The Arab Language Institute
October 29, 2008
Although both parents of teacher Galit Kellner speak Arabic, they didn’t exactly encourage their daughter when she told them she wanted to study and later teach the language.
"I am the eldest of five and my parents thought I should get a ‘proper career’ after graduating high school and be accepted to university", said Galit with a smile.
These days Galit is the director of the Givat Haviva Institute for Arabic Studies and has taught Arabic to hundreds of Israelis as well as non-Israelis during a period she and her husband were working abroad.
A handful of Galit’s students at Givat Haviva have also come from overseas, attracted to the intensive course in the Arabic language and culture offered at the Institute since its founding in 1963 as part of the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace.
Galit was born in Israel, as was her father and mother. Her grandparents originated from the Yemen and Egypt.
During Galit’s childhood the emphasis in Israel was "rak Ivrit" (only Hebrew) as the struggle to bring modern Hebrew back to being the daily language of the Jewish population in the State of Israel was intense. "Not only was the focus on speaking Hebrew but on the Elizaer Ben Yehuda version", laughed Galit.
"Both my parents speak Yemenite Arabic fluently and my father also speaks Egyptian Arabic, but in my formative years I didn’t hear either language being spoken apart from on television. There was only one channel in those days and every Friday afternoon – before Shabbat came in – there was always an Arabic language film. It was almost like party time in our house every Friday – the extended family would all gather in my parents home to watch the Arabic movie, the table laden with fruit, nuts and other things to nosh."
Galit began to study Arabic in junior school and later on in high school, eventually gaining a very high grade in the Arabic language matriculation exams.
Studying Arabic was compulsory when Galit was in school but later on became only a choice. These days there is a swing back toward reintroducing a compulsory curriculum.
A gifted student from a low socio-economic family background, Galit studied from 1978 to 1984 at a special program for youngsters like herself at the Jerusalem Boyer Boarding High School – a program that no longer exists at Boyer.
When the young student told her parents that she wanted a career in teaching Arabic language and culture her parents – father a laborer and mother a seamstress and house-cleaner – were taken aback.
"They said 'you are bright, you can do anything, why choose Arabic?'", recalled Galit with a smile. "I answered that in matters of war and peace we need Arabic language speakers", she said.
Immediately after army service Galit began her university studies gaining a B.A. in Arabic and Education from Haifa University after which she returned to Jerusalem.
"I was educated in a way that encourages leadership and I decided I wanted to give something back to the school that had given me so much and therefore took up a teaching and counseling post at Boyer".
While teaching, Galit also continued her own studies in Arabic language and culture and became involved with a team writing an educational text book for teaching those subjects. The Israel Ministry of Education adopted the project and textbook.
It was during this project that Galit Kellner met the late Yoram Meron from Kibbutz Hazorea, an extremely accomplished and highly respected teacher of Arabic and author of a number of books on Arabic folklore. Meron at the time was the director of the Givat Haviva Institute for Arabic Language and Culture where he had been teaching for many years.
Following the project, Galit and her family spent five years in North America where Galit’s husband worked as an engineer and she taught both Hebrew and Arabic. Her connection with Yoram and Givat Haviva was renewed upon her return to Israel.
"We lived for periods in Seattle, Montreal and Atlanta and became friendly with Arab people from Lebanon and Palestinians who had been living out of the Middle East region for a long period. We found we had so much in common, in fact far more than I found I shared with the majority of non-Jewish Americans I met", reminisced Galit.
Returning to Israel, Galit was encouraged to take up a teaching post at Givat Haviva and worked alongside her former mentor Yoram Meron, filling the post of director after his sudden death a few years ago.
With a rising demand for learning Arabic, the Givat Haviva Institute for Arabic Language and Culture, one of the most veteran Arabic language teaching centers in Israel, today offers many different courses ranging from one day a week to full academic year as well as undertaking projects and special initiatives elsewhere in the country.