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Schüleraustausch zwischen dem Gymnasium Marktoberdorf und der Zafit High School
It started with music
In the late 1970s and in the 1980s Arthur Groß, music teacher at Gymnasium Marktoberdorf, went on concert trips to Israel with the local chamber choir (later: Carl-Orff-Chor Marktoberdorf). In these years the Kibbutz-Arzi-Choir conducted by Mr Groß' Israeli friend Henry Klausner visited Marktoberdorf several times.
In 1979 the choir took part in the 11th Zimriya, the renowned Jewish Choir Festival. On
one of his visits to Israel Mr Groß met Assa Barak, music teacher at Zafit High School in Kfar Menachem. The two teachers wanted to intensify the contacts between young people from Israel and Germany and soon the idea of an exchange programme for pupils at Zafit High School and Gymnasium Marktoberdorf emerged.
Our partner school
Zafit High School in Kibbutz Kfar Menachem/Israel is a comprehensive
school (and boarding school) situated about 40 km west of Jerusalem.
There are about 800 pupils from various kibbutzim, moshavim and villages
around Kfar Menachem. Special emphasis is put on shaping the pupils'
personality and their social integration. Interdisciplinary projects
constitute an essential part of the education at Zafit. Apart from the
exchange programme with Marktoberdorf, Zafit High School cooperates
with an Arabic school in Haifa and contributes to biological research
programmes at the University of Tel Aviv.
Our exchange programme
There were mutual annual visits between 1993 and 1999 (8 participants on
each side).
Sadly, since September 2000 the continuation of violence in the Middle
East made it hard for our schools to take responsibility for trips to Israel.
In order to keep our school partnership alive we decided to continue on a
unilateral basis and we have had the pleasure of welcoming school
delegations from Zafit in Marktoberdorf without any interruption for 17 years.
Between 2001 and 2006 we offered students reunions in Prague and students from
our school visited their friends in Israel on a private basis in the last
three years. After almost ten years our school visited Israel in February 2010 again and
brought back unforgettable memories. So did the 2011 delegation who just returned
from Kfar Menachem after having enjoyed seven days full of profound impressions.
Many new friendships were made and we are already looking forward to another
visit of our friends from Israel in Marktoberdorf in fall 2011.
Due to the special relationship between our two nations, which developed
in the aftermath of the Holocaust, it has always been our main concern to
create a relaxed atmosphere for establishing personal bonds between the
individual pupils.
For further information on Israel see www.israel.de.