Photo Album

Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi: A Photo History

December 26, 2025

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Hind al-Husseini’s family home, where Dar Al-Tifel first began. This is where she brought the surviving children of the Deir Yassin massacre and started the institution on the first floor. The photo shows students and a school bus in its early years as the school took shape. Date unknown.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Students make their way to class in the 1960s, when Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi’s school building was still only two floors, the upper level for classrooms and the lower for the kitchen, cafeteria, and small theater. The ground floor later served as a shelter during the 1967 War for students, staff, and neighbors.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

A group of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi’s boarding students in the 1950s, many of whom were orphaned or came from difficult home situations and were living full time at the school. They formed their own small community, proudly holding their toys outside one of the campus buildings.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

A group of children at the boarding school, who were some of the young, orphaned Deir Yassin survivors, pose together for a holiday postcard. The postcards carried their portraits and warm notes, offering heartfelt messages during the holiday season.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Teachers and young students share a warm moment at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Beyond teaching, staff played a central role in the children’s daily lives, creating a nurturing environment where care, routine, and community shaped the early years of the boarding students.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Boarding students at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi take part in a cultural activity in the 1960s, dressed in traditional Palestinian costumes. Most extracurriculars centered around the girls who lived at the school full time, giving them a warm, grounded routine and as normal a childhood as possible.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Kindergarten students at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi, learning, playing, and growing together in the earliest years of the institution, many of them boarding children, some orphaned, others from struggling families, early 1950s

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Kindergarten and boarding students gather in the schoolyard for a snack break, Jerusalem, date unknown.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

An older student sits with kindergarten-age children, helping them with embroidery in keeping with Hind al-Husseini’s philosophy of raising girls in a community-oriented environment. Older students cared for the younger ones, learning responsibility while giving back to their school community. Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi school, Jerusalem, 1950s–60s.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Boarding students cooling off with bottles of soda on a hot Jerusalem summer day, 1950s–60s. Moments like this—simple, playful, and carefree—were an important part of childhood for the girls who lived at the institution.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Students in a vocational training class practice embroidery, one of the life skills taught at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi, 1960s. These lessons were part of Hind al-Husseini’s vision of raising confident, capable young women equipped for both independence and community responsibility.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

High school students sit for their final exams at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi, 1970s. On exam days, uniforms were not required, giving the girls a brief break from the school dress code. The scene captures the focus and pressure of end-of-year testing in one of Jerusalem’s most storied institutions.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Palestinian high school students gather in their classroom at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi, 1980s. The mix of uniforms and white headscarves reflects the era’s style, and the candid smiles capture the warmth and familiarity that characterized daily life at the school.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

An end-of-year honor ceremony at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi, where Hind al-Husseini personally awarded certificates to the top three students in each class. These moments were part of the school’s tradition of celebrating excellence and encouraging the girls to take pride in their achievements.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Hind al-Husseini surrounded by students in the Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi schoolyard. Her daily walks through campus often drew the girls around her; then and now, students speak of her with deep respect and admiration, looking up to her with a lasting pride in the woman who shaped their school.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Students march in a civic parade near Damascus Gate, holding banners calling on citizens to support Jerusalem’s social welfare institutions, 1950s. Participating in such events was part of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi’s effort to teach responsibility, civic engagement, and commitment to the community.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Hind (second from right) and Anne (first from right) take part in a cultural event abroad honoring Palestinian tradition, date and location unknown. Anne wears the Bethlehem thobe with its crown, while Hind appears in a village-style dress, standing among women showcasing regional embroidery and heritage.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Hind al-Husseini stands with school staff members at the entrance of the household management classroom. In the middle is a child from the boarding school. This space was designed to replicate a real home, with a living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

The Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi playground during recess. On the right stands the boarding school building; in front, the main school; and at the center, the structure that later housed the administration and the Palestine Heritage Museum. The schoolyard was the heart of daily life for generations of students.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Donors tour Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi’s kindergarten, joined by Hind al-Husseini on the right and several teachers who stand beside her. The visit gave supporters a close look at the children’s daily routines, with the kids gathered around their tables building with wooden blocks.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Donors tour the boarding section during a visit to Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi in the 1960s. Supporters often came before and after contributing, first to understand the school’s needs, and later to see how their donations improved conditions for the children living on campus.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

A gift distribution day in the early 1950s. Donors present gifts to Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi’s youngest students, many of them kindergarteners and boarding children, while Hind al-Husseini stands behind them. Moments like this were part of the early community support that helped the school grow.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Students line up as donors distribute gifts and clothing at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi. Such visits were common in the school’s early years, offering direct support to the children, many of whom were orphans or boarding students from difficult circumstances.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

