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Seed Stories: Finding a home in the field

Jun 3, 2019 / 1 Comment

Twenty-five years ago, I was born in a refugee camp in Kenya after my parents fled the civil war in Somalia. My parents struggled to keep my brothers and I secure, fed, and sheltered.

Our struggle became even worse when my parents decided to divorce, divide the children they had together, and go their separate ways. I went with my father.

By the age of 6, I already had the responsibilities of an adult. I had to cook, clean, and look after my little brother while my father left to search for food. The shelter we lived in was slowly tearing apart. Every day, wild animals like hyenas and lions would dig, rip, and damage it, exposing us to the elements. Hope was slowly leaving our hearts.

But then, a miracle happened. After years of feeling hopeless, we learned that the United Nations had selected our family for resettlement to the United States. Friends and neighbors spoke highly of America and told us we were going to a place that was heaven on earth. We were extremely excited for the opportunities our new life was going to offer us. We had been given a second chance.

In September 2005, we were resettled to Syracuse, New York, one of the poorest cities in the nation, especially for black folks. We were nervous and unsure how to make use of the resources that were available. Paying monthly bills was a new idea to us. We did not know where to look for food and when we found it, our bodies rejected much of it. The only thing that tasted familiar was candy. It was a completely new world.

We were given a home in an area Syracuse people know as the Bricks. It was also known as the hood or the projects. We didn’t know what the “hood” was or what it meant to live in one, but we were confident that it was going to be better than the refugee camp we came from.

I was excited to go to school. Unable to speak the English language, I used basic senses to understand and communicate with my peers. After my first week of school, I was bullied by a classmate. At the time, I was naive and did not realize I was being bullied. I comprehended the situation as a way Americans communicate and thought that it was a weird way to make a new friend.

From the time I began school, to the time I went to college, I lost count of the number of times I was attacked. I soon learned that the people attacking me were affiliated with gangs. They had guns and were not afraid to use them. At night, I would hear gunshots near my house. In the morning, as I walked to the area where the bus picked me up for school, I would see a trail of blood on the pavement from someone who had been wounded.

As I began to understand English, I realized I was not safe from verbal attacks either. I was treated like a criminal based on my skin color. People called the cops on my friends and I, when we hadn’t done anything wrong. I learned to avoid looking like a Muslim whenever there was an attack on American soil. l was made to feel that coming to America as a refugee who seeks asylum is the worst thing you can be. People automatically concluded that you had come to take away their American Dream. All of the ignorant, negative stereotypes that were associated with coming from a refugee camp in Kenya were hurled in my direction. Once, a fellow classmate scraped cookie crumbs off of her desk and into her palm after eating a cookie and tried to hand me the crumbs, suggesting I should eat them. It was the most dehumanizing incident I’ve ever experienced in my short life, one I still struggle to forget.

This was not the America I was told about back in the refugee camp. I began to hate who I was and where I came from because of the way people treated me. As a result of these experiences, a small, negative voice developed in my mind, which gradually got louder. It was saying things such as ‘You are nothing. You deserve nothing. You are a burden to people; you are worthless.’ I could not turn it off. I was feeling mental pain that hurt more than physical pain. I didn’t know what it was but I wanted it to stop.

But then another miracle happened. I learned about Seeds of Peace. I didn’t know what it was, but I liked the word ‘peace’ in the organization’s name. My brothers told me it was a place where we could water-ski and play soccer every day. I went to the introductory meetings held after school. It sounded amazing and just what I had been yearning for and from the moment I set foot on the Camp’s grounds, I knew a journey of self-discovery and transformation had begun.

In the dialogue hut, I was given the space to unbottle all of the things I had bottled up over the years. I allowed myself to venture out of my comfort zone, to try new activities and to learn more about myself and others. Although I am normally a reserved and shy person, I found myself singing and dancing in front of people in an uninhibited way. I bonded with people from different socio-economic, racial, and religious backgrounds over bonfires and s’mores. I was made to feel that I was enough, and that my difference was beautiful. It was the happiest three weeks of my life.

There’s a saying at Seeds of Peace: out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. I learned that people in this field look beyond labels of society. They use the “I” statement when they speak and not “they” or “them.” They delve into the most challenging topics fearlessly in the hope of growing past their comfort zone. They listen with their whole bodies even when they disagree with what is being said. They love with their whole hearts and help each other dismantle and heal from past experiences. This was an unreal experience. Unknowingly, it was what I had been searching for my whole life. It refurbished the hope that had been damaged by the outside world. Seeds of Peace became the place I call home.

