Ben Block

Amid grooving on his mini-synthesizer, Israeli-Arab Mahboub has been attempting to lead a generation of children in the Middle East to abandon hate and embrace acceptance. Despite the odds, he may just have a chance. How so? Mahboub is a Sesame Street Muppet. The furry blue monster premiered on Rechov Sumsum, Israel's Sesame Street adaptation, in December as the world's first Arab-Israeli Muppet.

"We wanted to make the Israeli kids admire him and his abilities," said Motti Aviram, Rechov Sumsum's producer. "Arabs in Israel are like Israelis…so we didn't want to make them look different. We wanted to give the legitimacy of a neighborhood street and an Arab neighbor." With productions in Palestine and Israel, Sesame Street is attempting to teach children of the Middle East tolerance while their parents have been failing to learn. To reinforce the shows' message of tolerance, Sesame Workshop President Gary Knell visited the Israeli and Palestinian productions of Sesame Street in May and distributed 5,000 educational kits with classroom activities in both Hebrew and Arabic to kindergartens throughout Israel.   Read more...