Emleson School: Championing Community through Education

Emleson School in East Jerusalem’s Jabal Mukabbir neighborhood offers affordable, top-tier education for low- and middle-income Palestinian Jerusalemite children from nursery school through grade 8.

Located in Jabal Mukabbir in the south of Jerusalem, Emleson School overlooks the neighborhoods of East Talpiot to the north, Abu Tur and Silwan to the east, and Sur Bahir to the south. Several Jewish settlements have been erected nearby since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967; you can tell by the Israeli flags hanging out of the windows, the slight shine to their buildings, and the lack of black water tanks on the roofs. Even though everybody in the city pays the same in municipality fees, only the Palestinian homes have black water tanks on their roofs. The Israeli homes are connected to the municipality water system; the Palestinian homes must make do with small tanks that need refilling each month.

One hears the school even before it’s visible. It’s 11:00 a.m. on a bright Thursday morning and the children are on their morning break. They run, scream, and whistle their way around the yellow canopied playground, exerting all their energy before the late morning lessons begin.

This school is part of the Emleson Society for Women, a nonprofit committed to supporting women and children in underserved neighborhoods in the city. The society was launched in 1992 by Dalal Lafi and Rehab Abeideyeh from the Palestinian neighborhoods of Jabal Mukabbir and Umm Lison in East Jerusalem (hence the name Emleson). When Dalal and Rehab noticed children playing on the streets, with no kindergarten to go to, they felt they needed to do something. So one of the women cleared out her garage, spoke with the mothers and fathers, and gathered the children from the street and into their makeshift kindergarten. This addressed two issues: with children in a safe and supervised environment, their mothers could seek paid employment.

Soon, the two women decided to start workshops to empower these mothers. They set up cooking classes and craft workshops. Over time, a community gradually evolved.

Because the women were serving their own community, they poured everything into the project. They used tables and chairs from their own homes, pooling their own resources to support families and help women to gain independence.

Their network of volunteers grew, and the demand for more kindergartens increased. That’s when they applied for a license to formally launch the Emleson Society for Women.

Under this umbrella, they opened two branches in Jabal Mukabbir and al-‘Isawiyya—in each neighborhood, a kindergarten, and a joint kindergarten and nursery for children in danger. They also opened one kindergarten and one nursery in Ras al-Amud, and in 2006, they opened Emleson School, to continue supporting the community with education until grade 8. The two women founders remain active in the organization.1

Today, the entire Emleson organization has 180 employees and serves 1,400 children in Jerusalem through nurseries, kindergartens, and Emleson School. Their aim is to support and provide Palestinian Jerusalemites with high-level education and socioeconomic resources through childcare and cutting-edge learning using a combination of the Israeli, Palestinian, and English curricula.

Any Palestinian student from Jerusalem and the local villages can apply to the school. Some students are referred to Emleson School by the Department of Social Affairs, and some are from families who do not experience serious social problems. The school believes that placing these children in the same classes will improve their overall behavior and psychology.

The Emleson School building is rented from a Palestinian landlord. The school staff renovates the building each year, repainting the exterior and brightening the interior walls and corridors with bright murals.

Wasim Ali, the school principal, greets me at the entrance along with Hayat Amous, Emleson’s relationship manager. The two of them take me for a tour of the school, working up from grades 1 to 8. Each classroom is full of kids delighted to show off their English skills. “Hello!” they say in unison. “How are you?”

The walls are decorated with murals and graphics in Arabic and English, with bright infographics from the world of technology, science, and math. There are two large outdoor areas for the children to play, and downstairs is the social worker’s office. Hiba Sandoka is dressed entirely in bright pink, a surefire way to light up the children’s day. Everybody is kind, smiling, and welcoming, from the students to the receptionist.

The environment is reflective of the foundational principles of the Emleson Society for Women. It feels like a community and a place that nurtures confidence, self-belief, and bright futures, as well as offers an education.

