In late 1948, after immigrating to the new state of Israel from Bulgaria with her family, Dalia Eshkanazi Landau moved into the Ramle house, which had been declared "abandoned property by the state. She grew up there, not knowing who the former inhabitants were or how they had left. She was told that most of the Arab residents of Ramle had fled during the 1948-49 war, which Israelis call the "War of Independence" and Palestinians call the "Nakba," or "Catastrophe."

Following the 1967 Six-Day War, Dalia and her family first met the Al-Khayri family who had built the house in 1936. The Israeli military had expelled them in July 1948. From them, Dalia learned how the Arabs of Ramle and neighboring Lod/Lydda had been forcibly and harshly evacuated to the West Bank. The Al-Khayri family still lives there today. A special relationship between the two families has continued to exist since 1967. One historic moment came when Dalia published an open "Letter to a Deportee" ( Read Letter ) addressed to Bashir Al-Khayri, in The Jerusalem Post on January 14, 1988, shortly after the outbreak of the first Intifada.

OPEN HOUSE is the product of this special relationship between two families who share a symbolic home. Dalia inherited the home from her parents in 1985. With the consent and participation of the Al-Khayris, the house was transformed into a community center. The dedicated involvement of the Fanous family, Christian Palestinians from Ramle, was also instrumental.

This unique community-based coexistence center, which originally brought together a Jewish, a Muslim, and a Christian family around one symbolic home, holds the promise of transforming Arab-Jewish relations far beyond Ramle. The Biblical foundation for this vision is in Genesis 12:3, where Abraham is promised that through him "all the families of the earth shall be blessed."