Today, I work as a substitute teacher in the public schools of Syracuse and use every opportunity to mentor, educate, and empower students to become more than what the hood offers. I am on the board of directors for a non-profit that connects new Americans to the resources that help them transition into their new life. I am also on the board of a local non-profit credit union that helps fight off big banks that make poor communities poorer and works to keep the community’s money within the community. And I am working on a documentary that helps people understand what it means to be a refugee in America.

For as long as I walk this earth, I plan to keep what Seeds of Peace made me feel in my heart and use it as a hope for what this world can one day become. No matter where life takes me, I plan to live by the late Camp Director Wil Smith’s words and do “whatever I can, with whatever I have, wherever I am.”

Excerpt from remarks delivered at the 2019 Spring Benefit Dinner on April 30 in New York.

Reflecting on the power of virtual camp to expand dialogue beyond the dialogue hut

Aug 27, 2020 / 1 Comment

It was awe-inspiring, and yet sort of unsatisfying. We saw familiar and new faces of Seeds from around the world, but in a 5-by-5-inch grid from often fuzzy screens as the Zoom-based session of the 2020 Seeds of Peace virtual camp began.

A short while later, lying around each of us on our kitchen tables, beds, and bedroom floors were eight small scraps of paper, upon each we had previously written an important part of our identity (such as race, sexuality, or religion). As guided by our facilitators, we discarded the pieces one by one until we each held just one piece of ourselves.

What was left prompted a profound dialogue on identities and our values. Even though we have both been on almost-daily Zoom calls since COVID-19 entered our lives in March, we had never experienced something on a digital platform that felt so connected to our own space. And that was just the first day.

For the week in August that made up the virtual camp, we engaged in deep and vulnerable dialogue sessions, complex discussions regarding race, and workshops on public policy and design thinking. Having previously attended Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine, all of the participants were familiar with delving into deep topics, and then moving on to the other aspects of Camp—the songs, the games, the bunks, the lake—a combination that makes for an unforgettable experience.

But what felt so awing about virtual camp was the conclusion of it all. There were no hugs or shared physical space after dialogue sessions where we could regroup and decompress together. And when it ended, there was no running across The Field to wave goodbye to departing buses, or savoring the last dewy lineup with each bunk’s arms around each other. On the final day of virtual camp, it simply wasn’t the same clicking out of the Zoom tab and closing our laptops shut.

And yet, we were left wanting more.

Upon a few FaceTime calls afterwards, we connected and reflected on how magical this week was. A lot of the magic had to do with the fact that when we were engaging in deep dialogues and workshops, we were at home—a few of us in bed, many of us at a desk, or perhaps outside. Virtual camp has empowered us, and we’re sure a greater part of the Seeds community as well, through radically empathetic dialogue—all of which happened over Zoom.

Zoom is the same platform that many of us engaged with in the months of remote learning for school. We think it’s safe to assume that virtual video platforms, including Zoom, are familiar with all of us at this point. Yet in this familiar space, we have never engaged in deeper or more challenging dialogue. This feat is an excellent example that dialogue exists beyond Dialogue Alley and The Trophy Room, and we have a responsibility to extract it from that one place, especially now that we see it is possible.

Both of us, Danielle and Martine, are passionate about bringing dialogue into our own communities and have done so through creating and leading local programs, online classes, and student organizations.

Throughout this summer, Danielle co-created and co-facilitated an online class about anti-racism that was attended by fifth- through seventh-grade students from across the U.S., and recently co-facilitated her school’s leadership retreat to train other students on identity-based work, particularly grounded in dialogue. Up next, she is constructing an antiracism class by and for teens from around the world.

Martine has been working on a summer project with the Living Room Conversations organization to connect high school students, including many Seeds, through 90-minute facilitated Zoom conversations on topics such as refugee resettlement and race and incarceration. Martine is designing a program with the organization that will bring about a dozen teens together regularly to engage in dialogue and other empowerment workshops.

Many skills that we have learned through our time as Seeds, especially while attending virtual camp, have guided us in these endeavors and challenged us to think more deeply about our local work. In learning about Liz Anderson’s Human Centered Design model, we brainstormed how to more effectively advocate for local issues, including Los Angeles’ public transportation system and Syracuse’s schools. This session implored us to go further than simply talking about issues impacting us and our community. By analyzing the rules of brainstorming and specific how-might-we questions, we were able to understand how to collectively work towards solving these issues at the local level.

Upon leaving Camp last summer we both knew that we had gone through a transformative experience, and there was a lot of work to do in our hometowns and beyond. But when COVID-19 struck our lives, we also felt like it had interrupted our community work, or perhaps made it nearly impossible to do. Virtual camp grounded and re-energized us in this work towards a more dialogue-based and empathic future—a future that we now know we not only can plan for during the coronavirus, but that we must plan for as we reimagine what a post-COVID-19 world will look like.

