DR. SARAH OZACKY-LAZAR: I read it in a book that Jews and Blacks in America sleep in the same bed but have different dreams.

♪♪ SAMER ATHAMNEH: Really make me nervous a little bit when we are talking about peace.

So for God's sake, I am a citizen.

Which kind of peace?

Between citizen, we must talk about equality.

Not about peace.

Peace between enemies.

So I am a citizen.

So when we talk about peace, please with the Arab countries, not with me.

♪♪ J. EDWARD “CHIP” MOORE: There's two ways to approach the unknown, either you embrace it or you run away.

And, like you said, we're here.

There is no running away.

♪♪ I wanted an educational experience that wasn't the European model.

I had lived in Europe as a kid when my father was in the military, and I thought, you know, that this trip would expose me to a new culture.

♪♪ KATHLEEN DRUMMOND: Wilberforce was actually was the catalyst to make me want to travel and see the world and actually work with different cultures.

You're out there and you're experiencing it for yourself.

Like, on TV they only show you the fighting part.

And it wasn't like that the entire time.

NITZAN AVIV: The idea was that they will become leaders in the African-American community in the States.

LAKETHA STALLINGS-COX: It was shocking, you know, once we got off the plane.

once we got off the plane.

I mean, there were soldiers, young soldiers, probably the very same age that we are or were at the time.

LORI JACKSON: This experience definitely broadened my horizons in terms of looking at things from a more worldly perspective and not just focused on my uh small, individual footprint on the world.

DR. ERIC WINSTON: In the spring of 1988, Wilberforce University of Ohio created The Institute of African-American/ Israel Exchange.

The Institute existed until 2002.

During that span, over 150 African-American students traveled to Israel for 10 weeks each summer to observe the political, social, and educational environment.

They stayed at Kibbutz Ramot Menashe, near Haifa, for four weeks, where they worked, taught English to young students in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon for three weeks, and attended classes at Hebrew University in Jerusalem for three weeks.

This is their story.

PILOT: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Tel Aviv.

Local time, 11:44.

It's been our pleasure to have you for the past 12 hours, and we sincerely hope to see you soon.

(unintelligible) (engine turns over) DR. WINSTON: Good to go.

VOICE OF NAVIGATION SYSTEM: Route calculation.

(call ringing) DR. WINSTON: We're here, we're close to Ramot Menashe.

I think we got off at the wrong exit.

DR. OZACKY-LAZAR: Wow, really?

Wow.

-Yeah, so-- -Okay.

So I thought you would-- I thought you would come out and meet us, but we're in some kind of little town here because it's not Ramot Menashe because it's got a lot of roads and stuff in it.

DR. OZACKY-LAZAR: You actually came to Ramot Menashe.

(laughing) -Hi, sweetie.

Now, is this the kibbutz here?

-Yes, this is Ramot Menashe.

This is only the entrance.

-When did they get all of this?

-You want the night tour?

-No, no, we'll get that tomorrow.

-When did you build all of this?

-Last decade.

Okay, you follow me.

-This is nothing like what I remember.

This is a big city.

-Yeah, wow.

-Man, look at this.

But that's the entrance, and this was a dirt road.

Right.

Well, you know, 12 years makes a big difference.

DR. WINSTON: My name is Eric Winston.

From 1979 to 2002, I served as Vice President for Development at Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio.

Wilberforce University is the nation's oldest historically Black private university.

In 1988, Wilberforce professor Stanley Borenstein came to my office and discussed the idea of Wilberforce University students gaining credits for their required work experience by going to Israel and working on an Israeli kibbutz.

In addition, he thought that these students could benefit from observing the social, political, economic conditions existent in the country at that time.

DAVID RAGLAND: You know, when we first got to the kibbutz, I felt as though everything was larger there.

It seemed unreal.

JOHN RANSOM: Kibbutz life was all about living together, sharing everything, and... keeping on a schedule.

Getting up, going to work.

The Wilberforce students worked DR. WINSTON: In all phases of the kibbutz.

They worked in the nursery, in the kitchen, they worked on the farm, they worked with horses, with cows, goats, and they also worked at the kibbutz's water meter factory called Arad.

LAKETHA: I think everyone experienced something different because we each had a different job to do.

JUDITH YOEL: If I'm not mistaken two of the students were scheduled to work in the cotton fields.

And they came to me and they said as African-Americans they would not pick cotton.

GIORA RATZ: I don't know if it was you or somebody else that had difficulties working in cotton fields.

He's the one.

-You're the one?

-Yes.

Couldn't do it, couldn't do it.

And I wanted to work with you, but I didn't know you worked in the cotton fields.

