Seeds of Peace international summer camp has multiple ties to Scarsdale

BY CARRIE GILPIN | When the students arrive at the Maine peace camp for their three-week stay, some think they won’t make it through the first night.  Will they be murdered in their sleep by a bunkmate whom they’ve never met but have been taught to fear and maybe despise? Grouped by conflict region, campers share a living space and participate in daily dialogue sessions. Israeli, Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian campers are grouped together. Similarly, campers from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan share bunks. The 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds spend three weeks together living, working, talking, cooking, playing sports, creating art and role-playing. At the end, they come out friends; and if not friends, well then, with at least a curiosity about each other and possibly a new perspective on their own identity.

Since 1993, when 46 Israelis, Palestinians and Egyptians came to Otisfield, Maine, for the first session of camp, Seeds of Peace has aimed to help young people from regions of conflict develop the leadership skills NEcessary to advance reconciliation and coexistence. Today, there are more than 4,600 students from the Middle East, South Asia, Cyprus, the Balkans, and the United States who have been a part of the program. Scarsdale’s connections to the organization run long and deep, and include the founder of the camp, John Wallach, as well as campers, counselors, volunteers and benefactors.

The summer camp is the core of a growing international program that offers year-round workshops, conferences and adult educators programs worldwide, said Seeds of Peace educator and Scarsdale resident Margery Arsham. Arsham and her husband Jim have had a summer home in Maine near the camp for more than 30 years, and she organizes dinners for Seeds of Peace adult chaperones with Maine locals each summer. Arsham’s son Andy, a 1991 SHS A-School graduate, worked many summers for the camp between 1995 and 2004 and met his wife, Sonja, at the camp.

“Each Maine host invites two adults, one Palestinian and one Israeli, or one Indian and one Pakistani, for instance, for dinner on the first Saturday night after they arrive. Some of these people are still friends today and have traveled to visit each other in their home countries years later,” Arsham said.

Arsham said the adult chaperones, called “delegation leaders,” also tour the local lumber mill and the local school while in Maine, and reciprocate with a dinner at the camp for their local hosts at the end of the camp session, cooking their own country’s dishes.

Otisfield native contractor Jared Damon has hosted Seeds of Peace adults for the last three summers. He and his wife Beth cook an American meal for their Seeds of Peace guests. “Very simply, we talk about our day-to-day lives in our countries, and our customs, our similarities and our differences,” said Damon. “We talk about life. Margery sets all this up, and since there are dietary restrictions, she suggests that chicken is always safe, so we cook chicken.” Damon drives the three miles to the camp to pick up his guests, and returns them after dinner at his home. “Usually it is slow to get going, but we start talking and then it is hard to get them back by the 10 p.m. curfew.”

Both Damon and Arsham say that some local Maine residents worry about the presence of the camp in their town, for security purposes, and that the community outreach has been beneficial for everyone.

Seeds of Peace is a nonpolitical secular, not-for-profit organization funded by individuals, foundations and corporations. The nongovernmental organization has received support from many world leaders, including Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former Israeli Prime Ministers Ehud Barak, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the late King Hussein and Queen Noor of Jordan, and King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan.

Seeds of Peace’s mission is to work toward people of conflict developing lasting empathy, respect and confidence toward one another, while equipping future leaders with the communication and negotiation skills necessary to advance peace. The organization receives nearly 8,000 application for approximately 400 camper spots each year.

Applicants must demonstrate proficiency in English and leadership skills, as well as motivation based on interviews and written essays. Some first-time campers are chosen by the ministries of education in their countries. Adult delegation leaders accompany students from their countries to the camp, and go through their own dialogue sessions. Each day, campers meet with professional facilitators and delve into the hardest issues, in the process challenging inherent stereotypes and prejudices. Trust and understanding is fostered through dialogue that encourages participants to empathize, communicate effectively and demonstrate respect, regardless of opinion. A camper’s schedule includes sports and creative activities, swimming and an all-camp activity.

When camp ends, the “seeds” have been planted to pursue peace and dialogue. There are follow-up activities back home, and campers participate in advanced dialogue sessions, school presentations, cross cultural exchanges, workshops and seminars and a campers magazine, “The Olive Branch.”

The program is effective, according to former counselor Robert Tessler, who worked as an intern in the Seeds of Peace New York City headquarters before working two stints as a counselor. The 1999 Scarsdale High School graduate said the experience “sucks you into a family. It isn’t perfect but it is very special. It exposes you to a different way of thinking. I have met remarkable people. It has been the most important experience of my life.”

Tessler graduated from New York University with a degree in music theory and composition, and then decided on the advice of his older brother to see a bit of the world. He moved to Cairo, studied Arabic and then elected to complete post-baccalaureate work before going to medical school instead of pursuing a graduate degree in policy work. He is currently a third-year medical student at UCSF and speaks highly of the camp, its mission and the people associated with it.

Tessler said the teens have little to no access to each other at home, and at camp they are in a peaceful spot far from the pressures they leave behind.

“These are not political figures at all. They are adolescents first. They are 13 or 14, most of them, and their hormones are raging, and they are more worried about the way their hair is or if they have the right jeans on than anything else. It diffuses a little of the ‘we have a deep seated hatred of each other’ part. It is up to us, to the counselors, to take that energy and turn it into dialogue. To spread it out over the three weeks. It isn’t like they are all holding hands at the end of it–the goal is really to just get them to be a bit curious about somebody they have heard about but haven’t met yet. And this happens more often than not.”

