The Arabic Education of Israel’s Jewish Students
….Those behind the initiative hope that Arabic will soon echo through the halls of every Israeli school, from the mouth of every Israeli student. In addition to the stated goal of increasing understanding between Jewish and Arab Israelis, some supporters of Arabic education stress the national security value of being able to understand the Mideast’s dominant language. And while right now the program only reaches the fifth and sixth grade, its proponents hope that one day Arabic will be taught in every Jewish classroom, from grades one through 12.
…“Our students understand the language and culture of the Jews, but it’s not vice versa,” says Sister Renee Soussa, who heads a Catholic school at which Muslim as well as Christian Arabs study in the northern town of Kafr Kanna. Three quarters of the subjects at Soussa’s school are taught in Hebrew, which her students start learning in the first grade.