So you were like, "You're going to come work with me!"

I said, "Great!"

And then you're like, "I work in the cotton fields."

I said, "No!"

And that was very hard.

CHIP: In the original meeting when we were all getting our jobs for the kibbutz, I was assigned to pick cotton.

And that was an experience that I was not comfortable with.

I was 19, and I know I handled it very-- I was abrupt, I was mad, I couldn't do it, you know?

And uh, you took it all in stride.

You were very patient with me.

-And I know that that was-- -I was?

You were, yeah.

I mean, Israeli patient.

(laughing) I voiced my concerns immediately.

I didn't know that on the kibbutz there was a cotton field, but I knew that I wasn't going to work a cotton field in Israel when my family worked so hard to make sure I didn't have to work a cotton field in the United States.

GIORA: Working the cotton fields here in the kibbutz, it was considered as a high society.

Only high society-- high society.

How?

I don't find the exact... -One of the priorities.

-Yes, yes, exactly.

First of all, you wake up very early in the morning, 4:30 in the morning.

You get up and you go to the fields.

In the valley there, it's hotter than here.

So the conditions are, very bad conditions to work.

And you have to be strong and to uh, to prove yourself as a man, okay?

So, as Sarah said, one of the priorities.

Working the cotton fields and cow shed.

Cotton fields and cow shed was on the same level.

So I thought to myself that taking somebody from the group working with me in the cotton fields will make him very, you know... -Important.

-Yeah.

I couldn't see, I couldn't see the...

I couldn't be so sensitive to what he said.

-Right.

-No, I couldn't see it.

I mean, did you know about slavery?

-Yeah.

-But about cotton.

-Nah.

-Listen, I knew everything.

Everything.

I think I knew a lot about slavery because I read books.

And I was very touched by the books.

On my youth.

-Mm-hm.

-And I knew about slavery, the period of time of slavery in the United States.

But it didn't occur to me that working the cotton fields in our times, in a free country like Israel, you make the connection with the slavery time in the United States.

I couldn't think about that.

-Right, right.

-I admit.

-I just--I couldn't do it.

I couldn't call my parents and say, "Hey, I'm working in a cotton field in Israel."

I couldn't do it.

JUDITH: And I don't think that the person who did the work arrangement at the time had any associations or connotations with Black Americans, African-Americans working in the cotton fields.

It was simply naiveté on his part.

So they were scheduled somewhere else.

CHIP: After I rejected the idea working in the cotton fields, I was placed with the gardens crew.

And my belief at that time was that I would be working in a garden.

Something got lost in translation.

We would take down trees, move rocks.

Yeah.

Use small construction equipment.

Things that were completely new to me, like working tractors and lots of shovel work, lots of digging.

It was literally the hardest work I have ever done.

JUDITH: There's a very strong work ethic on the kibbutz, um and there always has been to the point that to the point that um, the children's houses exist because children were put in the children houses at a very young age so that their parents could contribute to the kibbutz and work.

JOHN: At a certain point in the day, the children actually go off somewhere else and they actually spend the night together in a different location.

LAKETHA: I don't have children, never really wanted children, but I ended up working in with the children.

JUDITH: I know my youngest daughter went into the children's house at six weeks of age, and I went back to work, and she slept there in the children's house at night too so that I could get up for work the next day.

I enjoyed it very much because they were being raised differently.

♪♪ DR. OZACKY-LAZAR: This is one thing that was,that has been developed in the kibbutz movement.

It's called the junk, eh yard.

Junk courtyard.

And they bring all the junk here and they realized that the children love it.

And all their creativity and imagination goes to this instead of buying expensive toys, you know, with all of the colors, et cetera.

There was an old lady, a kindergarten teacher, I think, 40 or 50 years ago who started it.

At first, everyone rejected it, and now people come from all over the world to watch the kids, what they do with the junk.

-Kids like junk.

-Some of the students work with children.

-Oh yeah.

-Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.

-Leketha Stallings did, I know.

LAKETHA: You know, you drop your baby off at this daycare, and the kids are there all day.

And when mommy and daddy came home from the work that they did on the kibbutz, contributing to the kibbutz, they would spend quality time.

And I think that was the best quality time with the children.

KATHLEEN: Oh, I had the best job I had the best job at the kibbutz.

I worked with cows.

And my family has a beef cattle.

So I was right at home.

These cows were like dairy cattle, but I was right at home.

I think that helped me with the transition, too, of staying there, because I was a little homesick at first.

But, again, I was the first girl to ever work with cows, who was an American, so I was kind of honored with that.

I dehorned the baby calves and I milked once a day.

I had a milk shift.