The most successful counselors are people who have a real diversity of experience, according to Tessler. “The kids don’t care how many books you have read on political theory. But if you can take a good jump shot, or if you can play soccer, kids love that. That’s what these kids want. Seeds of Peace looks for good folks, and they get them. Many of them are in college studying social justice or have worked with NGOs before,” Tessler said.

Seeds of Peace has many opportunities for advanced diplomacy work. One such offshoot is the recently formed Seas of Peace, a summer sailing session for Israeli and Palestinian campers who have already attended Seeds of Peace camp and completed the follow-up yearlong activities. Campers spend three to six hours per day in facilitated discussions. In the first 10 days of camp, they learn to sail small boats in Portland Harbor, and work at Catherine’s Cupboard, a food work at Catherine’s Cupboard, a food pantry run by St. Joseph’s College. Then, they join a professional sailing crew on the 110-foot schooner “Spirit of Massachusetts,” and sail to New York City, where they meet with United Nations officials before sailing back to Boston.

“The curriculum, developed by Carrie O’Neil and Tim O’Brien, is based heavily on leadership models developed at Harvard university,” said co-founder of Seas of Peace David Nutt. “The course provides the Seeds concrete skills relevant to their lives at home as well as the opportunity to discuss the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Many of those involved in Seeds of Peace say the experience is life changing.

“On the last day, there are usually tears. It is incredibly emotional, and is the highest of the high. There is this special bond,” said Tessler. “Adolescence is a perfect time for this. Identity, figuring out who they are, is such a big part of their lives. These kids have historical baggage and the camp brings them to a peaceful place far away from home. We don’t want them to lose that when they return. Their identity is wrapped up in how they think of someone else so when they get here we start small. We ask them about the favorite thing in their room, and we build on that. It’s very powerful, and the kids are super courageous going through it.”

Locally, Scarsdalians have worked in many ways to support the organization. Seeds of Peace has two fundraising events in New York City each year, and former Scarsdalians Helen (SHS class of 1967) and Eric Rosenberg (SHS class of 1966) have been to both. “They are both wonderful events,” said Helen. “The auction, called ‘The Peace Market,’ is a more informal event for younger supporters, and the gala is more formal. Former “seeds” speak at the gala and talk about what they have done with their lives since they became involved,” said Helen, whose mother still lives in town. The Rosenbergs raised both their children in Scarsdale: Karen graduated in 1995 and Stuart in 1998.

“We have also been to see the Seeds of Peace camp and saw the end-of-season Color Games–they don’t call it Color Wars. It is incredibly moving and we were so impressed with what they do and how they do it,” she said.

Arsham said many of her Jewish friends in New York donate money to the organization, and if they do not, they still support its mission “and want it to work.”

Scarsdale High School runs an Interfaith Awareness Club that promotes Seeds of Peace among other organizations. “We very informally get together, even if it is just a few people at Starbucks, to spread awareness of different religious groups,” said club president Harrison Shapiro, a senior.

The club set up a table at parent-teacher conferences in the fall and sold baked goods to raise money for Seeds of Peace and other organizations. Shapiro said he knows of no Scarsdale student who is currently a camper.

For more information on Seeds of Peace visit www.seedsofpeace.org and www.facebook.com/SeedsofPeace. For information on Seas of Peace visit www.facebook.com/seasofpeace/.

Seeds of Peace founder a Scarsdale native

Scarsdale native John Wallach, who died in 2002 at age 59, founded the peace camp Seeds of Peace in 1993 to bring together teenagers from Middle Eastern countries who would normally never meet or talk with each other back at home.

The teenage boys and girls attend the camp in Otisfield, Maine, for three-week sessions, living together in bunks, sharing meals, playing sports and engaging in stereotyping-breaking and role playing group sessions about their political conflicts and their lives.

Wallach graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1960. In 1968, four years after graduating from Middlebury College, he became foreign editor of Hearst Newspapers. An expert on Arafat and the Middle East, he broke the story of the Iran-Contra scandal, and was frequently a panelist on “Meet the Press,” “Washington Week in Review,” “Fox News” and CNN.

Wallach also authored four books, including “Arafat in the Eyes of the Beholder” and “Still Small Voices,” the latter co-authored with his wife, Janet. In 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev awarded him the highest civilian honor in the USSR, the Medal of Friendship. Wallach received the National Press Club’s highest honor, the Edwin Hood Award. He was also made an honorary doctor of human letters by Middlebury College.

In 1993, in the wake of the first bombing of the World Trade Center, Wallach gave up journalism and decided to follow a dream, the creation of a summer camp at which Arab and Israeli children live, play and learn together. Initially, 50 young people participated in the program, which included daily conflict-resolution sessions run by professional Arab, Israeli and American facilitators. The program, Seeds of Peace, quickly earned an international reputation. It also expanded to include year-round activities.

“The Enemy Has a Face,” written by Wallach, captures the joys and the challenges of Seeds of Peace.

Wallach was named a distinguished alumnus of SHS in 2005.