“Never underestimate the human heart.” With these words John Wallach ’64 summarizes his hopes for peace in the Middle East. He is not, however, passively relying on that heart, but actively trying to influence it. His passion in life now is Seeds of Peace, a summer coexistence program for teenagers that he runs at Camp Androscoggin in Maine.
Seeds of Peace, founded by Wallach in 1993, is your basic summer camp by day—sports, drama, art, and other activities. But at night, in a highly structured situation with trained facilitators, these children participate in a detoxification program. No, not for alcohol or drugs: for hatred. It is amazing, Wallach says, “even at age 13 how much hatred people can have. They carry such a burden of hatred.” Their parents hate each other, although they risk—literally—the lives of their families in allowing their children to participate in Seeds of Peace. Smug, the children come to Maine sure they can outdo their fathers and mothers at bridging gaps between Arab and Israeli, Serb and Bosnian. Armed with different “facts,” they learn it is not so easy. They learn they hate, too. They shout and cry and at last become vulnerable. And in that vulnerability, as their conflict takes on a human face—one they might hesitate to kill—lies the hope of coexistence.
Each year 1,800 young people who live in violence places full of rage—Bosnia, Egypt, inner-city U.S.A., Israel, Jordan, Morocco, the Occupied Territories or Palestine or the West Bank (depending on the point of view), Qatar, Serbia, Tunisia—apply for 150 places at this summer camp on neutral territory. They must speak English and they must write an essay, “Why I want to make peace with the enemy.” Representatives of their governments select who amongst these teenage applicants will form “the Israeli delegation,” “the Palestinian delegation,” “the Serbian delegation,” and the others designated as they may be in the future in international negotiations. They come together “to make peace n their hearts, not peace on a piece of paper.” Maybe it will work. Wallach believes it will.
Formerly a foreign news editor for the Hearst Newspapers, Wallach now focuses his skills and connections on making the world a better place. He believes children—future generations—are the hope of us all, the teens he brings together in Seeds of Peace will become the prime ministers of their countries in the future, and they will achieve the peace now so elusive. He knows what this College also believes: that education matters; has global implications; offers the best chance for the future; and that when you help exceptional young people understand the realities of this world, they will make it better than even the best of us ever can.
Wallach’s journalism experience has provided him access to the highest levels of government. Participants in each of the summer sessions of the summer camp have met with the top two American leaders. Those in the first session of the multinational camp were guests at the 1993 signing of the Israeli-Palestinian declaration of Principles at the White House when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shook hands with President Yasser Arafat. In early October this year, these participants, joined by the teenagers who had followed them to Maine each year, filled the wires with faxes and e-mails to create a joint resolution, which Wallach used his connections to have read during the White House meeting of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, President Arafat, King Hussein, and President Clinton, when they tried to get the peace process back on track.
The connections between enemies made in Maine continue throughout the year. Informally, the students call and visit each other. Now, a center is being set up in Jerusalem where these teenagers can meet. And, as a motivator, these children can return to camp in succeeding summers as junior counselors, peer supporters, or facilitators-in-training based on their actions after they return to their homes. They want to return; many keep in touch with each other; to do it they cross life-threatening barriers most of us will never have to face. Why?
“We found out there isn’t any other solution: just peace.”