If you’ve read this blog for any length of time then you know I like to spotlight important and courageous coexistence efforts in Israel/Palestine. Here’s another I recommend adding to your list of orgs to support: the Sulha Peace Project.

Founded by an Israeli, Gabriel Meyer, and a Palestinian, Elias Jabbour, Sulha sponsors a variety of impressive coexistence initiatives. Their signature program is their annual Sulha gathering, a three day event which brings together people of all ages and backgrounds to learn from one another, share each other’s cultural stories and experiences, and ultimately, to celebrate peace and reconciliation. Sulha participants represent a wide spectrum of individuals: women and men, children and adults; Muslims, Christians, Jews, Druze, Bedouin and Palestinians, both secular and religious.

The word “Sulha” is an Arabic term that refers to a traditional Islamic form of third-party conflict mediation. According to this tradition, clans involved in a dispute will sit down opposite one another with a mediator and arrive at a mutually acceptable compromise. (Notably enough, the three-letter root of sulha, S”L”H, comes from the same root as the Hebrew word that means “to forgive.”)

The next Sulha Gathering will be taking place August 26-28 at the Latrun Monastery. If you plan to be in Israel, I strongly encourage you to check it out. (In the meantime, here’s a great panoramic shot of the 2004 Gathering.)

Individually, members of Shomer Shalom will be committed to living a nonviolent Jewish life and are encouraged to participate in nonviolence organizations as Jews and to participate in Jewish organizations as practitioners of nonviolence. Collectively, Shomer Shalom will offer retreats and programs dedicated to nurturing the nonviolent faith of its members. It will also produce and distribute educational and liturgical materials rooted in Jewish nonviolent traditions.

I have recently joined Shomer Shalom’s “Council of Elders” (first time I’ve taken on such a venerable title!) and am excited about the prospects for a new Jewish organization whose time I believe has truly come. The Shomer Shalom website can give you more information about the schedule of the Founder’s Gathering as well as Shomer Shalom’s Organizational Principles.

Rabbi Lynn is currently leading a Fellowship of Reconciliation tour in Iran (a remarkable trip that was recently profiled in the Jerusalem Post) and will undoubtedly have much to share at the gathering this weekend. Before she left, she and I corresponded with one another about Shomer Shalom and it’s spiritual/ideological assumptions. Here is an excerpt from one of her e-mails to me – it should give you some idea about the depth of her passion and conviction:

In the case of war, I believe a Shomer Shalom makes a calculation that somebody has to stand for peace, has to be that person in the midst of conflict that both sides can turn to as a party who refuses to engage in harmful conflict. And it is true that a person who embraces nonviolence as a way of life rejects solutions that intentionally cause harm because how do we actually know what those certain terrible circumstances actually are in which violence might be redemptive? Who is to judge?

The rabbis taught, once the arrow leaves the bow, not even the mightiest warrior can bring it back. We in fact have no control over the violence we unleash. What we do know, however, is that violence once unleashed sets off a cycle of revenge that ravages future generations. There are so many examples of this that I do not think anyone can truthfully make an argument that violence ever redeemed us.

I hope to see many of you at the Founder’s Gathering.

If you’re looking for a meaningful way to celebrate Earth Day 2008, here’s an inspiring project worthy of your support. Taka ni Pato (“Trash is Cash”) is an income-generating, solid waste management and recycling project that removes more than 2000 tons of trash each year from a slum in Kenya.

More than 700,000 people live in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, which is large as NYC’s Central Park, yet lacks basic government services such as trash removal, sewage, and clean water. Through Taka ni Pato, however, garbage is becoming a resource in Kibera. TNP promotes solid waste management and public awareness about recycling, and creates jobs for youth that collect trash. At present, TNP engages more than 100 young people, providing them with the tools necessary to clean up their communities, creating a healthier environment while generating income for individual economic development.

If you’d like to support TNP in their efforts to create a more environmentally and economically sustainable community, click here. $25 will buy two shovels and a rake for clean ups; $75 buys a wheel barrel for transporting trash; $100 helps pay rent for land used to sort and store recyclable materials.

You should also know that TNP is but one of many important initiatives sponsored by Carolina for Kiberia – an amazing NGO run out of the University of North Carolina that was named a Time Magazine and Gates Foundation “Hero of Global Health.”

Make a difference this Earth Day! Anyone out there have a favorite environmental effort they’d like to share?

