Ramallah Friends School was founded in 1869 by two Friends from New England, when Palestine was still under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and eventually grew to two campuses in the neighboring cities of Ramallah and Al-Bireh. QuakerSpeak recently conducted Zoom interviews with Rania Maayeh, the head of the school, and Omar Tesdell, the clerk of its board of trustees.
The school has carried on through decades of violence during the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and even at times been the target of attacks, but continues to thrive. “When it seems that hope is lost,” Omar says, “we try to provide a sanctuary where people can feel welcome [and] free, when outside the walls they are very much not free.”
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Transcript:
Rania
So my name is Rania Maayeh.
Omar
My name is Omar Tesdell. I am the clerk the Ramallah Friends board of trustees.
Rania
And I am the head of Ramallah Friends School.
Omar
I attend Ramallah Friends meeting in Ramallah, Palestine.
Rania
I attend the Ramallah Friends meeting here in Ramallah.
To start with the Ramallah Friends School as part of the history of Ramallah in particular, and the history of Palestine. Ramallah Friends School was founded in 1869 by Eli and Sybil Jones, the two New England Quakers from Maine. At the time. When they arrived to Ramallah, there was no school for girls in Ramallah. Ramallah was the small Christian village of 3000 inhabitants.
Omar
Eli and Sybil Jones, after their pilgrimage, raised money and returned promptly to Palestine, to Ramallah, purchased the land and established a school for girls. Land was purchased in in the city of El-Bireh where the school for boys was established. In the last, I think, 30 years, the two schools were mixed. The campuses are beautiful stone structures from the 19th century. The city has grown up all around the campuses. And so they’re really sanctuaries of trees and fresh air and greenery.
Rania
The school has endured two world wars and transitions of power from the Ottoman rule, to the British administration, to the Jordanian governance, to Israeli occupation.
Omar
It’s been attacked, it’s been hit.
Rania
Palestine continues to grapple with complex political realities, ongoing challenges, the war in Gaza, the escalation of violence in the West Bank. We’re under occupation, and as we continue to endure all of this the legacy the history of are our schools serves as the reminder of the enduring strength and unwavering commitment of Palestinians to education and community that have sustained us through all of those years.
Omar
When it seems that hope is lost we try to provide a sanctuary where people can feel welcome, people can feel, to the extent possible, free when outside the walls they are very much not free.
Rania
It’s a place for hope, where Palestinians find education as means of resilience and resistance. Within our Quaker faith and practice here at the French school, we have a very open an integrated understanding of our faith with regard to people of other Christian denominations and of our Muslim friends and neighbors.
Omar
Quakerism then becomes a kind of channel by which people can access and come to new understandings of their own faith without any expectation
Rania
These Quaker values, there are universal values that as Palestinians and non Quakers, they believe in those values because they exist in every religion. But when we highlight them and they are integrated within our curriculum, this is why it makes the Ramallah Friends School distinguished because it’s a value based education.
Omar
I think friends are called to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. And Jesus, stood with people who were being marginalized in their society. It was happening right here in the land where I am now. He sought to bring about justice in a very, very, very powerful way. Which was not to turn to militarism or nationalism or empire, but rather to live his life in solidarity and live that solidarity to the very end. I think that that example inspires and has inspired friends for generations as they put their own lives on the line to stand with people around the world.
Rania
Quakerism fosters a strong sense of empathy and compassion towards others, Quakers believe in every person’s inherent worth and goodness and dignity. And this is the drive for Quakers to advocate for the rights and well-being of all individuals, for justice and for equality. Especially those who are marginalized and oppressed.
Omar
I think friends are particularly well placed to call for the freedom of Palestinians,
and all people around the world who are yearning for things that all of us want for ourselves and for our families and for our loved ones. Dignified life, dignified work, freedom.
Rania
Spirituality provides Quaker activists with their resilience and perseverance in facing the challenges. Because we find the strength and guidance to sustain efforts for social change.
Omar
It’s a funny mandate to try to think 20 years down the road when you don’t know what’s going to happen in the next 20 minutes. We’re constantly tracking back and forth between just living in the moment very, very deeply, which in a sense really allows one to deepen one’s faith because it requires us to reach out into that community of parents of students, of alumni, of faculty, staff. Because you’re living in this kind of high pressure situation, community is how you make it through. There is no other way to allow the school to thrive without community. That allows us to be better Quakers. It allows us to be better Christians. It gives us the opportunity to live our faith and witness. Because we are we are working from within and through our community.
Rania
I was impacted also by the Quaker teachers and the Quaker staff were here when I studied at the school. They lived those values. The number of Quaker volunteers and the number of volunteers has dwindled over the years. It has to do with the political situation, the complex situation hindering freedom of movement and the visa requirements. Having Quaker volunteers, they can offer spiritual guidance, they can offer mentorship, or they can support students and staff and helping them explore and question and personal growth. It adds to the diversity of our school community.
Omar
We are able to host volunteers at the school. We also have a friend in residence position and we are able to host them on campus in an apartment on campus. It’s an opportunity to engage with Palestinian students in a Palestinian school and and ride the very bumpy road that is to teach in a school and serve in a school that is trying to operate under occupation.
Rania
Everyone who works at the school, they work for the benefit of the children. The school has this transformative power to educate Palestinians towards creating a more positive and democratic Palestine. We are grateful for all Palestinian staff, and we are grateful for all the friends who continue to support the school. Whether they are friends of the school, whether they’re graduates of the school, whether they’re Quakers from the U.S. or all over the world. We’re very grateful. We do need volunteers and we do need the support to sustain this school for a much longer term. I mean, it has been over 155 years and we hope that it will last for hundreds of years as well.
Discussion Question:
- What is the history of Ramallah Friends School?
- How can the school continue to thrive?
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
Thank you. Ramallah Friends School is a beacon of hope and possibility, waging nonviolence every day.
Having taught at the Ramallah Friends School and now returning with my wife annually as leaders of service-learning groups to Palestine and Israel, I am grateful for this offering to those who many not be familiar with the work of Friends in Palestine. I have witnessed the transformative work of the School and of the Friends meeting in Ramallah, even while both the school and the meeting are constantly under threat. Rania and Omar do incredible work under extremely trying circumstances. Thank you for giving them voice and calling attention to the need for support of Quaker education in Palestine and the spiritual community of the Quaker meeting there.
Thank you. I am grateful for my ties to the school, which started before I was born. My Aunt Lucretia Moore taught at the girls’ school, while my Uncle Peter (J. Floyd Moore) taught at the boys’ school. They gave me an olivewood New Testament, welcoming my birth. I watched my aunt give talks about their experiences, and remember my uncle bringing Quaker groups to tour, and arranging for students to attend Guilford College. Now I am reading Max Carter’s interesting book, Annice Carter’s Life of Quaker Service. Holding all of you in the Light.
Thank you for your message and for your dedication to, and work for, a better world. I had planned to visit the Ramallah Friends School in 2002, but our group was detained at the airport and sent back to the U.S. I am holding you, the students and teachers, and all involved in the Ramallah Friends School in the Light.
My Aunt, Mildred White, taught at the school many of the years between 1922 and 1954. She was received with love and hospitality by the Palestinian families, teachers and children. She instilled in us, her family, love and appreciation for the Ramallah School and families. Always she hoped for their wellbeing as do we. I have had the privilege of visiting twice and experiencing that hospitality.
Bless your important work.