The first class to graduate from Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi poses on the school steps in white dresses, early 1960s. This first cohort marked a milestone for the institution; students moved from Hind al-Husseini’s school into universities for the first time.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Hind al-Husseini stands at the center of the photo, with Mahera Dajani positioned to her right. Taken in the 1980s, this image shows Hind surrounded by Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi’s dedicated staff and members of the administrative council, reflecting the collaborative leadership that shaped the school’s identity.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Hind al-Husseini stands with Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi staff during a certificate-handing ceremony, Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, date unknown.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Families and friends gather in the Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi hall for a school event in the 1970s, a reminder that the institution was never just a school, but a community space where students, parents, and supporters came together to celebrate the girls’ achievements.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Hind al-Husseini stands at the front of a classroom reviewing a paper, with several staff and teachers around her. An elementary student in a red and green school uniform stands to the side, date unknown.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Boarding students at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi share breakfast in the 1970s. Many of these children lived at the school, creating a close-knit friendship shaped by daily routines, shared meals, and the stability the institution provided.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

An elementary classroom at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi, where students wore the school’s red, green, and white uniform, 1970s. The girl seated in the first row in green would later become an Arabic teacher in a Jerusalem school, one of many alumnae who returned to serve their community.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Boarding students studying in their dorm room, likely in the late 1970s or 1980s. Older students lived on the quieter upper floors and had relaxed curfew rules during exams so they could study late into the night, one of the school’s ways of supporting their success.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Hind al-Husseini awards a medal to a student during one of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi’s regular sports competitions, Jerusalem, date unknown. These events were a key part of school life.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

High school students at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi perform dabke in traditional Palestinian thobes, each reflecting the embroidery of a different city, likely in the 1970s or 1980s. Cultural events like this helped preserve the girls’ heritage and protect a history that has always faced the threat of erasure.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Boarding students at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi crowd the classroom window with playful smiles and peace signs, 1990s. The boarding home remained a lively, full-time world for children who grew up on campus, forming friendships and memories that shaped their early years.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

Hind al-Husseini at the center stands with members of the administrative board, staff, and students, all gathered proudly in front of the Hind al-Husseini College for Girls during its late construction phase, Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, date unknown.

Credit:

Courtesy of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi

From the Woman to the Place

Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi carries the kind of story that cannot be separated from the woman who first held it together, yet it deserves its own space and its own narrative. While one can trace the life of its remarkable founder, Hind al-Husseini (see Hind Taher al-Husseini and The Quiet Architecture of Hind al-Husseini’s Life), this Photo Album shifts the focus from her biography to the world she built. What stands today in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is not simply a school or a heritage site. Rather, it is a layered institution shaped by time, memory, routine, and the steady presence of generations who passed through its gates. This album explores that communal space—its buildings, its everyday life, its people—its impact on several generations.

For more, see also Jerusalem Story’s video Raising Generations, Uplifting a Nation: Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi.

The Grounds and Buildings

At the center of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi stands the historic Husseini family house, built by Salim al-Husseini long before the institution existed (see Salim al-Husseini). A structure that witnessed changing eras in Jerusalem, it later became the backbone of the foundation. Its rooms, arches, and corridors hold traces of different lives and needs, eventually becoming the home to generations of Palestinian children.

From the single Husseini house, Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi gradually expanded. Classrooms, administrative buildings, boarding sections, and cultural spaces were added over the years, some in response to urgent needs, others to opportunity. The campus grew in uneven but meaningful ways, shaped by shifting circumstances in Jerusalem. The campus expanded in stages, beginning with the current administrative building, originally the home of Hind’s grandfather and where Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi first took shape.

By 1949, the first two floors of the main school building were completed with Aramco’s support. In 1967, a donation from Hamad al-Hmoudi al-Shaye’ of the Kuwaiti embassy funded the completion of the structure. In 1970–71, Hind obtained funds from a German organization to build a five-story building for the boarding school, which housed 350 orphans from around the country.1 Later, she purchased the building that now houses the Palestine Heritage Museum from the Salim al-Husseini family (see Palestine Heritage Museum). In 1982, Dar al-Isaaf Al-Nashashibi for Culture, Arts, and Literature was added with support from the King Faisal Institute, and the Hind al-Husseini College for Girls was built with the help of the Muslim Solidarity. By that year, all six buildings of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi had been completed, reflecting decades of gradual, purpose-driven expansion.2 Hind made sure they were registered as Islamic waqf, so they could never be sold.3

The School

Inside the gates is a life that looks familiar to anyone who “attended” school in Jerusalem: morning lines, uniforms, structured days, and the subtle rhythm that forms when teachers and students share the same space year after year. The school grew from kindergarten through secondary levels, and its classrooms carried a shared tone: disciplined, steady, and attentive. For many students, Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi became not just a place to learn but a place to grow up.

