A New Children’s TV Series about the Bi-Lingual School

Last week, my husband Ron and I saw a preview of the first two episodes of the new television series called Madrassa, which is a TV series about Arab and Jewish kids studying together in a bi-lingual school in Jerusalem. This new series, written by the well-known Israeli Arab author Sayed Kashua (Dancing Arabs 2002, Track Changes 2020) and directed by Gur Alfie, an Israeli actor, comedian, writer and director, is a new joint project of Educational TV in Israel and the Arabic TV channel in Israel, called Makan 33. Ron and I wrote this review together.

While this TV series is completely fictional, it is important to state that there is a bi-lingual school in Jerusalem, from kindergarten through 12th grade, which is part of the Hand in Hand Educational Network that promotes Arab-Jewish Education in several locations in Israel.

Madrassa (in Hebrew and Arabic, as is the school that it depicts) was humorous, insightful (stereotypes notwithstanding) and even poignant.  The episodes that we viewed were very well done. They grappled with serious issues that Arab and Jewish students face, especially in their high school years, as they learn and socialize together. In addition, the series is done with a sense of humor, which is the well-known style of Sayed Kashua which we remember well from his popular television series, Arab Labor (previously reviewed on this blog), which ran for several years in Israel and which was translated into English for viewers abroad, who wanted to learn about relations between Arabs and Jews in Israel.

Following the screening of the two episodes, we listened to a panel of some of the bright, vivacious young Israeli Arab and Jewish actors in the series. Just seeing them together on the stage, so friendly and cooperative, was symbolic of their positive experience in making this series together, which they clearly all enjoyed. They are now friends from doing this.

Moreover, they had important things to say to us. For example, there was an issue raised in one of the episodes of a high school girl who decides to come to school at the beginning of the new school year wearing a hijab (a Muslim head covering) which is a great shock to the secular Arabs and Jews who are her friends in the school on the TV program. We learned from the actress who played this girl that this was based on a real story in the actual school. One of the male actors, who graduated from the Hand in Hand school in Jerusalem told us that this was an issue because most of the students who attended the school, from both sides, were secular, and it took some time for them to learn to live with a religious student in their class.

Another actress was asked about how she felt about dealing with these sensitive issues with a sense of humor. Her answer was poignant: “It is better to have love than hatred!” This basically summed up her attitude to the whole series. She sees this as the message of the series.

The young actors and actresses –who are clearly very much involved now in this show—were interviewed by an Israeli website called Serugim where they spoke similarly about how much they enjoyed making this series together and how important the message of mutual understanding is for Israeli society today. Among other things they said: “We hope that the viewers will laugh and love—it’s all permissible.” They have imbibed Sayeed Kashua’s method and message of using humor to help deal with difficult issues. Since the screening of these initial episodes, they have been interviewed in several Israeli websites and newspapers, which is an indication that this series is already beginning to make some noise in Israeli society, which is a good thing! In one of the interviews, for the website called Walla, the authors of the article say that with all the dilemmas and difficulties involved, this series “points to an alternative way” for Israeli society.

This series will now be screened on Educational TV and Arabic TV in the weeks ahead. It will also be streamed.  In these difficult days, with the rise of an extreme right-wing government in Israel, we hope it promotes greater understanding among Arabs and Jews in Israel.

The series is available from Go2Films.