Wasim has been the principal at Emleson School for 5 years and has 23 years of experience in Jerusalem’s school system. He says the school is unique, because it started from a place of kindness and community. “We want to change our society through small children,” he says, speaking from his office. “We want to build them up to build our society.”2

Wasim explains that Emleson is the only private school in this part of Jerusalem, teaching grades 1 through 8 with more than one class to each grade level and 30 to 35 children in each class. The school employs 35 teachers and has a total of 473 students. “We have two units for special education needs, and we have children on the waiting list, but we’ve run out of space in the classrooms,” he says. After grade 8, the children can go to several high schools in the city center. Thanks to Emleson School, they have a high acceptance rate.

Emleson’s funding comes from school and kindergarten fees, selling educational consultancy services to other institutions, and local and international institutions such as the Taawon Fund, United Nations Development Programme, and NGO Development Center.

The school’s core curriculum is math, science, Hebrew, Arabic, and English. They teach the Israeli curriculum, but because the school is private, they have more autonomy and are able to teach parts of the Palestinian curriculum too. As a result, they undergo regular inspections from the Israeli Ministry of Education, which adds extra stress to the faculty. However, they’ll continue to shape their own curriculum, as Wasim wants the students to maintain their Palestinian education and identity and believes that English-language skills are crucial for successful college and university applications.

Because the school is in a neighborhood with growing numbers of Israeli settlers, a school bus has been contracted to transport the children to and from Emleson so they don’t have to walk alone. Most of the children come from within a mile, but some students from a nearby village occasionally have to pass through a makeshift checkpoint. “Most of the time they’re turned back home and not allowed to pass,” Wasim says. “Or [soldiers will] check their bags and throw any textbooks published by the Palestinian Authority [PA] in the trash.”

The pressures of the occupation have a huge impact on Palestinian school systems in Jerusalem. The students experience a lot of stress, whether it’s from checkpoints and road closures, or second-hand stress from unemployed parents. Some might have siblings or parents in jail, and all of them will have experienced violence, whether at home or from the army and settlers on the streets. It’s difficult to measure just how negatively these stressors impact the children, but Emleson believes that the best way to fight these injustices is to provide the best education they possibly can so the students can shape productive futures.

Hayat is Emleson’s relationship manager. Her role is to fundraise by building relationships with the community and local and international institutions. She’s been working here for 18 years, motivated by the strong sense of community, purpose, and fulfillment she finds in this role. Hayat explains that just a small accident could have big consequences. “If someone drives their car too close to a settler, they might be labelled a terrorist,” she says. “The kids feel all of this and it is very tense and stressful.”3

This is a common reality since October 7, 2023, when Israel declared war on Gaza in the wake of Hamas’s Operation al-Aqsa Floods. Students and parents are afraid, and school officials say every family has been impacted, whether through fear of being punished by the state for expressing opinions, lost income due to Israeli’s restrictions on mobility and access or eliminated jobs, homes being demolished, family members being arrested, or relatives being killed or displaced in Gaza. “First we had to help the team deal with this, so the team can help the children,” Hayat says. “Now, kids talk about war and killing all the time, because they see the news. It’s not simple, but we’re trying to make it easier for them.” The staff does this with the help of an in-house social worker and psychologist and special classes for children who need additional attention. “We want the kids to understand what’s happening, and to help them understand the situation we are living in and that we need to continue and cannot become stuck,” Hayat says.

Because the society was funded on the basis of supporting and providing for the community, the team members are dedicated and committed; many employees have worked there for 10 years or more. Just like the women who founded it, they pour their hearts into it. “These women believed in their community, and wanted to help,” Hayat says. “Sometimes when you want to fight, you don’t fight with guns—you fight with education. You fight with culture.”

And that ethos extends to the entire school. “We’re a family, and we stand together to improve this organization,” Hayat says. “Sometimes we won’t get our full salaries, but we don’t care. This isn’t just a job. It’s not always easy, but if you believe in something, you’ll continue.”