reGeneration Education

Imagine the potential.

Ein Bustan

“Ein Bustan awakens a feeling of optimism and hope. It is a microcosm of how things could be.”

– Ibtisam Zubidat, teacher in Ein Bustan

“Waldorf education leads the imaginations of the children to freedom and does not impose a particular world view upon them.”

– Amir Shlomian, Teacher and Founder, Ein Bustan

EIN BUSTAN, Spring in the Garden, is the first intercultural Jewish-Arab Waldorf school.
The founders of Ein Bustan share a vision of a society in which Jews and Arabs live together peacefully in equality and understanding. In order to create this reality, there must be education that fosters true friendship, trust and shared culture and language. An educational system that separates children by their religion and nationality fails to take into consideration the widening gap between the two communities, which will take years to bridge and generations to mend.

In the Jewish/Arab kindergarten of Ein Bustan, in Hilf, near Kiryat Tivon in Israel, the children gather in a circle to welcome the Sabbath together. A candle is lit, and they sing:

With God’s help we shall live in peace,
Your light is small, but in my heart the light is great,
With God’s help we shall live in peace.

Ein Bustan aims to build a bridge between the Arab and Jewish populations in Israel by fostering a joint, multi-cultural educational setting based on the Waldorf approach.  The kindergarten and growing community center are taught in both Hebrew and Arabic, and are based on traditional arts and crafts, holidays and customs from Christian, Druze, Jewish and Muslim traditions.

Ein Bustan educates children from a diverse array of socio-economic, religious and cultural backgrounds. The  children come from Kiryat Tivon, (a Jewish town) and the surrounding Bedouin (Arab) villages Hilf and Bosmat Tab’un.

The families and faculty of Ein Bustan believe that children deserve to grow up in an environment enriched with the religious and ethnic folklore and traditions surrounding them.  Cross-pollinating humanistic and Waldorf approaches to education with a multicultural genre is a critical way to prepare children for the complex world in which they live.

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    Encountering the Other

    reGeneration brought The Way of Council to our bilingual Arabic Hebrew school. The Way of Council is a way to become aware that the person sitting across from me is a person just like me, who was born an empty vessel, and whom life has filled with different content, which is not necessarily the ultimate truth. I could have been born as Muhammed or Fatma, and I would then think as they do. So I think that within me I am actually a little bit Muhammed and a little bit Fatma, a little bit Amir or Rachel. And a little bit Gidi.”

    – Gidi Hyman, a teacher at reGeneration partner school Ein Bustan
    Gidi
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    Uniting Communities

    With reGeneration, we created a Waldorf School based on the beauty of Arab culture and language, which also teaches Hebrew and English. It is a school where all the different religions and cultures of Arab people are represented and work together: Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Bedouins. The idea of bringing all these children together in one school is not the norm...but it is a model for how to integrate Waldorf education into the Arab culture.”

    – Lana Nasrallah, cofounding teacher of reGeneration partner school Tamrat El Zeitoun
    Lana
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    Training Crisis-Zone Ready Teachers

    Before I became a Waldorf teacher, I taught in public schools where the children rarely leave their desks. The Arab children especially have problems holding their pencils because they move their bodies so little…Thanks to my reGeneration scholarship, I became more sensitive about the need for children to be held in a protected space. Upon my return to school, I plan to find a way to build a separate area for our young children, so they have a more sheltered space than what they have now.”

    – Aida Awad, a founding teacher at reGeneration partner school Tamrat El Zeitoun
    Aida
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    Transforming the Holy Land

    Fear presents a choice whether we recognize it or not: to love or to hate. If we choose to love, we have sparked the first flame of creation. We are propelled into right action. House of Hope is honored to partner with reGeneration to continue our right action and bring transformational healing through holistic education to children in the Holy Land.”

    – Milad Vosgueritchian, co-founder and Chairman of reGeneration partner school House of Hope
    Milad
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    Two Peoples, One School

    At Ein Bustan we are two peoples, two languages, two different cultures. Yet when I bring my children to the kindergarten in the morning and see the children sitting, playing, building, singing, hiking, eating and working together, they are equal, and it’s not make-believe. This togetherness and the mutual wish to create a joint reality is what brought my family to the kindergarten. At school, we are all equal, and we all have a heart that can speak, listen, and be compassionate.”

    – Ester Springut, a parent at reGeneration partner school Ein Bustan
    Ester