The Neighborhood Festival is a European tradition that has developed over the last decade from a local initiative in France to a communal celebration across Europe and has even crossed the globe to Canada and other countries.
Beginning this May, residents of neighborhoods throughout the country are invited to go out and meet up for a social gathering to get to know their building neighbors, the house next door and the people who live on their street.
The neighbors take tables, chairs and food out into the streets and hold communal neighborhood picnics. Balloons, banners, posters and invitations are produced to commemorate the event and invite the residents to go out and participate in the celebration. Many local residents committed to the initiative, invite their neighbors to go out into the street with a tasty dish, a folding table and a desire to get to know each other better.
For the first time, we are happy to introduce this initiative in Israel, in neighborhoods around the country. Israelis, who love the outdoors and meeting people, connect to this idea that is based on values of mutual responsibility, meaningful connection to people and to the community. This is an opportunity to celebrate and meet people in an informal setting, in buildings, between the houses, in the shared parking lot and in the garden outside … In places where this holiday tradition has developed, the children also take part of the celebration with ball games, water fights and much more…
Our first neighborhood festival in Israel will take place in many different neighborhoods throughout the country, and we have already heard about many diverse and interesting local initiatives, such as cooking together for this special day, neighborhood Bingo, traditional games of the past and more.
This project is being led by the BINA: The Jewish Movement for Social Change in cooperation with JDC-Ashalim and the Community Work Department at the Ministry of Social Welfare, as part of the Better Together program, which has been working to empower disadvantaged neighborhoods in 20 neighborhoods throughout the country for more than a decade.