Danielle is a rising senior at Westridge School in Southern California, where she is the current co-head of Student Voices, an organization for diversity, equity, and inclusion; and as well as founder and co-head of Filipinx Affinity, a student-led social justice space for Filipinx members of her school.

Martine is a rising junior at Nottingham High School in Syracuse, New York. She is committed to reimaging the spaces that students more commonly interact with and that have been heavily impacted by COVID-19. With the Syracuse delegation of Seeds of Peace, she advocates for education justice through the implementation of dialogue in the classroom, especially as we enter a new era of learning this fall.

One year later, Middle East teens still cling to ideals
The Christian Science Monitor

Aug 14, 2003 / No Comments

OTISFIELD, MAINE | When Saja Abuhigleh returned home to the Palestinian town of Ramallah last year, her friend Donia stopped speaking to her.

The problem: Saja was bursting with enthusiasm for Maine’s Seeds of Peace camp, where she had just spent three weeks, and for her friends there—including Israelis.

“She told me, ‘I can’t believe after everything that happened to your family, you can make friends with them,’ ” Saja recounts sadly.

Adar Ziegel, one of Saja’s Israeli bunkmates last summer, also had her ideals from camp tested. Her friend Tom was riding the No. 37 bus in Haifa in March when a suicide bomber blew it up. Tom and his father were killed, along with 13 others. It was the first time that the violence of her homeland had touched Adar so personally.

Seeds of Peace, a lakeside enclave northwest of Portland, is dedicated to helping teenagers from the Middle East begin to overcome their differences—or at least put a human face on the “enemy.” But it’s one thing to express optimism in the Maine woods; it’s another to test that optimism against the violence and hatred back home.

Last summer, the Monitor followed both Adar and Saja—along with Ariel Tal, an Israeli at camp for his third year, and Sami Habash, a blond, intense Palestinian—through the challenges and triumphs of learning to live with those from the other side. After three weeks of bonding in a safe setting, all four teenagers had felt hopeful, and were determined to keep working for peace at home. They were worried, too, about what would happen once the “bubble” of camp gave way to the harsh realities of checkpoints, tanks, and suicide attacks.

Returning after a year of change

In the end, Saja, Sami, and Adar all returned for a second summer—something only about 10 percent of campers do. (Ariel, after three years at Seeds of Peace, was too old.)

Their reasons varied, from wanting to learn more patience to simply missing friends and the fun of camp. They have no illusions about how much change a few teenagers can effect. But their commitment to peace is a year stronger, and their decision to return, ultimately, an act of hope.

It was a year of changes for all four. Saja put on the hijab, against her family’s wishes. Sami was offered a full scholarship to Brandeis University in Massachusetts, but will follow his mother’s desire that he attend Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Ariel finished high school and will be drafted into the Israeli army this fall.

And, for the first time, the violence was made truly personal for Adar. She still remembers every detail of March 5—her birthday. She was at the beach celebrating when a friend called: A bus had exploded right next to the bakery where she and her friends hang out. A flurry of phone calls revealed that most of her friends were fine. Only Tom was missing. It wasn’t until the next morning, as she was putting on her shoes, that Adar heard Tom’s name read over the radio. She fell to the floor crying.

Rather than destroy Adar’s belief in peace, however, Tom’s death strengthened it. One of the first things she did was write a letter to the network of Seeds of Peace alumni, pouring her heart out to people she thought might understand. She was amazed at the responses she got—from good friends and people she’d never met; from Israelis and Palestinians.

“They wrote and called me and supported me in ways I couldn’t have asked for,” Adar remembers.

Three days after the bombing, against the protests of some of her friends in Haifa, Adar went to the Seeds of Peace center in Jerusalem, seeking support but also feeling a renewed sense of purpose.

“Before, it was talking to them, and listening, and understanding … But now I felt that I owe it to someone to actually do it.”

Saja’s year has been calmer. She has emerged as a leader, helping the new campers with their English, and displaying authority as she teaches a group of Palestinians to perform the dabke, a traditional dance, for the talent show. And she wears the hijab—one of the few campers to do so—with a quiet grace. When she returned home to Ramallah last summer, Saja says, her mother hardly recognized her as the same shy girl who had never wanted to leave home alone.

“Last year, I was afraid to pass the checkpoints,” she says, smiling. “But when I came back from camp, I just told my mother, I will go alone through the checkpoints. If you want something from Jerusalem, I will go bring it.”

Her mother wasn’t always thrilled with Saja’s desire to spend time at the Seeds center in Jerusalem, though, and several times asked her to stop going. And neither parent was happy when she had a dream “about God” two months ago and decided to put on the hijab and study the Koran in earnest. Her mother, she says, has been pleading with her to take it off, at least in Maine, but Saja is resolute.

