Students Visit Skokie In Unique Israeli-U.S. Exchange Program

SKOKIE, IL — A group of more than a dozen students from Israel last month visited Niles North High School as part of a one-of-a-kind student exchange program. It is the only U.S.-Israeli exchange program — called a "mifgash," Hebrew for encounter — at an American public school, according to the Jewish United Fund. In March, students traveled from Skokie to ORT Kramim High School in Karmiel, Israel, as part of the program, which is now in its fourth year.

Niles North Hebrew teacher Anna Raiber grew up in Karmiel, near Tel Aviv, where her mother teaches at Kramim, according to JUF News. Students studying Hebrew and members of the Niles North Israel Club hosted the visitors. Raiber, one of the club's faculty sponsors, said the opportunity to visit another country and host foreign students offers her students a chance to use Hebrew outside of the classroom.

"If I can change my students' perceptions of Israel, then I did my job," Raiber said. This year, the visiting Israeli high schoolers attended homecoming and a football game, as well as visiting Six Flags and the Sears Tower during their 12 day trip. The students described Niles North as much larger than Kramim and said it offered far more electives and extracurricular activities, according to JUF News.

Niles Township High School District 219 World Languages Director Todd Bowen told Pioneer Press the district already offered exchange programs for its students in German and French language classes.

This summer, Niles North will offer its first exchange program with China, he said. School officials had been unable to find any other exchange programs with Israel at public high schools anywhere in the United States. Bowen said last year he was certain it was the only such program in the state.

In May, District 219 administrators retracted a course called "Teaching Palestine" in response to community backlash after it had been included among a list of summer training opportunities for educators. District officials said teachers and community members were concerned about the "one-sided nature of this course" and "we created a sense of exclusion by including this offering," according to Jewish News Syndicate. The administrators said the district did not develop the curriculum and never planned to provide credit to educators who took the course.

According to a description, the course aimed to offer "a deeper understanding of the history and current political context of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the Palestine liberation struggle" and make "curriculum connections between Palestine and issues affecting our students, such as: state/police violence, the struggle for racial justice in the U.S., settler colonialism in Palestine and the U.S. and access to education for historically marginalized youth."