Students at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Washington DC can choose the language they want to study including Hebrew, French, Spanish and… Arabic. For the past three years, Hani Abo Awad, 35, an Israeli Arab from a Bedouin community, has been teaching Jewish students Arabic and also Hebrew. “For me, it was normal to work in a Jewish school, with Jewish people,” recounts the teacher. “I came from Israel so it’s normal.”
Every summer high school student Daniel Levy visits Israel which made him want to study Arabic. “Just seeing that in Israel, the Arabs are our neighbors,” he says. “I always thought it was crazy that while they do live next to us in Israel, I don’t speak their language. And while most of them, the ones living in Israel, do speak Hebrew, I thought, if I’m ever going to connect with them in any way, I need to speak their language.”