So I enjoyed it, I really loved it.

GIORA: Some of them, and it was the minority, like in every group you have some that, they had difficulties.

And they couldn't, eh you know, I had to take them from one branch to another branch because they couldn't get along.

JOHN: The water meter factory seemed to have been a privileged job or opportunity.

The ones that was at the water meter factory really did have it easy.

If you're in the field, it's going to be sweat, you're going to feel that kind of work, and that is work.

But if you're in the water meter factory, you're inside, you're cooled down, air conditioned.

I didn't really see them working a lot.

I saw them doing more socializing than anything else.

Now, my background, of course, you know, at Wilberforce at the time, was uh, focusing on business management.

I started noticing that, well, if we started doing things differently, we can get a little bit more output.

I can tell you, you know, at the end of the day that they really did not like me pressing the issue of uh, improving their processes at all.

They didn't want to hear it from me.

And, you know, I paid a consequence of that because I, you know, was moved from the molding part of the operations in the water meter factory to an area where older people were working, these little pieces that they were inspecting or something they were doing with these little tiny pieces that actually go inside the water meter.

And then I started noticing how they were doing their production and operations as well.

And as I approached that same thing to that manager, they really didn't like that as well.

And consequently, I was removed from that location and actually put into the kitchen.

DR. EMEKA MORAH: The students worked in water treatment because water was a big thing for Israel.

They also worked in the cafeteria, helping to prepare the food, and...which was quite different from the food in the United States.

KATHLEEN: Getting there and not being able to eat what I was used to, that was a big change for me.

LAKETHA: I think most of us complained about the food.

Um, I don't know really what we were expecting.

Even during the orientation they did tell us what we were going to eat, but until you actually get there, you really don't know.

NGOZI SHERRY ROLLINS: The food was pretty bland.

They don't use a lot of seasonings and things like that.

LORI: A potato, over there it's a potato.

It's not, you know, they don't dress it up with the, you know, with the sour cream and all those things.

And you make it all fattening and crazy.

It's, you know, cook it, it's a potato, and you eat it.

LAKETHA: It was probably the best change in diet because my body developed.

It wasn't toxic, I didn't think, with all the other junk food that I would normally eat.

NGOZI: Food has its own flavoring, you just have to appreciate the flavoring of the food or the different type of mixtures that they would create with the food.

LORI: It was a lot of lettuce, a lot of vegetables, a lot of salad type foods.

And, you know, it wasn't a lot of the meats and the processed foods and things that, you know, we're used to.

KATHLEEN: Even though I wasn't that big then, but I lost like 15 pounds from eating salad, eggs, and cheese.

NGOZI: And meat over there was really expensive, so I actually did not eat any meat that entire summer, and I lost quite a lot of weight, which I looked great so I didn't mind.

LAKETHA: There was a McDavid that was an Israeli version of McDonald's, but I don't think that the beef patty was real beef.

DR. WINSTON: The Kefiada phase of the Institute of African-American/Israel Exchange's program in Israel consisted of four weeks teaching English in a summer camp at the Lazarus Community Center, located in the Jesse Cohen community of Holon, Israel.

The Wilberforce students, during this time, lived with residents in the Jesse Cohen community, and formed many long and lasting relationships with them as a result.

(speaking Hebrew) -But y'all don't have young people in here?

-Yay!

-Is she coming?

-She's going to be here in about 10, 15 minutes.

-Oh, good.

We expanded the program and created a Kefiada, which means "fun camp."

During the four weeks at the Lazarus Community Center in Holon, Israel, the students conducted the summer camp in English and lived with families in the Jesse Cohen community.

-Do you want to speak with him?

(speaking Hebrew) DR. WINSTON: Fine, how you doing, man?

Good, hey, good, everything's good.

Yeah, I assume Orly called you, right?

Uh-huh.

Now, the question is, we're here, we're making a documentary about the program.

CHIP: So, the neighborhood's grown?

KATHLEEN: It has grown.

Um and then I see more color in the neighborhood also.

Because at that time, it was only the group members who were uh Black.

DR. WINSTON: And I really wanted to talk with you about your recollections of the program and... Yeah, tomorrow morning is good.

And will that-- At 10:00.

Okay, good.

Okay, no problem.

I appreciate you coming down then.

Okay?

Okay, okay.

Bye-bye.

KATHLEEN: It was a good thing to talk with the people in the neighborhood and break down those stereotypes about Black people.

CHIP: So, you were kind of an ambassador of our culture?

-Of course.

-All right.

-And I think they became used to us because everywhere I walked in the neighborhood people were like, "Hey, Kathleen!

Hey, Kathleen!"

