BY ADAM BERNSTEIN | John Wallach, 59, a former Washington-based foreign editor at the Hearst newspaper chain who started Seeds of Peace, a program bringing teenagers from conflict zones to U.S. soil to promote harmony, died of lung cancer July 10 at a hospital in New York.
Mr. Wallach launched Seeds of Peace shortly after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Since then, thousands of teenagers from the Middle East, the Far East, the Balkans and Cyprus have gone though the conflict resolution program held every summer in southwest Maine.
Seeds, one of many efforts aimed at uniting youth affected by political strife, received the United Nations’ UNESCO Peace Prize in 2000.
“John was always a bridge,” said Aaron David Miller, a State Department senior adviser on Arab-Israeli negotiations. “John’s philosophy with Seeds of Peace is a logical extension of his view of life. You had to connect people together … [affecting] private attitudes then public attitudes.”
For years, Mr. Wallach was a prominent figure in Washington journalism and politics. As Hearst foreign editor from 1968-1994, he held functions at which he sought to play a larger role than that of a dispassionate media observer.
In 1982, he hosted a part at the Corcoran Gallery to honor Philip Habib, President Ronald Reagan’s Middle East special envoy. It was an intricate diplomatic dance, occurring shortly after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and featured Israeli and U.S. government officials and ambassadors from Arab countries that did not formally recognize Israel.
“There were times when the lines between a reporter and the people he covers is less important than the relationship between two human beings,” Mr. Wallach told The Washington Post.
John Paul Wallach, the son of German Jews who escaped from a concentration camp, was a native of Scarsdale, N.Y., and a graduate of Middlebury College.
He joined Hearst’s Washington office in 1968, covering the State Department and the White House. His coverage won several awards, including the Georgetown University foreign service school’s Edward Weintal Prize and the National Press Club’s Edwin Hood Award.
He wrote books with this wife, Janet Weil Wallach, including “Arafat: In the Eyes of the Beholder,” published in 1990.
He was at a dinner party with Israelis, Egyptians and Palestinians when he proposed his summer camp idea during his toast. “To be nice, they all accepted, probably not thinking I was serious,” he once said.
The camp, on 60 acres in Otisfield, Maine, started with 45 Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian students. There are now 165 teenagers in each of the three summer sessions. Besides its emphasis on shared experiences, it offers traditional camp activities such as swimming.
Seeds also runs a year-round center in Jerusalem so camp graduates can spread the camp’s message.
Miller said Mr. Wallach was hopeful that participants would someday hold leadership positions but knew other conditions were necessary for lasting peace. “He never said Seeds alone would end the conflict,” Miller said.
Mr. Wallach’s avocations included collecting American folk art. In the mid-1970’s, he and his wife owned and operated the American Folk Art Shop, reportedly one of the first such businesses in Washington.
At his old Chevy Chase home, a converted carriage house, passersby saw two lifesize wooden cows that appeared to be grazing on his front lawn. The cows were stolen, replaced and stolen again, said his son, Michael Wallach. A local police official was so distraught that he carved two more cows himself and gave them to the Wallachs.
Besides his wife and son, both of New York, survivors include a stepson, David Allyn of Hoboken, N.J.; a sister; and a granddaughter.