Alongside the day school, Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi offered a boarding section that had its roots at the very beginning of the institution. It started with the 55 orphaned children of the Deir Yassin massacre whom Hind found on the streets and brought to her home. Over time, she continued to receive children from Jerusalem and across Palestine who were orphaned or facing difficult circumstances and needed a more stable environment. Raised within that structure, the children were taught to carry themselves with discipline, respect, and a sense of responsibility—values the school saw as essential for them to move confidently into the world beyond its gates.

These children were students who lived on the grounds, forming their own small community within a larger one. Their routines were shaped not only by the academic schedule but also by the rhythms of shared living, meals, study hours, and evening gatherings. Many would later look back on the institution as both home and school (see Raising Generations, Uplifting a Nation: Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi).

The Museum

The Palestine Heritage Museum on campus became one of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi’s most important cultural spaces. It houses traditional dresses, textiles, silverwork, furniture, and everyday objects of Palestinian life that might have been lost or forgotten. The museum wasn’t designed as a grand institution, but as a steady testimony to the cultural memory of a people whose material history was at constant risk.

In recent years, the museum faced financial challenges that forced temporary closures (see A Symbol of Palestinian Identity, Palestine Heritage Museum Faces Difficulties Reopening). Despite this, the effort to keep its doors open continues. The building remains a reminder that preserving memory requires work and persistence, often behind the scenes. And yet, the space still stands, holding thousands of pieces that speak to a shared identity and a rich history.

The People

Over the decades, a consistent circle of teachers, administrators, and staff formed the backbone of daily life at Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi. Many stayed for years, becoming familiar figures for students across generations. Their presence added continuity to a place that often faced instability from the outside. In the earliest years, many of these staff members were part of Hind’s own close circle, friends who supported her mission from the start and stayed by her side as the institution grew. Over time, those who had once been students of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi became the school’s teachers, administrators, and directors, carrying forward the very values with which they were raised and ensuring the institution remained rooted in its own community.

From the oldest black-and-white class photographs to the uniforms of the 1980s and beyond, the students of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi tell their own stories. Each era shows a slightly different Jerusalem and a slightly different reality, yet the institution remains a constant. Thousands of girls passed through its classrooms, and many returned later as parents, teachers, or community members, linking back to the place that shaped them and preserving a great connection with it, making Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi an essential part of Jerusalemite collective memory.

The Institutional Memory

Throughout its history, Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi maintained relationships with international organizations, donors, and delegations. Some visited the school to understand how their support was being used; others hosted Hind or the institution’s representatives abroad. These connections helped sustain the school and expand its reach during times when local resources were strained.

Beyond its programs, Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi became a recognizable part of Jerusalem’s educational and cultural landscape. Visitors often saw it as a place that reflected the city’s layered identity, part historic home, part school, part museum, and part community hub. Even today, it stands as a reference point, not for its size, but for the consistency of its mission.

Today, Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi continues to operate across its different branches: the school, the boarding section, the museum, and the cultural houses. It also carries the weight of ongoing financial and political pressures—pressures that have only intensified since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967. Restrictions on movement impact students, staff, and supplies; permits for maintenance or construction can take months or be denied without explanation; and any expansion faces layers of bureaucracy tied to the political reality of East Jerusalem.

Financially, the institution has had to navigate shrinking donor support and rising operational costs, all in a context of Israel’s intensifying efforts to place financial and bureaucratic obstacles in the way of any Palestinian organization that remains independent and fosters national identity. The institution has repeatedly relied on community donations and external support to cover essential needs, even for basic repairs, such as fixing aging classrooms or maintaining the boarding section.

Despite these challenges, according to administrator Rana Qutteini, Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi remains committed to the same purpose it held from the start: providing care, education, and continuity for the children of Jerusalem, and preserving the national identity and cultural memory that the city’s circumstances continually imperil.

Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi is more than the sum of its programs or buildings. It is a place that absorbed the energies of everyone who passed through it—students, teachers, staff, and visitors, and then invigorated them right back with a heightened collective energy and spirit. It carries the momentum of decades, shaped by the city’s shifts and by the people who kept it running. In following its story through photos, we trace an institution that holds both history and everyday life and continues to stand as part of Jerusalem’s living fabric.