Galilee Foundation for Value Education

The Galilee Foundation for Value Education has engaged in education for intergroup understanding since 1992. The foundation's central mission is to use informal education to build the Galilee as a model of civil society. The activities of the Foundation deal with bridging the major fault lines in Israeli society. Our Beliefs - • We believe that educational activities are not only a reflection and perpetuation of existing social realities, but can be a formative influence, playing a role in changing individuals and thereby in changing the social order. • We believe that self-knowledge and self-awareness in individuals and in groups are crucial for generating the security in one's own identity that is the basis for openness to and respect for the identities of others. • We believe that there cannot be harmony without knowledge of the "other", not only knowledge on the factual level of history and culture, but also on the human level of familiarity with his/her hopes and fears, aspirations and disappointments. This implies the need both for study and for direct personal encounter. • We believe that it is important to learn to live with complexity: reality is rich and often confusing. Intergroup understanding is furthered when we face that richness with humility - and not when we seek to simplify it into slogans. • We believe that the Galilee as a region, with its unique combination of human and natural resources, can serve as a laboratory and demonstration site for realizing a vision of a society based on intergroup harmony and cooperation. Our Goals - • Fostering of mutual understanding and cooperation between different ideological and religious streams in the Galilee • Fostering of mutual understanding and cooperation between Jews and Arabs in the Galilee • Education for the application of human values in Israeli society