I didn't even know the people, but they knew me.

So, made it interesting.

♪♪ RAQUEL POULET: You?

No!

Oh, my God!

No!

♪♪ DR. WINSTON: How are you?

♪♪ You're the first person I asked about when I came.

- Oh, I can't speak.

Oh, you can speak, you can speak.

I am so glad to see you.

She always said, "My English is not very good."

- No, my English, it's like horrible.

No, your English is better than my Hebrew.

And do you know any of the young people that participated in the Kefiada that are still in the neighborhood?

KATHLEEN: I know we lived here.

-You?

-I could walk here, straight.

So, if you could walk with us and we could look and see.

He had a daughter and two sons.

-Yeah, I know it.

-You know who it is?

-Yes, of course.

-Okay.

-The neighbor of my sister.

-Benny!

Benny, I remember one of my brothers, Benny.

-Benny, the son.

-I don't remember the last name, but Benny was a soldier.

-Benny's her son, her son.

-Yeah, in this time he was a soldier, yes.

I know, I know who is.

Do you know where they live?

-Do they still live here?

-Yeah, of course.

-Well, let's go to their house.

(speaking Hebrew) KELLI BREWER: As much as I like to be an African-American, what it really made me appreciate was being a woman in America.

Just because of our experience over there as being a woman from America and how they treated us.

KATHLEEN: As a woman, coming from a woman's perspective, definitely just be careful with the stereotypes of women in the videos, because that's always going to happen, you're always going to have that.

DAVID: I know that there are stereotype, typical views of Black American women throughout the world as being easy and sexually exotic.

NGOZI: When they saw that I was of African-American descent, they were quite interested, and the men specifically because they looked at me as exotic.

That's the best word I can use.

They thought I was kind of exotic, so they were very interested in, like, dating.

But their dating was like, "Let's get married."

KATHLEEN: I think they thought I was like a woman on the videos, and I had to explain that I wasn't like that.

because I think some of the older men were trying to be fresh.

DAVID: There were lots of sexual advances toward the women in our groups that I um, intervened in.

KELLI: As we kept talking, we realized all their TV shows that they saw from America and everything were way old, and that's how they saw us.

They saw women that way, from soap operas, because that's what they watch, and so they thought we were all easy.

LAKETHA: I think people were curious, you know?

We only know--well, I'll put it this way, they only knew about African-Americans what they saw on television.

So to have a live person there, living, breathing, where you could ask questions and interchange of dialogue, I think that made it a lot better.

DR. WINSTON: When this program was instituted in 1988, there was uh, a lot of contention between the Black and the Jewish community, which I suspect was one of the reasons that Mr. Abrons decided that he wanted to fund this program because he felt that there was a need for these young people to see what was happening in Israel, and hopefully to serve as a bridge between the Black and the Jewish community.

♪♪ NITZAN: It was not a problem.

We had incidents, but the incidents were not because it was a problem.

I will give you an example, a short story, you know?

They went to the school here next to the community center to promote the program and to ask kids to register.

And one of the kids who just saw a movie in the TV, you know, if you remember it, you know, he saw a movie in the TV and he came to this... to one of our guys, our students, and say, "What's up, nigger?"

You know, for him, it was-- he saw it on the TV.

He didn't even understand what nigger means.

But this kid, you know, from Wilberforce, got really offended.

He was right.

But for this kid, 10 years old, that's what he is seeing on...TV, you know?

And that's what they see, one brother called it to the other brother.

He cannot understand it, you know?

He cannot call him a nigger, you know?

So, you know, it was shock, it was a shock.

But it was not a problem, you know?

There is no problem of Black and white here in Israel.

CHIP: You know, people would see us on the streets.

And if I was with two or three of the African-American men, we were instantly sports athletes and stars.

So we would be mobbed, uh literally, by children who'd want autographs because they thought we played in the NBA.

DAVID: I remember I had a bald head and I was much thinner.

And I guess I looked like a basketball player.

And I remember um, as we walked through the bazaar and through the places where Jesus had went on the...steps of the cross, people kept saying, "Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan!"

JOHN: And as these kids were walking up to me, they'd say, "Are you Mike Tyson?"

No, I'm not Mike Tyson.

So, it kind of told me that, and other people were like, "I thought you was Mike Tyson."

Everybody around started saying the exact same thing.

Um, obviously, I'm not Mike Tyson.

KELLI: I can remember getting off the bus and meeting my host family, and the first thing they asked me was why did we sit in the back of the bus.

And I kept thinking, "What are you talking about?"

And finally we realized they were still talking about Jim Crow Laws.

And we were like, "We sit in the back of the bus now because we want to, not because we have to."

