What are the opening hours?

Monday 09:00 - 16:00 Tuesday 09:00 - 16:00 Wednesday 09:00 - 16:00 Thursday 09:00 - 16:00 Sunday 09:00 - 16:00

Hagar Association: Jewish-Arab Education for Equality

Home
Israel
Beersheba
Hagar Association: Jewish-Arab Education for Equality

Website

עמותת הגר جمعية هاجر
Peace is possible עמותת הגר יזמה ומטפחת מערכת חינוך דו לשונית הכוללת פעוטון גני טרום ובית ספר צומח, המתפתחת בלב קהילת הורים יהודית ערבית

25/10/2026

A lesson in democracy, from our classrooms to the ballot box 🗳️

Tomorrow, Hagar’s Bilingual School will celebrate democracy: our students will elect their student council, and each class will choose two representatives. Along the way, our children learn that every voice counts, that we listen to those who think differently, and that shared responsibility begins with taking part. They learn this lesson first and foremost from the example we adults set.

Israel is heading into a pivotal national election on Tuesday. It is a crossroads: what kind of country will we be, which values will define us, and what will we leave to our children? On one side is a democratic and equal society, with strong institutions and solidarity among all its citizens. On the other is a reality in which extremism and deepening divides become the norm, and shared life and peace are dismissed as naive dreams. At Hagar, we know from everyday life that partnership🤝 between Jews and Arabs is not a slogan. It is a foundation on which a future can be built.

Whatever the outcome, our work continues. We hope that the next leadership of Israel’s Ministry of Education will recognize what our classrooms prove every day: Jewish-Arab shared education is not a niche, but a national need❗️ and it deserves real support and investment. To our friends and partners around the world: thank you for standing with us 🙏 Your partnership is critical for this island of sanity in the Negev to operate, NOW more than ever.

07/10/2026

Today marks three years since October 7, 2023, the Hamas-led attack on Israel that began the war. Three years of pain, anxiety, and deep upheaval that has stayed with all of us, every day. ❤️‍🩹

At Hagar’s Jewish-Arab bilingual school in Be’er Sheva, we marked the day with memorial lessons for 5th and 6th graders. At the school entrance, we set up a memory corner for Shlomi and Shachar Matias, may their memory be a blessing, with their photos, a memorial candle, and flowers.

Shlomi was our beloved music teacher. He was murdered in his home in Kibbutz Holit, near the Gaza border, together with his wife Shachar. The sound of his music, his presence, and the light he gave our students and staff remain etched in our hearts.

Ahead of this day, our school principal, Avital, sent parents a moving letter. Among other things, she wrote:

“In the midst of this stormy, turbulent sea of the past three years, I want to tell you how proud I am of the Hagar community. Together we have proven that even in the darkest days, we can keep our school an island of sanity, tolerance, and partnership. Holding on to hope and not giving up on our shared path is not something to take for granted. It is the resilience and spirit of our school. I am so glad we managed to protect our children throughout the war years and create a shared space for them, one that educates toward peace and hope.”

With pain, and with hope for better days.🙏🌷

14/09/2026

Two weeks ago, Hagar opened its 20th💫 year of activity- a milestone in itself since a small group of Jewish and Arab parents founded Be'er Sheva's first bilingual, shared Jewish-Arab preschool. Two decades on, roughly 350 children learn together across our preschools and elementary school, and the model has already sent 13 graduating classes on from 6th grade.

This year, our principal Avital is leading a renewed focus on project-based learning, telling parents: "In an age when knowledge is a click away, what matters most is nurturing collaboration, initiative, leadership, and compassion - the tools our children will need to build a good future in a changing world."

For the 50 new families 🌱 joining us for the first time this year, that shared future started with something small: our community coordinator Amal, together with her 3rd-grade class, personally handed every new family a welcome booklet and a small potted plant. A simple way of saying: your roots start here too.

And roots are exactly what our newest creative project is digging into. Last week, students in grades 3–6 launched "A Doll's Story" - a puppet theater project with Krandash Theater, where each child chooses a family member, builds a hand puppet in their image, and learns to tell that person's story on stage. Three months from now, their puppets, stories, photos and recordings will come together in a public exhibition at B**r Sheva's Kiss Gallery.

Hagar- a community that keeps choosing to grow its roots together even, and especially, in hard years🙏.

16/08/2026

Right now, Hagar's preschools are quiet. The toys are stacked in the corner, the garden is still, and the laughter of three and four year old's has given way to summer silence.

But this quiet is exactly when our teaching staff comes together, for team-building, for hands-on training in bilingual co-teaching, for refreshers on safety and first aid, and for the kind of professional development that keeps them sharp in their work together, and in their coordination with Israel's Ministry of Education and the B**r Sheva Municipality.

Being an early-childhood educator in Israel has never been easy and summer break is essential for every teacher to rest, breathe, and prepare for the year ahead. Teaching in B**r Sheva's only Jewish-Arab bilingual preschools, with children ages 3–5, raises the bar even higher.

Hagar isn't a private initiative, we're part of Israel's public education system. But building a truly bilingual, shared pedagogy takes more: it takes partnerships, and it takes people willing to invest in this work, especially through three of the most difficult years’ Israeli society has faced in a generation.

