President Barack Obama invited two Hand in Hand students, Inbar and Mouran, to light Hanukkah candles with him and with First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House. The menorah was made by the students of Jerusalem’s Max Rayne Hand in Hand School, whose first grade classroom was burned in an arson attack by activists from the extreme Jewish anti-assimilationist group Lehava on November 29.
President Barack Obama praised the Hand in Hand students for their resilience following the arson attack, which targeted the school’s efforts at Jewish-Arab coexistence through bilingual and bicultural education.
“Just two weeks ago, [the Hand in Hand] school’s first-grade classroom was set on fire by arsonists. In the weeks that followed, they and their classmates could have succumbed to anger or cynicism, but instead they built this menorah… Each of its branches is dedicated to one of the values their school is founded on — values like community and dignity and equality and peace. Inbar and Mouran and their fellow students teach us a critical lesson for this time in our history: The light of hope must outlast the fires of hate.”
The menora they lit was made especially for the White House by students at the school.
“We represent around 1200 students and 5000 adults – parents, teachers, and community members from around the country – that are committed to Jewish-Arab shared living in Israel,” Mouran and Inbar said to President Obama.
“The request on the part of the White House was touching, and emphasized just how far-reaching the work of our schools has become,” said Shuli Dichter, CEO of Hand in Hand: Centers for Arab Jewish Education in Israel, and added: “We are determined to continue building and expanding bilingual schools together with the Ministry of Education and the municipalities, and we refuse to allow the efforts of extremists to hinder our commitment to this work.”