Rooted Leadership

city who, as part of the project, interviewed adults in their family and community about their lives, their past, their family and community roots.

The festive event was attended by city mayor Adv. Shuaa Masarwa Mansour, Director of the municipality's Youth Department, Ms. Ayesha Abdel Qader, supervisors of the Central District's Directorate of Youth & Society Ms. Sahar Baransi and Mr. Alaa Omar, and other dignitaries from the city and Ministry of Education. Following the mayor's remarks, College President Prof. Yuli Tamir spoke, emphasizing the special importance of documentation of Arab-Israeli history for the equal and true integration of the Arab community in Israeli society.

The project in Taybe was led by history teacher and Beit Berl graduate Mahmoud Habib Masarwa, and accompanied by the project's national coordinator and member of the Time Tunnel team, Karim Fawz Hive. The exhibition remains on display in the municipality's main foyer for all residents to experience.

Rooted Leadership will soon host the concluding events of the narrative history project in other partnered municipalities including Umm al-Fahm, Kfar Qara, Ilut and Eilabun. In light of its success, the project has doubled in size and will begin working in an additional ten Arab communities around the country in the coming months.

Rooted Leadership was created by Beit Berl College's Time Tunnel and TARASA project, which documents the memories of residents of Israel from all groups and sectors of society. Aimed at training youth leadership in the Arab public, Rooted Leadership has garnered support of government resolution 922's Challenges for the Advancement of Arab Society program, established to provide equal opportunity to youth in Arab society by helping them to develop a sense of personal ability and skills. Participating Arab youth carry out social-historical documentation, learning more deeply about their own roots and identity, illuminating their heritage and social and cultural history within their community, and exposing the memories and stories of family, community, and cultural life of the Arab population – in their own community and among the mainstream Jewish public - a window for acquaintance, understanding and respect for this important sector of Israeli society.