"I'm Giving My Kids a Gift"—Meet Dr. Karney Lahad, Hand in Hand Haifa Parent

On October 15th 2025, Hand in Hand hosted a webinar titled “Hand in Hand Haifa: A Model for Shared Living and Growth,” featuring two remarkable community leaders and parents—Dr. Karney Lahad and Rana Farran.

Below is an abbreviated version of Karney’s story:

“We moved to Haifa five years ago, and Haifa is a mixed city. Jews and Arabs live here together, in the same building, you have Jewish families and Arab families. When we go down to the playground, we hear Hebrew and Arabic. But when the time comes for our children to enroll in kindergarten, the municipality sends Jewish and Arab kids to separate schools. It just didn’t make sense to me—if we live in a mixed neighborhood, and my kids hear Hebrew and Arabic at the playground, why wouldn’t they hear Hebrew and Arabic at school?

For me, the decision to join Hand in Hand really paid off in the last two years. Needless to say, the last two years were horrific. I think what kept me, my husband, and our kids sane was the fact that we’re part of this community. This community came together at really important junctions.

The grandmother of a girl in our school was murdered on October 7th in Be’eri. The Arab parents in our community expressed that they really wanted to come to the shiva, but they were worried about how they would be received. The son of the woman who was murdered said, ‘You absolutely have to come.’ They were just received with open arms and open hearts. It made it abundantly clear to all of us that we’re humans, and we see each other’s suffering, and we’re going to be in this together as much as we can.

“I’m giving my kids a gift. I’m giving them lots of opportunities to see reality in a complex manner, and understand different cultures and religions, and recognize that people are people, regardless of their background.”

We have a community organizer who sent a questionnaire about a month into the war asking ‘do you need help?’ and ‘are you willing to give help?’ What I really liked about her questionnaire is that she didn’t ask why people needed help. At this point, there were people who had families members who were murdered on the 7th of October, or who were displaced within Israel. We had parents receiving drafting letters from the army. We had parents with family and friends in the West Bank and Gaza, who were already very worried and knew what was probably going to unfold. It was a no-questions-asked policy. To me, this embodies the Hand in Hand spirit.

I had a conversation with one of the fathers in the class once, and he said, ‘We agree on 90% of the issues. On 8% of the issues we don’t agree, but we can talk about them. And there are 2% that we don’t agree on and are total deal-breakers. What we do daily at Hand in Hand is try and focus on the 90%, talk through the 8%, and try to not let the 2% ruin what we’re trying to build together.

In Israel, it’s very radical to raise Arab and Jews kids together in an equal setting. But when you think about it, it’s not radical at all. It’s just kids, and they become friends and play together. I think I’m giving my kids a gift. I’m giving them lots of opportunities to see reality in a complex manner—understand different cultures, different religions, and understand that people are people, regardless of their background.”