"The Hardest and Most Incredible Year:" 2023-24 — A Year in Review

To paraphrase Hand in Hand’s Kfar Saba principal, Mohammad Kundos: “It’s been the hardest and most incredible year.“

October 2023 was the first time we felt uncertain about the future of Hand in Hand. Our success is never a given; it requires ongoing and rigorous effort even in the best of times. But the horrors of October 7^th and war made it natural to identify with our separate tribes – Jewish and Palestinian – and the anger, pain, and distance were palpable.

Yet our capacity to remain committed to shared society proved even stronger. Hand in Hand members found the courage to reject widespread demonization of the other side and stayed true to our vision, values, and one another.

Weathering the Storm, Together

Education is a powerful foundation for building trust and understanding. A quarter century of this work has equipped Hand in Hand communities with the tools to weather this year’s extreme and unrelenting challenges with empathy and solidarity. Standing on this foundation, we feel the profound value and importance of Hand in Hand like never before.

Not only did everyone return to school after October 7^th, but our staff and parent circles grew stronger. We ran a Community Leadership Seminar, bringing together almost 100 parents and alumni from across the Hand in Hand network to connect, organize, and energize our grassroots leaders.

Staff tripled the number of dialogue meetings for parents, teachers, students, and graduates, fortifying our community fabric, and provided myriad avenues of support to families affected by the war. And, even this year, our teams so successfully broadcast the importance of Hand in Hand that we recruited enough students to add additional classes in both Haifa and the Galilee and double the cohorts of the Hand in Hand University Student Community next year.

More Highlights from 2023-24

•  We raised over half a million dollars to support war-related emergency needs at our schools, thanks to our Boards of Directors-sponsored matching campaign, and many generous donors around the world.
• We provided more than triple the number of dialogue sessions for staff, students, parents, and alumni from the previous year, meeting the urgent need to reinforce our relationships and communities during this tumultuous year.
• We expanded and adapted parent and family community programs to the needs of the moment, providing thousands of participants with holiday celebrations, language classes, trips, volunteering, leadership development, and specialized dialogue programming.
• The HIH Haifa elementary school moved into its own independent building in January, laying the groundwork for further future growth.

• The pioneer class of the Hand in Hand Kfar Saba elementary school graduated 6th grade in June 2024.
• The Hand in Hand University Student Community in Jerusalem completed its third year of programming with 18 Jerusalem-based Jewish and Arab students, with learning, dialogue, and volunteering to become young shared society leaders.
• Hand in Hand pedagogic coaches provided a third year of guidance to 25 teachers in 11 public preschools outside the Hand in Hand network, in Jaffa and Nof HaGalil, bringing vital multicultural and inclusive educational content into their mixed classes of almost 300 Jewish and Arab children.
• Our Education Department launched two new professional forums, one for guidance counselors and the other for HIH pedagogic coaches, serving Hand in Hand professionals and peers from Neve Shalom and Hagar (the two other bilingual, integrated elementary schools in Israel).

• With so many seeking hopeful stories, Hand in Hand stood out and we were honored to be featured in the New York Times, NPR, Los Angeles Times, and CBS News, carrying our story to literally millions of people.
• Similarly, Hand in Hand’s social media reach has increased dramatically, with a 25% increase in Facebook followers and a 90% increase in Instagram followers between September 2023 and June 2024.
• We were honored to welcome new lay leaders to the Hand in Hand family, including Sonja Diner and Ross Margolies to the American Friends of Hand in Hand Board of Directors, and Mariam Kabaha and Lilli Stern to the Hand in Hand Board of Directors in Israel.
• Hand in Hand Executive Director Dani Elazar and three Hand in Hand principals were invited back to the American Federation of Teachers national conference in July to run a workshop on education during conflict, and two Hand in Hand alumni gave a speaking tour in May in Washington D.C. and New York.

Peace is a Worthy Investment

We are enormously appreciative of the outpouring of support both in Israel and globally this past year. Together with our partners, Hand in Hand is able to actualize the values that we all hold dear, especially during hard times when these values are needed most. Thank you for believing that peace, however distant it seems today, is a worthy investment.