Mar Elias Educational Institutions

Viral Fundraising: Cutting the Dreds, Running the Race – for Peace

Following his 2011-12 Hebrew College year in Israel, rabbinical student David Fainsilber committed himself to supporting grassroots organizations working for a non-violent resolution to the conflict in Israel and Palestine. To fulfill this promise, on August 14th David launched a fundraising campaign: “Cutting the Dreds, Running the Race – for Peace.” He’s working toward a goal of $3600 to benefit Mar Elias Educational Institutions this fall. Thanks, David!

Why? David was inspired to visit Mar Elias after his Boston-based group of students spent an electrifying hour with Archbishop Elias Chacour during their year of studies in Haifa. Abuna’s story of Building Peace on Desktops made David eager to see the school and meet the people. Once in Ibillin, a conversation with Elias Abu Ghanima, Mar Elias’ spokesperson, sealed David’s commitment to work after he returned home to support this school where the dream of overcoming differences and finding a neighbor in “the Other” is lived out every day.

As a result: On September 1, 2012, David will run his first ever competitive race in the Lake George Triathlon (upstate NY) to raise funds and awareness for Pilgrims of Ibillin in the USA and Peace it Together in Canada. Both organizations support programs in Israel that bring young people together across religious lines to cultivate peace and mutual understanding. Later in September, he plans to cut his dreds, which have been 13 years in the making.

Want to know more about what David’s doing and why he’s doing it? Check out his blog at http://www.twominutesiren.blogspot.ca. Or read his story (and then make a donation) on his MEEI fundraising page.

Watch David’s video — and please respond generously! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdj4Plg0l98.

Hailing from Montreal, David Fainsilber currently lives with his wife, Alison, and toddler, Adar, in Jamaica Plain, MA, where he is entering his fourth year at Hebrew College’s rabbinical school. David has been involved in social justice and interfaith work for many years as a Kol Tzedek Voices of Justice Speaking Fellow for American Jewish World Service, and as a Spiritual Mentor at the Interfaith Youth Initiative. David has also served as a Hebrew College-Andover Newton CIRCLE Fellow, developing and implementing an Interfaith Hospitality initiative for seminarians of various faiths. Working in the Jewish community for more than a dozen years, David has led High Holiday services at Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn and MIT Hillel, and will bring in this coming year with Tufts Hillel. He is currently the rabbinic intern at Nehar Shalom, with a focus on community organizing and creating musical, soulful prayer experiences for the community.

Check out his fundraising site: https://bos.etapestry.com/fundraiser/PilgrimsofIbillin/cuttingthedreds_runningtherace-forpeace/. Better yet, make a contribution! It will directly benefit the students of Mar Elias. Then invite your friends and family, through emails or your own social networks, to join you in supporting this worthy cause!

We’ll keep updating David’s results through comments on this page. So come back often!

Top Projects for 2012

Wondering what your gifts can accomplish this year?

The “Wish List” from Mar Elias and our other partners is always greater than our resources, but these are projects where your giving in 2013 can truly make a difference:

Fitness Center Exercise Equipment. Pilgrims of Ibillin raised funds to renovate several rooms in the gymnasium so they could be opened as a community-oriented Fitness Center. The exercise rooms and new locker rooms are finished, thanks to $35,000 sent by Pilgrims of Ibillin donors in the past. However, until we can send an additional $30,000 for exercise equipment, the fitness center can’t open for public use. The leaders at MEEI place a very high priority on finishing this, both to enhance the Phy.Ed. program at MEEI and to build better relationships and give positive opportunities to community members.
Scholarships are always deeply needed. Already 65% of MEEI students need financial aid, even though tuition is very low for private schooling. Then in the last few months, Israel cut the subsidy they give private Christian schools by another 20%, meaning tuition will have to be raised again in 2012. We also give scholarship funds to The Open House in Ramle, The Friends Schools in Ramallah, and the Lutheran Schools in the West Bank.
The high school needs 60 new computers and monitors to upgrade the computer labs. The library also needs a new server and just two up-to-date computers. We had hoped to send money for these projects in 2011, but fell short of our goals, even though we had more individual donors and donations than ever before. The old computers can’t run updated software for science and tech classes, so we hope to meet this need soon.
SMARTboards for high school classrooms and the middle school science lab are on 2012’s priority list, along with training for teachers in using these critical new classroom tools. So far Mar Elias only has 2 SMARTboards. One is in the physics lab, and a physics teacher says he can now teach in one week a lesson that used to take a month to convey with older methods.

Ted & Jane Settle, Volunteers at Mar Elias

Ted and Jane Settle, volunteers from New Jersey, spent from November through January living at Mar Elias, and they blogged about their excellent adventures.

“One day in December we taught two senior English classes, helping students prepare for their important national English exams. Part of the exam requires students to engage in conversation, answering questions based on an essay they wrote earlier in the exam. To simulate this experience we used cards from “The Ungame” to elicit stories. Then we asked follow-up questions. Three students’ responses stood out:

One girl was asked to tell about something beautiful she had seen this week, and she said she could not. We asked about her bus ride to school every day, but this she said was just a bus ride.
Another student was asked about a special gift he had received, and he lit up as he described a shirt his father had given him with the name of his favorite soccer team on it. Of course we asked which soccer team this was—Spain’s team—and we talked back and forth about soccer.
A third student talked about his special gift; spending Christmas in Bethlehem with his family. (Understand that this is a Palestinian Israeli family going into the West Bank where Bethlehem is located, having to endure humiliation at the check point to get in and back out.)
The girl who had not been able to think of anything beautiful asked if she could tell about a meaningful gift instead. She described how, when she was 10, her mother gave her a special book of stories written in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. The book also gave her places on the pages on which she could draw.

Of all the students we have met, this last student’s English is the best. She speaks without an accent. In talking with her after class, we learned that she is also teaching herself Korean. Her choice of Korean is based on her listening to popular music from Korea. She helps us see again the range of interests and scholastic excellence typical of Mar Elias students.

During the morning break after class, the students invited us to share in a celebration for St. Barbara’s day. We were happy to join them and enjoyed a bowl of this holy day’s special food: boiled wheat mixed with fruits, nuts, and candies. A student’s mother had prepared a very large pot of the dish and it was the best we had tasted yet.”

~ Ted and Jane Settle, Volunteers from November 2011 through January 2012, Mar Elias Educational Institutions