Dominique Herman
AS Herzlia High School business and tourism teacher Ignatius Herwells tells it, Kyle Nash was looking around anxiously, waiting for his friend to arrive. It was during a monthly meeting of a schools’ interfaith programme. Kyle is a Grade 10 pupil at the Jewish day school, and when his friend did arrive from Islamia College, the two ran over to each other and hugged, and “were so happy to see each other”.
It is anecdotes like that one, shared at the group’s recent end-of-year get-together, that are testament to the success of the programme – an initiative organised by educator and activist Marlene Silbert, whose career is defined by continuous and tireless work in promoting human rights and respect for the dignity of difference. She is currently the project director of the Interfaith Intercultural Twinning and Exchange Programme. “Children are like empty vessels. One can fill them with hate, or love and compassion,” she said.
Another anecdote, set against the backdrop of the Israel-Gaza conflict, involved two pupils, again one Jewish and the other Muslim (Christian, African and Hindu teenagers also participate in the programme). The Muslim participant sent a gruesome image on Facebook, of a child who had been killed, to one of the Jewish participants, with the message: “How could Jews do such things?”
The Jewish participant wrote back to say that they had learnt in their interfaith programme that one should never stereotype people. That during a conflict terrible, unacceptable things happen, but that does not mean one should stereotype all Jews or Muslims, and he was saddened that the other had made this comment.
The Muslim boy replied in an SMS and said he was so upset about what he had done without thinking, that he had not been able to sleep, and he only hoped the thoughtless mistake would not affect the warm friendship they had established.
“What more can one wish for than to change mindsets in this way?” Silbert asked.
The Interfaith Intercultural Twinning and Exchange Programme forms part of the Cape Town Interfaith Initiative. Silbert initiated the programme at the beginning of 2011. Each year, three Grade 10 pupils are selected from five schools across Cape Town to participate in the programme for two years.
In the first year, the group meets once a month for an afternoon after the school day has ended at each of the five schools on a rotating basis. In the second year, when they’re in Grade 11, they tutor mathematics or language and literacy one afternoon a week at a school in Gugulethu. After they leave school, many continue to be involved as alumni at tertiary institutions.
This year, the graduating class is from Herzlia High in Highlands, Iqhayiya Secondary in Khayelitsha, The Leadership College in Manenberg, Oude Molen Academy of Science & Technology (AST) in Pinelands and Rylands High in Gatesville. “The pupils come from diverse religious, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. The aim is to provide an opportunity for them to engage in meaningful dialogue with one another,” Silbert said.
During the October holidays, the pupils gathered at Rylands High to make a peace mosaic that will travel to each school for a period and, possibly, with the involvement of DA MP and deputy sport and recreation spokesman Darren Bergman, to Parliament and the Civic Centre.
Group volunteer Stephen Jacobs, who owns a tile-cutting studio, got the idea for the mosaic from the piles of offcuts he amasses in his factory. Other tile companies donated tiny mosaics in different colours for the quadrant installation which the pupils designed. The mosaic illustrates the concepts of unity, peace, diversity and love. Jacobs liked the saying “The pieces separately have no significance, but when they’re put together, you can make something beautiful”, he said.
At the final-year session, each group of pupils spoke about what the programme had meant to them.
Ziyaad Solomon, from Oude Molen AST, said: “When being selected for the interfaith programme, I just thought we would meet people we’d be grouping with and learn to get to know them better. My expectations were belittled compared to everything we did. As a Muslim growing up, I was always surrounded by mostly Muslim people and Christians too, but not one Jew.
“I always thought Jews were people in a certain country or city because of all the different stories I’ve heard and seen on television. People in the media also portray Islam to be bad because of what is happening in the world. The programme only made me realise that there is no difference in any human being – whether we have a different skin colour, culture or belief system.”
Herzlia pupil Grant Norrie compared the interfaith programme experience with that of two trees growing together: “We, as young adults, can be considered to be like trees. We are in the process of growing. To grow, we require a large adventitious root system. Interfaith is part of this root system. It nourishes us.
“There is another idea that is partnered with the tree; it is the idea of double-cropping. This is when two trees are in a symbiotic relationship. Just like the trees, all the people on this programme support and enable each other to grow,” he said.
Fellow Herzlian Kyle Nash added: “This is what interfaith means to us: a chance to grow, make friends and learn.”
Sive Mndawo, from Iqhayiya, said: “The project taught us not to make assumptions. It taught us to know each other and communicate.” Fellow student Simphiwe Gwama added: “Being with you guys has made me realise that we are all human, with heart and brain.”
Cindy St Clair, from Rylands, described how she had previously been to all of the places they spent time at on the programme, such as Manenberg and Khayelitsha. “But I’ve never really had the chance to go into conversation with people there.”
After the participating pupils had finished, Zachary Levin, one of the Grade 11 Herzlia pupils, who had been in the interfaith programme for almost two years, described his weekly experience tutoring Grade 5 children at Siyasingiza Primary School in Gugulethu, in collaboration with the Amy Biehl Foundation. “The power of relationships is the essence of the interfaith programme. Getting to know other people, I felt immensely enriched,” he said of the opportunity to bond with the Siyasingiza students.
After reading an article in the Cape Times in July about the initiative, Bergman contacted Silbert and attended the final session. After the students had completed their report-backs, Bergman stood up and said he had grasped two things from their speeches: “I didn’t know what I didn’t know and we’ve got to talk, talking solves issues.”
He said that as a ward councillor, he had routinely visited churches, mosques and synagogues, and had discovered that in the Abrahamic faiths there were more similarities than differences.
“As the youth, I wish we could lead the adults to stop acting like children. When people are talking, there can be peace. We’re all speaking the same language. We’re just not listening to each other.”
l Herman is a former senior writer for the Cape Times.