GIORA: For me, to get the group of Blacks in Israel, it's something that I had to get used to because... ...here in Israel we only had stories.

You hear stories, you see uh, movies, but you don't deal with.

I think it was, for me, it was the first time.

Israel, eh the establishment of the State of Israel occurred or happened because of the World War II, or let's be more specific, because of the Holocaust.

Okay?

The Holocaust was a very, had a very strong role in establishment of the State of Israel.

So, the Jewish people that came from Europe came from the bottom of the bottom of the bottom, okay?

If you know what happened during the Holocaust, you might understand that they had--they had nothing.

They lost their families, they lost their childhood, they lost everything.

So they had to start from the beginning, from the bottom of the bottom, okay?

And if I'm making the equation between that time and the Blacks' situation in America, I think I can find some... -Similarities.

-Yeah, similarity.

♪♪ KATHLEEN: I was, I guess, afraid of going over there because of the fighting, and I didn't know how the actual people were going to be, whether the Arabs were going to be mean or whether we were to come across some mean people.

That was my main concern.

I didn't want to get caught up in the fighting part of it.

But as we landed, everything was calm, and it seemed like a-- just a normal country.

LORI: There were incidents when we were there where there were bombings and explosions, and so that was real.

But it felt like that wasn't... that wasn't the main thing.

Like, that wasn't something that happened every day, and it wasn't something that any side liked or disliked, or-- It just felt like this was a sad situation and no one was happy about it, and trying to come up with a solution is difficult, but it doesn't feel like the media portrays it the same way as it felt when we were on the ground.

NGOZI: After we were there, they started bombing the kibbutz, and we had to leave it suddenly.

CHIP: You know, we were on a bus traveling north, and we were going up by the border of Lebanon, and they just started shooting shells.

And the funny thing was, which was a definite cultural difference, we had an Israeli bus driver who said, "Ah, we'll pull over and we'll just wait for the rockets to stop, and then we'll just keep going up north."

And then you had us on the bus who was like, "Man, turn this bus around.

We are getting out of here right now."

We had--you know, we were just in range, so if we turned around, we'd be fine.

And, yeah, we had to take a quick vote, and we turned around.

NGOZI: Initially I was scared, but the people on the kibbutz went through such drastic measures to protect us.

I mean, just instantly they kind of jumped right in and guided us on where to go, you know, just getting us to safety and things like that.

So, we never felt like we wouldn't be protected at any point in time while I was there.

So, I think that that's why it was such a great experience for me because to see them to go above and beyond for someone whom they don't know and still protect me, you know?

Just how your parents would.

KATHLEEN: Religion is like a big thing over there.

Everybody wants what they say is the homeland or the--where... in the Bible that belongs-- the land that belongs to them.

It all stems from the Bible, the whole conflict.

LORI: I think it's hard when people have a set structure of how they think the world is supposed to work.

♪♪ DR. WINSTON: They were able to spend time at Givat Haviva in the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace, interacting with Jews and Arabs as they tried to find commonality in their relationships.

CHIP: So, we are at Givat Haviva This is a privately funded center for Jewish and Arab peace relations.

We were here in 1995 to talk about, openly and honestly, the challenges between the two communities here in Israel, the Arab and Jewish communities, and how the struggle to coexist affects them, and just to learn about their culture and what they've gone through, both sides, and it allowed us to reflect on how we have parallels in our own communities and our own country.

DR. OZACKY-LAZAR: Well, this was an army camp, a military camp, and they had the small airport on the other side of the road.

And after the British left the country, the kibbutz movement at the time was very strong.

They grabbed the place, and they started their education center here at Givat Haviva.

Every home of the head of the village or the head of the family had a guest room called diwan.

-Diwan.

-Diwan.

Where all the old people and the distinguished people of the village would meet and take decisions.

So, when I started working here, we had only one little basing.

And we wanted a diwan, and we did it.

I already bought all this furniture and everything.

-Oh, wow.

-And this-- -You bought it?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Personally?

-Personally.

And this one in old Jaffa, the lamp.

And we put the Israeli Declaration of Independence in Arabic, the declaration that promises equality to all citizens.

♪♪ DR. WINSTON: Now where...do you live here in...?

SAMER: I live in Kafr Qara.

It's a village, it's very close to Givat Haviva.

-Uh huh.

-It's five minutes by car.

I work for six years in Jerusalem as a manager of drug addict center.

In 2000, when I return back to live again in my village, I start working as a parole officer.

I really found very good cooperation between Jews and Arab offenders, and I hope that we can do it even with the "normal" people.

