Comics project aims to bridge gap between secular, religious

By Ehud Zion Waldoks
May 11, 2008 
http://www.jpost.com

"Let's have a party," one kid says to his friends in a new comic strip 
created by elementary school children. "How about hamburgers?" 
another suggests. 

"I don't think I'll be hungry that evening," the religious kid says to 
his friends. But then he pauses and thinks, "Maybe I should tell 
them the truth?" 

"The truth is, I keep kosher and I don't know if the food will be 
kosher," he admits. To which his friends immediately suggest an 
alternative, a "candy" party with paper plates and dishes. 

The above is an excerpt from an educational project launched this 
year that attempts to bridge the religious-secular divide through a 
new and fun medium - comic strips. 

Three thousand elementary school pupils from state and state-religious 
schools participated in the project this year, and last month sent in 
their strips to a nationwide contest. On Monday, the 50 finalists will 
split into mixed religious-secular teams to create new strips. 
Judges will choose the best three strips and will award prizes to the 
winners and their schools. 

The joint initiative between Tzav Pius - an NGO that encourages 
dialogue programs, founded after the assassination of former prime 
minister Yitzhak Rabin - and the Center for Educational Technology 
(CET) encourages the acquisition of dialogue tools and finding ways 
to interact with and understand those who are different. The project, 
entitled "Getting Out of the Bubble, Talking through Comics," was 
built around a new Web site where students could build the comics 
themselves. 

After learning about dialogue, pupils composed comics dealing with 
issues that arise between religious and secular. Some of them, 
for example, addressed the issue of kosher food. A group of children 
planned a class trip or a party in some of the comics. Through the 
planning and organizing, the religious children learned how to express 
their need for kosher food without giving offense, while the secular 
ones learned how to take into account the needs of the religious 
pupils in a way that didn't exclude them or ridicule them. 

Aliza Gershon, Tzav Pius's director, explained the purpose of the 
initiative: "The project allows children to understand and learn, 
starting at an early age, the importance of discussion and tolerance 
between different groups in society - and all through an enjoyable, 
fun and age-appropriate comics competition. Every year, more and 
more schools become interested in joining the project, and we believe 
that in light of the excitement the competition engenders in schools, 
the project will continue to grow next year." 

Gila Ben-Har, CEO of CET, concurred. 

"Promoting discussion and tolerance at these ages is no less important 
than their in-depth studies. The comics are an effective tool to convey 
content, and a learning technique that contributes to raising awareness 
of the topic and encouraging pupils to become involved. If through the 
comics we've succeeded in promoting an understanding that there 
is another way to communicate with 'the Other,' then we are satisfied," 
she said in a statement. 

"We hope that next year the project will grow and expand," 
Ben-Har added. 

The well-known Israeli comics writers Uri Fink and Shai Charka will 
meet with the finalists on Monday, while Children's Channel presenter 
Kobi Mahat will emcee the finals.