Mission Statement

The name Beit Elfarasha, Butterfly House in Arabic, captures our mission. In the chaos theory, the butterfly effect relates to how a small change in one state can result in a large change in a later state. We believe that by bringing people together, and encouraging small, intimate interactions, we can drive a much broader change and encourage friendships and respect between the local residents of the Old City and our guests. The people of Akko are warm, hospitable, and proud of their very diverse heritage.  Spending a few hours in a cooking workshop will go way beyond learning new recipes and eating delicious food.  It will enable meetings and conversations that will change perceptions and hopefully start a small change that will lead to a bigger one as new friendships are made.

On the floor of Beit Elfarasha we are fortunate to a have a Labyrinth in the shape of a butterfly, designed by the international artist Marcia Raff. This is one of the very few Labyrinths in Israel and is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness.  It combines the imagery of a circle and a spiral and represents our journey to our own center and back again into the world.  Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tool and we intend to have “Walk the Labyrinth” nights each full moon.