-The situation between blacks and whites in the United States is still pretty tenuous, but people do get along, and they do work for the good.

-Right.

-And they may hate each other's guts, but they still work along together, and that's what-- that's the first step.

And here--and we don't seem to be able to get people to say that they want to work together, and that's got to be-- somebody got to take the first step.

-No, listen, that's exaggerated.

They work together in hospitals, they work together in many businesses.

There are islands of cooperation.

-Sure.

-You know, African and American, Black and white really living together, and they're studying in the same school, and--but here, the reality's completely different.

We study in separated school.

Jews study in Jewish schools, and Arabs study in Arab schools.

Jewish living in Jewish places, and Arab living in Arab places.

So we don't have those kind of things that you are talking about.

So, our situation is completely different.

CHIP: But let me explain my point about understanding.

Our schools are still very segregated.

It's financially done.

And then they're actually more segregated now than in the 1950's.

Mm-hm.

And that's before the Civil Rights Movement.

So, there was a lot of policies that they're still putting in place that keep poor children and minorities in schools that are completely segregated.

-My point of view, it's different from what you represent that as an Arab citizen, I really deal with daily issues that discriminate me, and you should know that I don't have any problem with the Jewish people.

They are my friend, I study in their universities, I work in their places.

Since the Israel State established in 1948, they built hundred of... Jewish villages and cities.

-Cities.

-Settlements, right.

-But we, even they don't build even one Arab village.

Arrive to my village and Umm al-Fahm and to Nazareth, and you will see on the ground which kind of problems we have because the state don't build us new villages.

We don't new villages.

Give us little bit land.

Just to--in 1948, we were 150,000 people.

Now we are one million and a half.

So, for sure we need land to build the houses.

-And I do understand what you're saying, and, yeah, this is--you live here, this is your state, and you don't feel like you can be a first class citizen.

My generation, I'm almost 40.

For us to have an African American president, on the day he was elected, I cried, because this was something that I never thought I would see.

When you are going around in your place, in the state, you really feel like it's your country, it's your place.

-No.

-No?

-So, I saw you... -No.

I want to say one thing.

You know, it's happening to me, I am academic.

I have Master degree.

I am very good citizen.

I am very good man.

But sometimes when I go out from my house, I want to travel to Tel Aviv, and I arrive maybe to the entrance of my village and I forgot my ID card.

-Mm-hm.

-I return back and took it.

You know why?

You know why?

Because if I arrive to Tel Aviv and some policeman stopped me, and ask me, "From where are you, and who you are," because I look eastern, because I look Arab, it could be very bad experience.

KATHLEEN: I felt like the Arabs were being treated as second citizens, especially with a different ID.

Why would you need a different ID?

Or why would your car plate need to be different?

I didn't really like that at all, to be honest with you.

That kind of made me a little hot.

CHIP: We saw the, you know, the way that disdain was communicated, that the hate... You know, I used to think I knew about hate, I had seen it in all its forms, and that was untrue.

When I got to Israel, I saw a whole new brand, fresh and honest and in your face, and with no apologies and no veneer.

So, that was hard to process, you know?

We were raised in polite hate and racism, so to just see it in its purest form is it's shocking.

SAMER: Even that you have-- still have kind of images of discrimination, but it's not--not faces it to you every day.

- I promise you if we went to Detroit... -Yes?

-I don't want to come here to compare between your situation and my situation.

And that's okay, and that's okay.

-Yes.

-But that's what we're doing.

No, but I want you to learn, I want you to-- It is the same, it is the same.

-Yes.

-Can you guys-- -Kathy say that she could bring solutions, maybe we can... -Okay.

I just mention in my face sometimes that we want to change our education project, we want to start with work with kids from the kindergarten until they finish their high school.

-Kids don't know any better.

They don't know anything unless they're taught by their parents.

Kids think everybody are the same, because I teach them, I know.

-Yeah.

Because, you know, through-- in my program we're just working with pupils from high school, and do you know they arrive to our programs with a lot of stereotypes.

You know, sometimes some of... the sentences that I hear from the pupils make me crazy.

-You know?

-Yes, we do.

With or after our encounters, when the Arab pupils go out from the bus, I really hear the Jewish pupils say, "Wow, they look like us."

For God's sake, what do you imagine how they look?

It's kind of ignorance, and I do believe that the ignorance is the real enemy, the real enemy.

You know, some professor from Columbia University said to me when I give some lecture in the States about discrimination culture that we have in here in Israel, he said to me, "We met the enemy and the enemy is us."

And I do believe that the real enemy here in Israel between the Arab and the Jewish citizen is the ignorance about.

I know more than the Jewish people know...about me.

Why?

