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The Olive Press

Hope Competition: Crafting Violins to Support Syrian Refugees

Mar 27, 2019

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Late last fall, Marios Pavlou, a third-year student at The Newark School of Violin Making in the UK, reached out to Anera with a unique proposition: his school wanted to donate the proceeds from their instrument-building competition. The Newark School wanted sales of the instruments to support an organization working with Syrian refugees. Pavlou, originally…

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Following the Philanthropic Example Set by My Family

Mar 6, 2019

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I’m a Palestinian-American born and raised in the city of Anabta, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank. Anabta, known for its vast olive groves, and recognized for its highly educated residents and their contributions in the arts, literature and sciences, is in the northern West Bank, on the main highway between Nablus…

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Determining Our Own Destiny in Palestine and Beyond

Dec 10, 2018

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From the Refugee Camp to the United States I was born in Jalazone Refugee Camp in 1951 (north of Ramallah in the West Bank). My parents came from a village near Lod called Beit Nabala but became refugees along with my grandparents, uncles and aunts after the 1948 war. My family now lives in refugee…

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I have never forgotten this humane and creative organization

Nov 1, 2018

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I was born in Rochester, Minnesota, where my father was a staff doctor at the Mayo Clinic. My mother was from a Navy family. As a young woman she joined the Red Cross at the start of WWII. She was sent to a Naval hospital in Algeria, where she met my father. Her unit followed…

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Honoring my parents by giving back

Oct 4, 2018

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Born in a Jerusalem hospital in 1935, the circumstances were not without drama. The region was then under British rule and it was a time of great upheaval and continuous revolt. My mother went into labor with me in the midst of an outbreak of fighting between Palestinians on one side, and British and Haganah…

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Blessed in My Activism

Sep 6, 2018

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I’ve been concerned about justice and human rights since I was young. I became an activist after I began raising my children. For me, if people’s rights are violated, if they are systematically impoverished, then there can be no sustainable peace. One of my professors at the University of Wisconsin saw me at a demonstration…

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Three Generations of Support: Our Family & Anera

Aug 9, 2018

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In August of 1967, 50 people from all over the U.S. came to our home in Bethesda, Maryland for dinner. It was two months after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, and they represented the many different committees that had mobilized to raise and send aid to the Palestinians, both those who were suffering under occupation and…

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The Plight of Palestinian Refugees Was Imprinted on My Mind

Jul 5, 2018

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Seeing the world has been my lifelong passion. I started travelling when I was a college student. For some unknown reason, I thought about studying in India but my parents tried to steer me toward Europe. Our minister talked about Lebanon and my parents agreed to let me study at the American University of Beirut….

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Gaza Block Parties Bring Minnesotans Together to Help Palestinians

Jun 7, 2018

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I am a Minnesota native but my family comes from Qalqilya in the West Bank. And, though I live 6,000 miles from Palestine, the terrible situation there is real to me. I suspect that all of us who support Anera have this feeling in common. In the wake of the 2014 war on Gaza, I…

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To Whom Much is Given, Much is Asked

Apr 5, 2018

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A little over 15 years ago, my parents’ home in California burned to the ground. I drove up as the rubble was being cleared away and asked the workers to stop so I could rummage through and see what was salvageable. In a small frayed pouch I found all of my deceased father’s documents from…

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