Israel’s many ethnic and religious divisions are a mixed blessing: They create a rich cultural tapestry as well as seeds of discord. One small Israeli organization aims to teach youngsters diversity and tolerance through dolls.

Games 4 the Future, an educational nonprofit organization launched by jurist Gil Pacht in 2016, aims to foster familiarity, attentiveness, openness and positive attitudes toward the country’s different cultures among Israeli kindergartners. Their tools are a collection of dolls known as persona dolls, which have been used since the 1950s around the world for teaching young children.

Pacht and his team won the first prize in a 2015 hackathon, earning a $15,000 grant from the Atidim Alumni Association to launch the project. They founded their organization a year later. Since then, the core team has consulted with social scientists, psychologists and educators to develop their product. In April, it enlisted the help of a multiethnic cast of Israeli celebrities and journalists, such as news presenter Lucy Aharish, to promote a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for the initiative and bring the dolls to schools around the country as educational tools.

The dolls represent the patchwork of the various Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Israel. Of Israel’s 8.8 million inhabitants, around 21% are Palestinian Arabs, 11% are immigrants or children of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, approximately 12% are ultra-Orthodox Jews and 2% are of Ethiopian descent, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics. The remainder are of Middle Eastern and North African and European Jewish descent, the latter having historically formed the bulk of the country’s ruling elite.