An Arab-Jewish youth camp, the first of its kind in this city, opened today in the recreation center in the Jerusalem forest for 10 days. Such camps have been organized for the last 11 years in Acre. This time the camp will take place in Israel’s capital city.
Some 100 boys and girls from all parts of the country are taking part in the camp. The main activity is studying languages: the Arab youths are learning Hebrew, and the Jewish youths are learning Arabic.
The camp was a subject for political criticism on the part of the ultra-Orthodox religious parties, even before it started. Several Agudat Israel officials called on the government to halt the camp “because it encouraged assimilation.”
Meanwhile, the reins of city government passed symbolically into the hands of youth for a day at the Jerusalem municipality last Friday. Shelly Lehmann, the 17-year-old Mayor of the Youth Capital summer program for young Jewish and Arab Jerusalemites, took over Mayor Teddy Kollek’s job. Some 25 other youth club volunteers replaced the Deputy Mayors, the municipality, spokesman and department heads.
Kollek, referring to the Arab and Jewish Youth Capital participants who recently broadcast from Abie Nathan’s peace ship, praised their initiative but noted that the Youth Capital had made a much greater contribution to understanding between Arabs and Jews than the radio station.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