Because I belong to the minority, because I speak their language, I can watch their news, I can read their newspapers, I study in their places, but unfortunately they don't speak my language, they even don't give some kind of efforts to come to visit me and to know.

They have a lot of stereotypes because unfortunately the Jewish people are still connected us to the enemy.

-And what I'm trying to tell you is we can relate to that.

-Right.

-Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you as well.

-Nice to meet you.

-Sarah.

Samer.

-Samer.

-Samer, Samer.

-Samer!

-Samer, Samer.

-Samer, I said Samer.

-Samer.

-Okay, Samer.

-Bye.

-It was really very interesting and very unique to me.

It's to meet also people from the States, especially African American, and to find that there's a lot of common issues that we are dealing as the same, everyone in his place.

So, I will be happy if we continue kind of cooperation and kind of eh continue to be in touch.

-And I agree with him with the education part.

KATHLEEN: You have to start with young kids first and move up.

So, the education is the key for the young and the old, I believe, because they have to be able to educate them about each other's culture.

CHIP: We had good dialogue at points, but I don't think he trusted my facts.

DR. WINSTON: I'm still not understanding why there is this tremendous um, dislike and persecution of Jews.

I don't...understand it.

I don't quite understand why.

CHIP: Do you want me to break it to you?

I can.

-Yeah, break it down for me.

-Okay, what happened was European law would not allow Jews to own or work land, okay?

Christian law would not allow Christians to loan money to other Christians without taking a uh interest.

So, if Jews were only allowed to be merchants or bankers and this is what the whole community was, you know, this is the only thing they were allowed to do, and this is why the State of Israel-- that's why they were so excited to work land is because for, you know, thousands of years, they were not allowed to own or work land.

And but what they could do was loan money, they could be merchants, and that's what created the class of merchant, banker, business owner.

And that created resentment by Christians because they were, you know, going to these people to make deals for loans, to go and make deals for, you know, goods and services.

But it cost them.

So this was this resentment, you know, that started from their own persecution, and that's where all the stereotypes come from Shylock, money grubbing, all that kind of stuff, was the law--the European laws and persecution of, you know, this whole people.

(knocking) Malka?

-Hi!

-Hi!

(speaking Hebrew) Yeah!

Yeah!

-How are you?

-How are you?

-Thank you.

-Well, well, well!

NISSIM BITRAN: At last you're coming back home.

-Yes!

(laughs) Oh, I'm so... How are you?

-I'm so happy to see you.

-Brought you some wine.

-She's lovely, she's a lady now.

-And then I brought flowers for her.

-Hi, how are you?

Yeah, long time no see.

Your face, your face, your face.

-Hi, it's so good to see you again.

-How old you were?

-I'm 40 now.

-No, no, she means then.

-Forty, oh my God.

How old was--20?

Twenty.

-Twenty, twenty-one?

-Twenty-one.

(speaking Hebrew) -It's been 20 years.

-Now, how old are you?

I'm good, I'm good.

I was five years old, yeah.

-You were five.

-Yeah.

Oh, isn't that something?

You remember her?

You still look the same.

-You do too.

-Thank you.

How is Benny?

-Thank you.

-He got married.

Benny, Benny, yes.

-Where does Benny live?

-Here in Holon.

He lives in Holon still?

Oh!

-Eh, here it is.

Okay, I got Benny.

And here is Benny.

-Hello.

How are you?

-You can put it on speaker.

-I'm great.

-Hey, we're just gonna put-- BENNY BITRAN: You're back!

-I know, and I want to see you before I leave.

-I might be over in, I don't know, about 30 minutes to an hour?

Will you still be there?

-We should be.

-Yes, we should be, yes.

-Okay, okay.

-And bring the babies too.

Bring the babies, bring the babies!

Yeah, why not?

And the wife.

-And the wife.

-And the wife, too, bring the wife too, because I don't want to get you in trouble.

Yes.

-He couldn't resist.

(laughing) And you make it... No, it really makes me so happy.

KATHLEEN: This is where I used to stay when I would stay with my family.

NISSIM: And today it's my study.

- I enjoyed it, I had my own room, and they let me do my own thing.

I was just like one of-- their daughter.

-Yes, you betcha.

But yes, this was my old room.

Oh, so many memories.

-Yes.

-I... You take the words out of my mouth.

And I feel so--trying to scream out my enjoyment that-- Well... Really, really.

No, really, I'm so happy.

You made my day.

You made my-- and I'm off today, and you know, a very hard work I did today, I-- No matter what, she woke me up.

She just woke me up.

-I love you, I love you.

-I'm glad.

God, I love you.

I love you so much, really.

