EJP | In Depth | World Cup | German language bridges gap between Arabs and Jews

	Saturday, August 30, 2008 29 Av, 5768

News

France

Germany

Western Europe

Eastern Europe

EU-Israel affairs

Year 2006 in Review

US 2008 ELECTION

Iran - Holocaust

Voices

Culture

In Depth

Mideast Crisis

World Cup

On Anglo Jewry

Week at a glance

France Election

EU and Annapolis Summit

News from outside of Europe

Holocaust Remembrance Day

July 2008 at a glance

The Calendar

Links

German language bridges gap between Arabs and Jews

Updated: 28/Jun/2006 15:05

Page tools

	Email to friend
	Print this page
	Bookmark this page
	Add your view

The Goethe Institute in Israel, an official German institute for the promotion of German, is housing a meeting place where both Arabs and Jews come to learn the German language together.

The institute set up its center in Tel Aviv in 1979 and since then has served as a cultural embassy for Germany where it puts on cultural events and makes information available on all aspects of cultural, social and political life in Germany.

"Still a problem with German"

However, in Israel there is still a lot of resentment towards Germany and the Germans because of the Holocaust. Rita Landsef has been a German teacher for 15 years at a high school in Haifa, one of only four schools in Israel that offer German as an elective course. She explained told the Deutsche Welle that the decision to take German usually isn't a spontaneous one for students.

"Some have grandparents or someone in the family who speak German," Landsef said. "Then there are others who are simply interested in learning another foreign language….I always have very few students in my classes because there is still a problem with German, with Germany and history and so forth. But there is an increasing tendency to learn German."

The Goethe Institute has about 500 students who sign up for classes every semester and they are taught by 18 teachers from beginner's level to advanced German.

Resurgence amongst Arabs

The institute is also seeing a resurgence of interest in German from Arabs. Sameh Naschef, from a small Arab town, visited the library with a group of young people. He said he believes there are objective reasons to learn German.

"Just think about globalization," he said. "The world has gotten smaller and we need each other. And nowadays it's just as easy to get to Germany as it is to Jerusalem. It's really not so expensive."

During the World Cup, the center has also acted as a place to watch the games with Arabs and Jews side by side cheering the same teams.

Yossi Bein, an immigrant to Israel from Germany told EJP that he enjoys going to the center for games as there is a friendly atmosphere. "Everybody is rooting for the players in a very friendly manner. I am supporting Germany in the World Cup, so it was an obvious choice to come here for the games," Bein said.