I was so pleased to read that that brilliant “Stop the Clash of Civilizations” (above) has just won “Best Political Video” in this year’s YouTube awards. (It says a great deal that a clip about global activism can win this award during an American election year.)

“Stop the Clash” is an impressive video, but the organization that produced it is even more so. Avaaz.org is a new online movement that works as a kind of global MoveOn.org – their weekly e-mail alerts and online petitions allow members around the world to promote change for a variety of critical issues including global warming, Mideast Peace and the recent conflict in Tibet.

According to their website,

In just one year, we’ve grown to over 2 million members, and have begun to make a real impact on global politics. The Economist writes that Avaaz is poised to deliver “a deafening wake up call” to world leaders, the Indian Express welcomes “the biggest web campaigner across the world” and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore says “Avaaz is inspiring, and has already begun to make a difference.”

I’ve had Avaaz on my blogroll for some time – I encourage you to consider becoming a member.

Yet another coexistence effort worth supporting is the Galilee Encounter Community – an interfaith exchange project that brings together students, educators and parents from Israeli schools in the Jewish town of Karmiel and the Arab village of Majd el-Krum.

This group started as a result of the deterioration of the relations between the two neighboring communities after the Second Intifada in 2000. The principals of the two main schools in the two towns decided to act in order to restore good relations. They started by facilitating meetings between a core group of ten teachers from each of the schools, and subsequently included the children, instituting joint study, visits to each other’s homes and places of worship, and eventually to larger-scale events. Parents were also drawn into the project and today the group includes approximately 800 children and 200 adults in its activities.

The Galilee Encounter Community is a project of the Interfaith Encounter Association, a wonderful organization that seeks to promote coexistence in the Middle East through cross-cultural study and inter-religious dialogue. Click on the clip above for a great documentary on the Galilee project and here if you’d like to contribute to their effort.

From today’s New York Times:

The number of people left dead after the powerful cyclone that swept through Bangladesh on Thursday rose to more than 3,100 yesterday, the government said. The United Nations estimated that a million people had been left homeless, many of them in remote areas without predictable food supplies.

The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society warned Sunday that the number of dead could conceivably be 5,000 to 10,000, and the United Nations World Food Program said yesterday that it would not be surprised by such a tally.

To contribute to Cyclone Sidr relief efforts, contact:

American Red Cross

AmeriCares

Lutheran World Relief

Save the Children

If you are in need of sources for holiday gift giving or end-of-the year tzedakah, I’m recommending GlobalGiving- a terrific resource that describes itself as the eBay of online giving. Their concept is brilliant in its simplicity: over 450 pre-screened worldwide grassroots charity projects post their causes on their website. Givers can research causes by topic or geographic location and make a direct tax-deductible donation. GlobalGiving ensures that 85-90% of each donation is on-the-ground within 60 days and has an immediate impact. They also send out regular updates to givers to inform them what a difference their gifts are making and to demonstrate the results that have been achieved. (Click on the YouTube clip above for a quick GlobalGiving tutorial.)

Just scrolling through the NGOs listed on the site is an inspiration in itself – incredible organizations doing important, critical work in the areas of Human Rights, HIV/AIDS, the environment, Sustainability, Gender Equality, etc. I never fail to be amazed by the sheer number of good people doing great work in the world…

In 2000, in the early days of the second intifada, a young Israeli woman called Natalia Wieseltier dialed a Jewish friend in Tel Aviv but found herself talking to a Palestinian living in the Gaza Strip.

Instead of hanging up she started a conversation.

“He told me his name was Jihad and that things were not going well. He told me that food is rotting at the checkpoints and that his wife was expecting a baby any day and he had no way of getting to the hospital,” she says.

Jihad was surprised to find an Israeli being so open and understanding and Natalia was soon receiving regular calls not only from Jihad but from his friends and family too.

She in turn put them in touch with her friends and soon a network of contacts had developed.

When Natalia approached the Parents’ Circle with the idea of turning this into a national phone line linking Israelis and Palestinians they embraced the idea.

Here’s how it works: when callers use the toll free number they receive the following voice message: “Hello, you have reached ‘Hello, Shalom, Hello Salaam.’ If you wish to talk to an Israeli about reconciliation, tolerance and peace, dial one; if you wish to talk to a Palestinian about reconciliation, tolerance and peace, dial two.” Callers can then listen to numerous voice messages and decide whom they want to contact. To date, “Hello Shalom, Hello Salaam” has logged over 1,000,000 calls!

