By Dr. Yehuda Stolov | Executive Director
Reflection on the trip - Amit
Last summer I attended the delegation to the USA whose purpose was to talk about the conflict in Israel. As an Israeli Jew, I was surprised to realize that all my life I was exposed to only one side of the story, and never got the chance to see the other side.
I was also surprised that, similarly, Palestinians are not aware of our side of the story. There lies the problem of understating the conflict; lack of communication and incitement against the other side.
During the trip, I felt connected with everyone around me despite our differences; Muslims, Christians, Jews; Israelis and Palestinians, Armenians and Americans. In addition, for the first time in my life I made real Muslim friends.
I enjoyed this experience and above all, I learned a lot. I understood that there must be a change. As a result, now when I am in Israel I try to talk with my friends about the conflict. I am also trying to work on a project that aims to build bridges and make peace. After all, we all crave peace.
Reported: Amit
Reflection on the trip - Mohammed
Hello, my name is Mohammed Keadan. I am a 17 year old Muslim Arab, from Israel. Recently I participated in an eye-opening interfaith program called “Jerusalem Peace Builders”. This was a unique experience. In this program, we lived together under one roof with Christians, Jews and Muslims from all around the world. In addition to the interfaith purpose, we got the opportunity to represent our culture and get to know new ones.
This program instilled many values through volunteering in different places. For example, we volunteered with IRIS an organization that helps the refugees start a new life. In this organization, we taught refugees of all the ages some basic materials such as English and math. Besides that, we got the chance to learn about the conflicts from other points of view.
Moreover, we volunteered in a soup kitchen at the church, which was an unforgettable experience because we felt the meaning of helping and serving people who are in need of help. I remember a quotation from a Rabbi that we met; “By helping these people you are helping yourself”.
In addition, we got the chance to learn about other religions since we participated in the services on Friday for Muslims, Saturday for Jews and Sunday for Christians. We went to the synagogue, mosque and church; this was extraordinary because in our ordinary lives we would not have gotten this chance to know our neighbors as much as in this program. Beside all the mentioned unique opportunities that we had, each night we joined dialogues and discussed various topics. Some of them were sensitive such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, religions, and service.
All of these activities gave the program great value and the program passed those values to us.
Finally, I would say it was an unforgettable experience. It helped shaping my personality, while at the same time made me a new good person with values to help others, and I learned to accept them with their own beliefs. Thanks for whoever helped giving me this chance and I am going to be thankful all my life
Reported: Mohammad
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