Send Page to a Friend Sikkuy at Beth Zion   By Gary Band The Jewish Advocate   Founded in 1991, an Israel-based organization called Sikkuy - meaning "chance" or "opportunity" in Hebrew - is an advocacy group that works to advance the rights of Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel. The Arab and Jewish co-directors, Ali Hader and Shuli Dichter, will speak at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline on May 24 in a presentation sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council and the New Israel Fund. "If we improve the way the country treats all its citizens, we raise the level of civility," said Seth Brysk, director of JCRC's Israel Action Center. "In Israel, where the population is 20 percent Arab, the only place Arab women can vote, and the freest press in the Arab world," Brysk said. "Our community is very proud of the work we're doing to improve the lot of Israeli Arabs." Tamar Miller, co-director of the New Israel Fund of New England, will moderate the discussion. "This is a really hot topic now," she said. This and other such discussions comes on the heals of the Jewish Agency for Israel's recent organizing of a number of Jewish organizations, including NIF, into a task force to look at problems of Arab inequality in Israel. "With 1.2 million Arab citizens, Israeli and American Jews have a stake in Arab-Jewish equality," Miller said. "When you have a 20 percent national minority with the social and economic gap getting bigger every day, you're asking for trouble." Some examples of the work Sikkuy does include Civic Action Groups, which facilitate local groups of Jewish and Arab citizens to advocate for equality between their communities and fight against discrimination; and fair representation and employment equity initiatives. For more information, contact tamar@nif.org or visit www.Sikkuy.org.il.