23/07/2026

The hallways are quiet now and summer vacation has taken over⛱️. But one thing our teacher Amal said this year has stayed with us, and it felt right to share it now.

"In the end, both languages are very similar."

That's how Amal - our Arabic teacher and community coordinator - describes what happens when Jewish and Arab children learn Arabic together at Hagar. Not two separate worlds to memorize, but one shared thread the kids discover for themselves, through play, stories, and everyday classroom moments.

It's a small clip, but it captures something big about why this school exists. Take a look 👇

We can't wait for the hallways to fill up again in September - with even more words these kids will discover they already share.

20/07/2026

Last Wednesday, about 35 families from our Hagar community set off together for a community trip to the Shivta sand dunes. Yes, the desert 🌵 in the height of summer can sound intimidating — but not in the evening hours, when the heat starts to fade. We sandboarded 🏂 down the dunes of the Shivta area, gathered around the campfire for a meal together, and even tracked down signs of desert wildlife 🐾 in a special hands-on activity.

It's amazing to see the power a shared trip like this has in strengthening the bonds between our community's families - Jewish and Arab alike. It was also the perfect moment to note 🪻 the close of another year of community life and shared action together.

We're already looking forward to our next community trip..

01/07/2026

🎓 374 children. One shared future.

Yesterday, all 374 children of Hagar's bilingual Jewish-Arab educational community - the largest of its kind in the Negev, from Pre-K through sixth grade - wrapped up the school year and headed into their summer break. 🌞

The day before, we said goodbye to yet another graduating class- No. 13- our 13th cohort of sixth-grade graduates - left our school with something that can't be measured on any report card.

Our principal, Ms. Avital Benshalom, said it best:
"There wasn't a single initiative you didn't take part in. You led, you created, you demanded, and you shaped norms of action, involvement, and conduct. You grew before our eyes and paved - with your own hands - a special path. A path leading toward shared and equal citizenship in our country. This journey asked a great deal of you: learning two languages, encountering different religions and cultures, and honestly and bravely engaging with the national narratives of all of us. You walked this path with your heads held high, with pride, deep self-worth, and mutual respect."

To all 374 of our children, their families, and the educators who walk this path with them every single day - THANK you. Have a wonderful summer. 🌿

15/05/2026

“The Lemon Tree"🍈- When our 6th graders took the stage, something rare happened. Our graduating class performed a theater play based on "The Lemon Tree", a story that holds, with honesty and humanity, the pain of both a Jewish family and a Palestinian family. Two peoples. Two losses. One tree.

Before the show, our families gathered around a different kind of table - rolling, stuffing and folding vine leaves🍀 together. Hands busy, hearts open. The kind of togetherness that happens before words are even needed. Then came the play. Our students -Jewish and Arab - performed it with courage and empathy. And after the final bow, the families stayed. They talked. They listened. They sat with each other's pain without rushing to answer it. That is not a small thing in Israel in 2026.

In a society where it has become almost impossible to say out loud that the other side also suffers, our children did exactly that In both languages and for their parents to witness. 🌿 This is what we do in Hagar- the only Jewish-Arab bilingual school and educational community in the Negev -every day. It takes courage to build this. It takes resources to sustain it. And it takes a community that believes - even now, especially now - that shared life is worth fighting for.

If you believe in this too, share this post🙏. Let more people know that this flower in the Israeli desert exists and that it needs to be nurtured. 🌸

06/05/2026

Yesterday, our Hagar community gathered for a different kind of Lag Ba'omer celebration 🌿🔥, one rooted in nature, creativity, and togetherness. Dozens of children, parents, and neighbors from the surrounding area joined us for an afternoon of children's activities, workshops, a theater forest performance, and a deep reconnection with the natural world.

The celebration was also a moment to hear more about our "Tree Nursery" project - where our Jewish and Arab students are growing and caring for approximately 380 young trees, each child responsible for nurturing at least one tree over three years, before they are planted together across our neighborhood and city. This is not just environmental education - it is a living lesson in shared responsibility and shared future.

Two months ago we launched this pioneering project as part of Israel's National Shading Program, with a vision of 70% tree shade coverage on walkable streets by 2040. Yesterday reminded us why it matters: when children grow trees together, they are also growing something in themselves - patience, care, and the understanding that what we tend today shapes the world we share tomorrow.

At Hagar, we believe that environmental stewardship and shared society are rooted in the same soil and yesterday, our community proved it beautifully. 🌱

22/04/2026

We live together. We grieve together.
חיים יחד, כואבים יחד — نعيش معًا، نتألم معًا 🌺

Yesterday, our Jewish-Arab school in B**rsheba marked Memorial Day. Jewish and Arab children stood side by side, remembering those we have lost, singing the Song of Peace together, for the third time since the outbreak of the war of October 7.

There is grief. There is anger. And still - this school remains our Island of Sanity 🌤️. Proof that another way is possible. A greenhouse for shared life, for children and parents alike.

We will not give up on that hope🕊️

Address

תד 3369
B**rsheba
84133

Opening Hours

Monday	09:00 - 16:00
Tuesday	09:00 - 16:00
Wednesday	09:00 - 16:00
Thursday	09:00 - 16:00
Sunday	09:00 - 16:00

Website

http://www.hajar.org.il/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Hagar Association: Jewish-Arab Education for Equality posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.