I had the very good fortune yesterday to attend the final day of “Offering Reconciliation,”an art exhibit sponsored by The Parent’s Circle/Bereaved Families Forum – an important Israeli-Palestinian coexistence organization of which I have written before on this blog.

This exhibit, which has traveled extensively around the US and has been been shown at the World Bank and the UN, consists of 135 works of art created by prominent Palestinian and Israeli painters, sculptors, photographers and poets, offering their interpretations of reconciliation and hope for peace in the region. Starting from an initial model, a clay bowl called the “Bowl of Reconciliation,” these artists have created their own unique versions. The pieces represent the ideas of reconciliation, coexistence, pain, loss, fracture and fusion in amazingly different ways.

The bowls have gradually been auctioned off during the course of the exhibit and only a few remained on this final day. Inevitably, I fell in love with one and snapped it up for JRC. That’s it in the picture above, an exquisite piece entitled “Free-Dam” by Israeli photographer Tami Porat.

JRC members joined others who were walked through the exhibit by two members of the Parent’s Circle: Israeli Robi Damelin and Palestinian Ali Abu Awwad, both of whom have lost loved ones to Mideast violence. Robi and Ali (at right) now tour extensively with the Parent’s Circle to spread the message of non-violence and reconciliation. By the way, both of them are featured prominently the incredible documentary “Encounter Point” (a film I recommend you see right away…)