AFT delegation dedicates Feldman classroom in Israel

AFT secretary-treasurer Nat LaCour, along with a number of members of the AFT executive council and leaders of AFT locals, received an in-depth look at the Israel beyond the headlines during a trip organized by the State of Israel Bonds National Labor Division. The AFT delegation met with Israeli educators, teachers union officials and schoolchildren, among others.

Rachel Jacob, sister of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was among those meeting with the AFT group. An educator herself, Jacob emphasized the importance of teaching children—from the earliest possible age—the principles of mutual tolerance and respect.

During the visit, the AFT delegation joined officials from the Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv for the official dedication of the Sandra Feldman Classroom at the Rabin Center. Workshops and seminars on topics such as civic responsibility and democratic governance will be held in the classroom dedicated to the late AFT president.

Feldman was president of the AFT from 1997 until 2004; she died in September 2005. AFT president Edward J. McElroy, who was honored during a dinner hosted by the American Friends of the Yitzhak Rabin Center in Washington, D.C., last September, had requested that proceeds from the dinner go toward the dedication of the classroom.

AFT vice presidents Ted Kirsch, president of AFT Pennsylvania, and Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, who co-chaired the dinner along with LaCour and AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese, were part of the AFT delegation to Israel.