-Oh, I love you too, I do.

-Oh I have to stop and whatever.

Benny!

(clapping) -How are you?

You still look the same.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Tell that to my wife.

BENNY: So, you guys are back!

-Yeah!

-Why?

(laughter) I miss you.

What year was that?

-'95.

-'95.

Ninety--yeah, yeah, I was in the military.

Actually that was my um, that was my mandatory service.

Yeah, I was 20.

What I do remember from the group of people you were in, you were the--probably I think the wildest.

-I knew it, I knew it!

That's what I said!

-You were the happiest.

I didn't see any... you know, difficulties accepting whatever you saw.

The more you mix yourself, your life, with different people, not the one that you know, that you know what they-- we eat the same, and you think the same, and no, no.

What makes a person is the more you see, the more you mix.

-I agree.

-You are a different person.

You have more broad... -New experiences.

-Yes, yes.

And you cannot even judge others because, "Well, I've been there.

I saw that."

It's "I know that, so what are you talking about?"

-That's right.

LIZ BITRAN: I was five years old when you came here.

-Mm-hm.

-And...

I was a little clueless about what's going on, who are you, what are you doing in our house, but looking back, I think that you had a lot of influence on my life actually.

Actually, most um most people in my age don't have perfect English or very good one, and because you came here and you talked to me, even though I was only five years old, and you talk to me like I can understand you, I understand, I started to understand English.

-She got the groove of it.

-Oh, wow.

Yes, yes, yes.

All my kids, all my kids, all my kids.

My English is perfect because of you.

-Oh!

-Definitely, definitely.

It's actually true.

It's actually true because when I got into law school, they asked me, "Wow, your grades in English are perfect."

-And they asked me... -A hundred.

And they asked me, "How come?"

And I said, "Well, I don't know.

I guess when I was five years old we had a lot of students that talk English in our house, and I got it."

-And she got the hang of it.

-Which is true, because we came over here.

-Yes.

-We hung out, yes.

-Yeah, and besides that, um I think um just you being here, communicating with you, and accepting...

I was only five, I was so naive, and looking at you.

-And you were full of energy.

-Talking foreign language, looking a little bit different with different attitude, and that teached me to accept what's different, and it's good.

-You see?

-Very important.

-Yes.

-And it's good.

And when I grew up and I was in high school, they offered me to go to a student exchange program in Germany.

In Germany for the Jewish, you know, it's a little bit scary and stuff.

-History.

-But...I talked to my dad, and I told him, "Well, what do you think?"

-And he said: -Go!

-Go for it.

-Go!

-Go for it.

-Just go.

-And I was very sure that I needed to do it because of the experience that I had with you guys.

-Oh, good.

-That's wonderful.

♪♪ DAVID: The world is much bigger than my college community of Wilberforce, than the Black community, than my family in St. Louis.

JOHN: It shaped my view just simply knowing, you know, you know, how or when I should pick my battle.

JUDITH: It was very important because we had a very stereotypical opinion sometimes in Israel, especially in those early years of-- when television and things like that were limited-- of what Americans were.

KELLI: I think being able to interact with them and them sharing their stories, and us sharing ours, probably was the best part.

LAKETHA: The experience was frightening, but absolutely awesome.

It definitely impacted my life, still impacted my life, and certainly it's something that I'll never forget.

It's a trip I'll never forget, an experience that I'll never forget.

KATHLEEN: Being in the country, not as exposed to many things, so it allowed me to get out of the country, and actually see the world.

The world is a really big place actually.

DR. MORAH: It afforded us an opportunity to send our students to expose our students to a global arena.

It promoted Wilberforce on a global scale.

NITZAN: I think that when they came back to Wilberforce, they came back different.

They were more independent, they were leaders, they knew how to be leaders in the community.

BRACHA BETH ZURIEL: That connection with Wilberforce was an important connection to the Dayton Jewish community.

So, if it was important to the Dayton Jewish community, it was important for us to link them to Israel, and for us specifically Israel meant linking them to the neighborhood of Jesse Cohen.

DR. OZACKY-LAZAR: I learned a lot about the African American experience in the States, which I knew before only from books and films, and here I met real people with real stories.

NGOZI: It has impacted my life in a great way, and I am truly thankful for it.

DR. WINSTON: It's not perfect, but this is not a perfect world.

But at least efforts are being made to do something positive.

CHIP: You know, looking back now 20 years later, would I pick that cotton?

Should I have picked that cotton?

I don't know.

But at that time and that moment, and with the support of everybody that was, you know, with me on that trip, because for some reason, I was the only one that was going to pick cotton.

(laughs) ♪♪