Madrasa - School for Arabic Language

National Network
Israel
Address

Ramban 39
Jerusalem 9226811
Israel

Telephone
+972-507312698
E-Mail
madrasa.office@gmail.com
Organisation Type
Non-Governmental Organization
Year of Establishment
2014
Fields of Activity
  1. International/Cultural relations
  2. Youth and education
General Information
Madrasa is a free web based school for spoken Arabic. The organization was created from the need to change the fact that a very low number of Israeli Jewish population can speak Arabic. The website has a simple format in order to facilitate learning; The website is divided into four steps from beginners to advanced, to enable students to progress at their own pace and according to their individual level. Each level includes 7 interactive videos lasting 30 minutes each. Each lesson includes helpful studying material, like detailed summary of the didactic material vocabulary and practice exercises. today, even though we're still in the process of building the whole course (12 lessons have been published out of 28 lessons in total), our data shows that tens of thousands of people learn Arabic from the website on a daily basis, and we've become an important and known platform for learning the Colloquial Palestinian Arabic for free.  We registered as an Amuta (NPO), and our team is comprised of 6 people working together to develop the website. our board has 2 proffesional advisors. our yearly budget has not exceeded 50,000 shekels up to now, but we wish to expand our activity, to finish the publishing of the whole course and the have meetings out of the screen. our funding up to now comes from a family who lost their daugther and who wishes to support our activity, and from users who choose to support us even though the materials are free. moreover, we've recieved  support from IHF (Irving Harris Foundation) and from the students union in Israel as a prize for our activity. 
Mission and Objectives

20% of the Israeli citizens speak Arabic as their mother tongue. Arabic is an official language of the state of Israel and neighboring countries. Our vision is to improve our communication with the Arab sector and to create conditions where Arabic is not considered a foreign language and certainly not our enemy language.
Therefore, we wish to:
- Create a 28-lesson-course, absolutely free, which will give opportunity for every Hebrew-speaker to learn Colloquial Palestinian Arabic easily.
- Initiate meetings in different cities in Israel so people could learn together, practice together and meet. 
- Become a handy source for every teacher / student who wish to find out vocabulary sheets, practice sheets and more information about the spoken Arabic language.

Main Projects / Activities

Nowadays we are working on the 3rd level of Madrasa (lessons 15-22), and we wish to finish the building of the 3rd level in Dec 2017.
Other than that, we wish to initiate meeting between Jews who learn Arabic together, and between Jews and Arabs who learn both languages. in these meeting (that we've just started having)  people will meet as a community and share knowledge and experiences related to learning the languages. 
 

How can you contribute to the Network in your country?

We would be happy to keep on leading the teaching of the Palestinian Arabic as a free and important tool to bring people together.  We believe that language is the most central element of good communication, and good communication is the most cenrtal element of a better society.
We also wish to show an example of an intiative made by students from Jerusalem as a voluntary act. This, we believe, is an important response to the complicated situation that we as Israelis and Palestinians experience here on a daily basis. 

Why do you want to join the ALF Network?

We wish to cooperate with other members of the network, to expand our activity and to spread it amongst people who work in the same field. moreover, we wish to ask for support by any person or organization who believes in the cause that we fight for. 

Contact (1) Full Name
Gilad Sevitt
Job Title
Founder and Director
Head of the organisation
Gilad Sevitt
Contact (2) Full Name
Daniel Dotan
Job Title (2)
Manager