British MP visits Givat Haviva for the third time
By Lydia Aisenberg
September 19, 2009
Although British Member of Parliament Louise Ellman and husband Geoff, a retired pharmacist, were in Israel on holiday – the couple just couldn't forgo another opportunity to visit Givat Haviva, an educational center they visited twice before in recent years.
The Ellmans live in Liverpool, where Louise Ellman is the Labour Party Member of Parliament for the Liverpool Riverside area. They have been avid supporters of Givat Haviva since visiting the center for the first time some years ago. A mutual respect has developed over the years and these days a visit by the Ellmans to Givat Haviva is almost considered a family reunion!
"I remember the first time I visited Givat Haviva and how impressed I was, and now even more so that we have discovered there is so much more to see, learn and appreciate about the wonderful and extremely important work carried out here", said Louise Ellman during her recent visit.
In the past the Ellmans not only visited the campus but also participated in guided tours of the Wadi Ara region, visiting both Jewish and Arab communities and also dined in some of the local eateries on both sides of the Green Line.
This time the Ellmans remained within the boundaries of Givat Haviva visiting the Art Center, the Peace Library and viewing the Luboml exhibition in one of the galleries of Moreshet – The Modechai Anielewicz Holocaust Study and Research Center where they were shown around by the Center's educational director, Yonat Rotbein.
The exhibition shows the life of a vibrant Jewish community with an emphasis on family and traditional organized Jewish institutions. One sees the changes during the two World Wars as the community begins to be influenced by different styles of clothing among the younger generation, the introduction of more modern means of transport and the influence of the Zionist movement. Tragedy struck in October, 1942 when the Germans murdered almost all the town's Jews.
A visit to the Sarah and Yacov Eshel Peace Library proved to be of great interest to the Ellmans, particularly the unique collection of Arabic language newspapers housed there. Recently part of the collection has been digitized, a race against the clock as the newspapers are disintegrating at a rapid rate.
"This newspaper collection is just amazing and invaluable to anybody wanting to study relations between Arabs and Jews, before, during and since the British Mandate period as an integral part of Jewish and Arab history and heritage is recorded in these pages", commented Louise Ellman as the visit came to an end and she and Geoff headed back to Jerusalem with Ro'ee Peled, co-director of the Face to Face project.
Before leaving, the Ellmans pledged to continue to follow with great interest the work of Givat Haviva in the field of peace education and the diverse projects encouraging dialogue between Jews and Arabs in Israel.