Hind Taher al-Husseini

Hind al-Husseini was a formidable figure who dedicated her life to the care of orphans, education of girls and women, preservation of Palestinian culture, and social service during a time of cataclysmic trauma and upheaval in the history of the Palestinian people. She made impactful and enduring contributions to the city of her birth, Jerusalem, to her homeland, Palestine, and to her people.

Al-Husseini was born in Jerusalem on April 25, 1916, in the home of her maternal grandfather, Muhammad Salih al-Husseini, which is the house currently known as Dar al-Tifl al-Arabi (the House of the Arab Child) in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The home, a mansion, was built by her grandfather in 1891. Her parents were well-known Jerusalemites. She was a cousin of Abd al-Qadir al-Husseini. Her father died when she was just two years old. She was the youngest and the only girl among six children. Her mother struggled to raise and educate her six children on her own. Al-Husseini’s family situation greatly affected her later working life.

She finished her primary education at the Islamic Girls’ School in the Old City of Jerusalem adjacent to the al-Aqsa Mosque in 1932. For secondary school, she attended the English College for Girls in Jerusalem, graduating in 1937. Then she studied Arabic and English literature in 1938 independently. She wanted to continue and pursue higher education, but World War II intervened and made it impossible at that time.

Al-Husseini worked as a teacher at the Islamic Girls’ School for one year. She briefly stopped teaching after the outbreak of World War II, then continued teaching there until the end of the academic year 1945–46. After that, she left teaching for voluntary social work, joining the Women’s Social Solidarity Society (Jam‘iyyat al-Taddamun al-Nisa’i), an organization that was an integral part of the political and patriotic work in Jerusalem and whose purpose was to provide nursing and first aid services.1

From 1945, al-Husseini began focusing on voluntary social work. In 1945, she cofounded the Women’s Cooperation Society (Jam‘iyyat al-Takkaful al-Nisa’i) in Jerusalem, which went on to establish 22 branches throughout Palestine. In addition to the establishment of various kindergartens, al-Husseini also organized literacy campaigns and sewing centers for the Society.

In April 1948, as al-Husseini, then aged 31, was on her way to attend a meeting in the Old City of Jerusalem, she spotted a group of 55 traumatized homeless children, the oldest of whom was nine, barefoot and in their pajamas, on the street outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. These children were the orphans who had survived the massacre committed in the village of Deir Yasin by Zionist paramilitary forces on April 9 (see The West Side Story). Later al-Husseini described this moment as follows:

She pledged herself to the care of these children and sheltered them in two rooms rented by her charitable society. She visited them and fed them daily. Within days, she moved them to the Sahyun convent in the Old City at the nuns’ invitation, which turned out to be wise, as the original rooms were bombed shortly thereafter. This incident encouraged her to establish a charity in her family home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem to serve Palestinian orphaned and needy children. She named it Dar al-Tifl al-Arabi (the House of the Arab Child). Dar al-Tifl started as a kindergarten with a humble beginning. Over the next few years, however, the school took in orphans from villages and cities around Palestine—as far north as ‘Arraba and as far south as Gaza.

After the school reopened in 1949, classes were gradually added onto the original kindergarten at the rate of about one a year. The school that developed was meant to offer a curriculum that departed from the government school curriculum.

Before the 1967 War, Dar al-Tifl had as many as 40 children sent by wealthy parents in the Gulf as boarding students. The tuition fees from these students alone paid the expenses of the 120 other children. They also helped provide a social mix of children, which al-Husseini considered important for the children's growth and self-awareness. However, she also established the Dar al-Tifl Foundation to raise money for the school.

During the 1967 War, al-Husseini transformed the headquarters of Dar al-Tifl into a clinic to treat the wounded. This headquarters was not spared from the aggression of the Israeli forces, as it was bombed and completely destroyed, but the Norwegian Red Cross helped to rebuild it after the war.

After 1967, the institution became a girls’ school.

In time, Dar al-Tifl grew into a prestigious national educational institution. Today, it includes a nursery and kindergarten, preparatory and secondary stage, secretarial department, and training in basic housekeeping and sewing, as well as combating illiteracy.

In order to develop her own educational and social capabilities, al-Husseini studied education and social work at the University of Hamburg, Germany, for three consecutive years, and for four months each year during the period 1963–65.

In 1960, al-Husseini established a museum of Palestinian folklore in Dar al-Tifl. The museum displayed valuable antiques, traditional handicrafts, and folk costumes embroidered from different regions of Palestine. Over the years, the museum’s holdings have consistently been enriched. The museum still exists today and welcomes visitors. According to its website:

In 1982, the palatial family home of the Palestinian writer, scholar, and educator Muhammad Issaf al-Nashashibi, which had been bequeathed to Dar al-Tifl, was converted into the Dar Issaf Nashashibi Center for Culture and Literature, and it was set up as a research center. With the assistance of Ishaq Musa al-Husseini, Hind al-Husseini established a library in the center, which included thousands of books on Arab Islamic heritage as well as manuscripts and hundreds of rare books. Initially conceived as a national resource, the center’s mission narrowed to serving primarily East Jerusalem given the closure imposed on the city in the early 1990s. Also located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, the center and its library still exist today.