Meet Reem Younis — Co-Chair of HIH's Board of Directors

Reem Younis, Co-Chair of Hand in Hand’s Board of Directors, is a pioneering tech entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Alpha Omega, a leading medical engineering company. She’s also the proud grandmother of two students at the Hand in Hand Haifa preschool. A lifelong advocate for equality, integration, and partnership between Palestinians and Jews, Reem spoke to us about her journey—from breaking barriers as a Palestinian woman in Israel, to her realization that education is the key to transforming society, and creating a better future for all—which drives her passionate support for Hand in Hand. Please watch and share!

“My name is Reem and I come from Nazareth.

I’m a Palestinian citizen of Israel, and I’m a daughter of parents who lived through the events of 1948, what we call the ‘Nakba,’ catastrophe. During the war, when they realized they would live under the new state of Israel and military rule, their lives changed overnight. They lost their land, their money, their freedom of movement. Everything they had known was gone.

My mom was in the 11th grade in Haifa when she was pulled out of school and sent back to Nazareth. She never finished high school. My father had to take care of his siblings after his father died. Their dreams were shattered and they lived with fear, insecurity, and trauma. But like in every catastrophe, you know, people eventually adapt.

My parents and others realized that education was the only path left for their children. They couldn’t pass down land or wealth, but they could still educate us in the best way they could. Since we were children, we were raised with the message that higher education was not optional. It was the only way. And they, you know, rarely spoke about their past.

We grew up in a kind of sterile bubble. Protected. Focused on the future. I was sent to an excellent school in Nazareth. Eventually, I reached the Technion. I always knew I wanted to be an engineer. Inspired by my Uncle Raful, my father’s brother. He would spread out his maps on our dining table. And I watched him for hours, amazed by the beauty and precision of his work.

When I was 15, I saw him throw away his Rapidograph pens, I took them out of the trash and they were mine now. That was the moment I knew: I will be an engineer. But arriving there at the Technion as an Arab woman wasn’t common. At that time there were maybe 15 Arab women in the whole university.

Hebrew also wasn’t our strong language. We felt like strangers in a world that wasn’t built for us. That’s when I met Imad, my best friend, my partner and my husband. He was studying electrical engineering and dreamed of working in the Israeli high tech. The Technion was difficult for both of us, not just academically, but also socially. We did not integrate with Jewish students, though we sat next to each other in the class.

Friendships rarely cross the cultural divide. I had just one Jewish friend. When Imad graduated, he sent out more than 100 CV’s every Friday in response to ads in the newspaper. The only interview he got was at Intel, and he wasn’t accepted. Frustrated, discouraged—he tried his luck in the US, but that did not work either. When he came back, he was disappointed, maybe even ashamed.

One day he said to me, if I can’t join the Israeli hi-tech scene, I will start my own company and I will hire all the Arab engineers who can’t find work either. I eventually found a job in the neuroscience research lab at the Technion. We got married. We had stable and decent jobs, but it felt temporarily. We didn’t even open the bank account.

We weren’t sure what the future held for us. 1990 our daughter Dima was four. Today, actually, her two children attend the Hand in Hand Kindergarten in Haifa. We didn’t want them to experience what Imad had. We wanted something better for our children. So we decided to quit our jobs and move back to Nazareth to build something of our own.

And that’s how Alpha Omega was born. Today, Alpha Omega is the global leader in physiological navigation for advanced neurosurgical procedures like deep brain stimulation or DBS, treating Parkinson’s and other movement disorder diseases. We have offices in Israel, the US, Europe, China, Japan, and Palestine. The vision of Alpha Omega and of Imad and me is simple but powerful, leading to a better life.

Everything we do, whether in business, community or philanthropy, that’s our goal. And that brings me to Hand in Hand. Two graduates from a Hand in Hand school came to visit Alpha Omega. I looked at them and honestly, I could not tell who was Jewish and who was Arab. When I spoke Arabic, even the Jewish young woman responded effortlessly. It was amazing.

I saw in them something beautiful. No barriers, no difference, no fear. They had a backbone. They knew who they were, where they came from. But they also had empathy, friendship, and real connection with the other. This is what we need in Israel. That moment changed me. I thought, this is where I would educate my children, if I could.

This is the kind of place that truly leads to a better life. Since then, I have become an active part of Hand in Hand, doing everything I can to support this vision. I believe deeply that every parent who wants to educate their children in a school like this, where equality, respect and shared society are not just ideas, but daily practices—should have the ability to do so.

And since my own children were already grown up by the time I discovered Hand in Hand, I found another way, by becoming a proud grandparent of Hand in Hand children. That’s why today my two grandchildren attend the Hand in Hand kindergarten in Haifa. This is not just about education. It’s about building a different kind of future, one where our children grow up together, learn each other’s language, hear each other’s story, and come to see one another as humans. That is a future worth fighting for, and not the war that we are living in right now.“

Reem Younis, Co-Chair of Hand in Hand’s Board of Directors