Society with President Reuven Rivlin as our witness. Your support goes directly towards expanding these successes and generating real change in Israeli society. Givat Haviva is not only driven by these quantifiable measures, our goal oriented programs work to make positive changes in real people's lives from the ground up. We are the leading organization solely focused on creating a Shared Society in Israel through a holistic, inclusive approach. Givat Haviva combines years of expertise in the field with a nuanced Shared Society strategic framework to foster genuine, authentic change that will establish the foundation for a Shared Society in Israel. Givat Haviva is asking for your commitment today so we can continue our progress and make these goals a reality on the ground in Israel.

With summer upon us and the new school year fast approaching, we are turning to you, our community of supporters, to raise the funds necessary for the upcoming school year's educational programming, cross-cultural encounters and regional municipality outreach. This summer our fundraising priority is for the Hebrew Language Enrichment Program for Arab Schools, called Yiheye Beseder, and our target is to increase the program fivefold - to reach over 10,000 Arab students in the 2015-2016 school year.

For Givat Haviva, it is not just the impact statistics that drive our work, but the small, individual success stories that motivate us. Grassroots change may be the little victories, but they inform our strategy and give hope to our goal of establishing a Shared Society for Israel. The story of Ahmad, an Arab teenager from Kfar Kara, illustrates the significance of our Yiheye Beseder program:

Ahmad grew up in the home his family has lived in for generations in Kfar Kara. At a very young age Ahmad was forced to step up as the head patriarch of his family after his father tragically passed away from a congenital blood disease. His family is his whole life, his most important duty and responsibility. As a result Ahmad's school work suffered, especially his language studies - by junior high school he still could not speak a word of Hebrew. Ahmad had no hope or intention of continuing on to higher education, until last year when Givat Haviva's Yiheye Beseder program was implemented in Ahmad's junior high school. By the end of that same year Ahmad not only accelerated to the top of his class in spoken Hebrew, but he has developed a strong relationship with his Jewish instructor, decided to participate in more Givat Haviva programs, and has cultivated relationships with his Jewish peers. Ahmad announced to his family that he intends to continue to university and obtain a degree in hematology so that he can help find a cure for those who suffer the same disease that plagued his father. Ahmad says Yiheye Beseder not only provided the tools he needed to succeed in Israeli society, but that Givat Haviva has instilled in him the ability to "find our common view to help us live together by building forgiveness, deep understanding, and the peace milestones for our future."

Our Israeli Arab and Jewish youth need you to invest in their future - start by sponsoring a student, a group of students, a classroom, or even a village TODAY!

Give Ahmad's younger brothers and sisters the same opportunities he had and contribute to the Yiheye Beseder program this summer. In order for our encounter and educational lifecycle programs to be successful, equality programming must be established for the Arab sector, especially in education, in order to ensure that both Jewish and Arab participants come into the encounter on equal standing with the necessary tools to succeed. This program aims to strengthen and deepen the knowledge of Arab students in Hebrew language and culture, with an emphasis on spoken language and contemporary everyday culture, focusing on three main themes: cultural integration, integration into higher education, and increased employability. These Arab students will gain an essential toolkit of language skills which are key to social integration, academic advancement and successful employment. Yiheye Beseder served 2,754 Arab 7th, 8th and 9th graders in the 2014-2015 school year, this upcoming year is expected to expand fivefold to 10,222 students. The participants receive 33 one-hour lessons per year over the three year period, with the final two years of instruction increasing to two-hour lessons for 7th graders. By the end of the three year program period, each Arab student will have participated in 16,896 hours of instruction, which will have increased their capacity to succeed in Israeli society while reducing animosity, fear and stereotypes towards "the other". Yiheye Beseder successfully builds the capacity of our Arab youth and minimizes the gaps between the leading future generations of Jewish and Arab Israelis.

Sponsor one Arab student: $25
Sponsor five Arab students: $125
Sponsor fifteen Arab students: $375
Sponsor one classroom, about 38 students: $1,000
Sponsor one school, about 445 students: $11,000

Your contribution will go directly towards sponsoring the student, group of students, classroom or school you have chosen to support. Last year's fundraising provided 2,754 Arab youth, 83 classrooms, 11 schools and 7 villages with 2,739 teaching hours of practical Hebrew instruction, cultural activities and prolonged encounters with Jewish instructors, as well as training and encounters for the Jewish instructors themselves. Every dollar you contribute is stretched and used comprehensively to take each step closer towards building a shared future and shared society in order to achieve a sustainable and flourishing Israeli reality. Yiheye Beseder illuminated Ahmad's future and touched his life forever for only $25, help us advance this legacy for our upcoming school year's Arab youth.

Givat Haviva reciprocates your commitment and support by pledging to relentlessly strive and advocate for Shared Society in Israel every single day. The Givat Haviva campus has been a shared space for peace, understanding and progress for over 60 years, and we will continue to develop and cultivate innovative programs and ideas that will promote and create an Israel where social justice, collaboration and equality is more than just a distant ideal, but a living, thriving reality.

Be'Amal Wa'Salam,
B'tikva ve'Shalom,
With hope and peace,
                                         
Linda Rubin, Director                          Gal Peleg Laniado, Israel Representative

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Summary of Givat Haviva's Third Annual Conference

President of Israel Ruby Rivlin delivered the keynote address to 400 participants in the Third Annual Givat Haviva Shared Society Conference. Speakers at the conference included Minister of Gender and Minority Equality Gila Gamliel; Knesset members Zehava Galon, Ayman Oudeh, Ahmad Tibi, Roi Folkman, and Tamar Zandenberg; the German ambassador to Israel; representatives of the Bank of Israel and academia; heads of organizations from civil society; representatives of foundations active in the field; municipal and regional heads; and many more. Various panels in the conference dealt with the topics of education, employment, municipal cooperation, and building sustainable democracy. Among the many participants was Knesset member Eitan Broshi, Secretary General of the Kibbutz Movement, who praised the conference for establishing itself as the primary venue for discussion of topics relevant to building a Shared Society.

Introducing the closing session with President Rivlin, Mohammad Darawshe, Director of Planning, Equality & Shared Society at Givat Haviva asserted, "We must arrive at a civil consensus that will turn us into a normal country that recognizes all sectors of the population. And then we need a leadership brave enough to start implementing this joint vision and creating success stories." In his address, President Rivlin declared that "raising awareness of relations between Jews and Arabs in all areas in Israel's mainstream is a mission of highest importance, and doing less is criminal negligence." Givat Haviva's CEO Yaniv Sagee thanked the President and his wife for honoring the conference with their presence and for his impressive efforts as President to improve relations in Israeli society and his campaign against racism and exclusion. In his concluding words, Sagee urged the conference attendees, "Let us work together to cultivate the hard soil of this country, until new flowers bloom that could not grow here in the previous century. The time has come!"