Another important Parent’s Circle project is their “Offering Reconciliation” art exhibit, which features artwork by 135 Israeli and Palestinian artists, sculptors and photographers, each presenting “a unique offering of reconciliation, of peace and hope.” It has currently been exhibited throughout the US and will be shown in NYC from September 1 thru October 18, and here in Chicago from November 2-4.

As I wrote in an earlier post, grief can cut any number of ways – while it too often inspires feelings of hatred, on certain precious occasions it can be a powerful tool for healing and reconciliation. I do believe that The Parent’s Circle is one inspired example of how this unique form of healing can ultimately be harnessed for a greater good.

Our second to last day in Israel has been one of our most memorable: a visit to the Open House in Ramle and a conversation with its co-founder, Dalia Landau. (That’s me on the left, above, next to Dalia, JRC member Maxine Topper, and Open House’s Administrative Director, Khader Al-Kalak).

You may know Dalia’s story from “The Lemon Tree,” the powerful, must-read book by journalist Sandy Tolan. This house in Ramle was originally built by a Palestinian Arab family that was expelled by the Israeli army during the 1948 war and subsequently became the home for Dalia’s family, who were Holocaust refugees from Bulgaria. As “The Lemon Tree” documents, Dalia eventually struck up a friendship with Bashir Al-Khayri, a Palestinian man who had grown up in the same house and whom she met when he came back to visit in 1967. The house has since been transformed by Dalia and Bashir into a coexistence center, housing a preschool for local Arab children and sponsoring coexistence programs for Jewish and Arab children in the region.

Our visit with Dalia has been one of the emotional highlights of our trip. We were especially struck by her open-hearted presence – and the way she has used her own personal transformation as a tool for healing in the midst of seemingly intractable hatreds. When I asked Dalia if she was hopeful about prospects for peace, she responded that she cannot ultimately look to external events for hope. In the end, as she put it, hope has to come from within. Real hope can only be found when we stop depending upon politicians to create change and begin taking personal responsibility for making a difference in the world.

Dalia truly typifies for me why coexistence work is so essential. While it may be true that the ultimate solution to this conflict will have to be a political one, we can never underestimate how essential inter-personal reconciliation is to the peace process. The participants on our JRC trip have discussed this issue in great depth these past two days: certainly we cannot cease in advocating for a political solution to this conflict – but neither should we dismiss the importance of coexistence work that has the potential to transform the lives and attitudes of real individuals.

Institutions such as Open House (or Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam - the venerable Jewish-Arab village we visited yesterday) are particularly critical in the way they give children the foundational context for ongoing coexistence that could well last for the rest of their lives. Regardless of the ebb and flow of the ongoing political situation, I agree with Dalia that these efforts are where true hope resides.

Tomorrow is our last day in Israel – my next post will most likely come from stateside.

Shalom, Salaam, Peace…

The program is intensive and substantive, in many ways inspired by the groundbreaking coexistence organization Seeds of Peace. What makes Hands of Peace particularly unique is the fact that it is community-based: participants live in host family homes and experience first-hand our local Chicago Jewish/Christian/Muslim communities. Last Friday night, for instance, JRC welcomed HOP participants to our Shabbat service (which they attended immediately after attending a Muslim Sabbath service at a local mosque).

The centerpiece of the HOP program are the “coexistence sessions” – intensive dialogues with trained conflict resolution faciliators. I have nothing but the utmost admiration for the staff of HOP, who engage and challenge these young people to dig deep into their own identities, their own fears, and find the wherewithal to access their common humanity. It is clear to me that making peace is not a lofty or ephemeral abstract concept: at its core it is difficult and often exhausting work. But clearly it is the most sacred work there is. At HOP’s closing celebration last night, I sat in awe as young Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Middle East and America stood together and proudly spoke of what they had accomplished together.

I have the honor of serving on the board of Hands of Peace, and encourage you to add them to your list of organizations eminently worthy of your support. In the midst of the seemingly intractable politics of this conflict, it is critical to know that there are institutions like HOP that are helping to create future peacemakers one youth at a time.

The Middle East participants are heading home today and tomorrow – and I will be hot on their heels! I’m off to Israel this Wednesday with 30 other members of JRC – and a portion of our itinerary will be devoted to ongoing coexistence efforts there. Looking forward to sharing my thoughts, experiences and pix with you.

Shalom, Salaam, Peace…