“When a girl puts on the hijab, something changes inside of her,” she explains.

Reconciling peace with military service

While Saja and Adar tried to reconcile life back home with the ideals of camp, Ariel was facing life after Seeds. His commitment to peace had already been tested once, when a friend was killed in a suicide bombing, and Ariel is confident it’s a commitment that will survive the army. That’s not to say the decision was easy.

“On the one hand, I have a great desire to serve my country and do it in the best possible way,” he writes in an e-mail. “On the other hand, after listening to my Arab friends and after being at Seeds I know the suffering of the other side.”

His Arab friends know he’s joining the army, and Ariel says they’re supportive. In the meantime, he has stayed closely connected with the Seeds center in Jerusalem, where he has been learning to facilitate the sensitive coexistence, or “coex,” sessions between Israelis and Palestinians. The work, he says, reinforced for him what he considers the ultimate lesson of Seeds of Peace: listening.

That’s a lesson Sami has taken to heart this summer. Last year, he often engaged in heated debates, and became easily frustrated when, say, an Israeli settler in his coex session relied on “different facts” from his. This year’s “coex” sessions for returning campers are less about politics, though, and more about trust and communication. Surprisingly, Sami likes the change.

“You get to know the personality of someone truthfully,” he says. “This year, I’m trying to listen more than to talk.”

Read Amanda Paulson’s first 2002 Christian Science Monitor story »

Alumni Profile: Ahmed
Educating a new generation of leaders in Pakistan

May 10, 2018 / No Comments

Our alumni are working in ways small and large to make an impact in their communities. This “Alumni Profiles” blog series will feature some of our over 7,000 changemakers in 27 countries around the world who are working to transform conflict.

Ahmed has been on our radar for a long time: three years after attending Camp as part of 2004’s Pakistani Delegation, he was elected the youngest-ever leader of the Youth Parliament of Pakistan.

Now, as one of our Seeds of Peace GATHER Fellows, Ahmed is using his visionary educational model—the Lincoln School System—to bring equality to women’s education in Pakistan.

Seeds of Peace: Tell us a little about your journey starting the Lincoln School System.

Ahmed: It was a difficult decision to start this academic institution, as I did it without funding from any donors. All I had was the will to transform the lives of poor children of Pakistan. The day I opened the school, we had 15 students; now we have 175. We have grown from a staff of two teachers to 11 teachers and six support staff. It’s been such a fulfilling journey, but it’s also just the beginning.

Seeds of Peace: Can you talk a little bit more about the program?

Ahmed: Lincoln School System is an organization that provides high-quality, affordable English-medium education [Ed: a system that uses English as the primary language of instruction] to children living in areas with low literacy rates. It works on a unique model that charges a full tuition fee for boys and uses that money to heavily subsidize the education of girls. We had to adopt this model as many people in Pakistan spend money on the education of boys while sending girls to extremely low-quality government schools or free Islamic seminaries.

Seeds of Peace: What do you aim to accomplish as a GATHER Fellow?

Ahmed: My vision is to reach out to millions of uneducated children in Pakistan and change their lives for the better. I know I cannot do it alone and I need to learn from some of the best minds working around the world. As I learn from people doing amazing things in their respective fields, I will be able to expand the network of schools and reach out to those children whose families have been living in poverty for generations.

Seeds of Peace: What is your superpower?

Ahmed: Wolverine’s super healing! No, seriously—it’s the ability to recover from any setback. There have been many times when I faced extreme difficulties and it seemed that I would have to curtail the scope of the organization. However, my team and I never gave up and always bounced back to transform the lives of children. I am very proud of it.

Seeds of Peace: What about the incubator in Stockholm got you most excited? Was there anything you were nervous about?

Ahmed: I was excited to meet amazing social leaders from around the world. I learned from the best of the best, but now I also feel like I have a lot of weight on my shoulders. I sincerely hope that I’m able to implement the ideals I learned in Stockholm and transform the lives of millions of children in Pakistan!

We wish Ahmed and Lincoln School System the best of luck! Of course, with the tools and support system the GATHER Fellowship, luck is the last thing he’ll need. For more information on the Lincoln School System, visit their Facebook page.

Photos by Stina Svanberg.

Gottschalk to receive Lehrman-Pikser Award for outstanding service

Oct 10, 1997 / No Comments

WASHINGTON | Two deserving members of the Washington Jewish community—Seeds of Peace Executive Director Barbara (Bobbie) Gottschalk, LCSW-C, ACSW, and Ben Williamowsky, DDS—will receive the Jac J. Lehrman-George M. Pikser Award for outstanding professional or volunteer social service.

The awards will be presented Thursday, November 20, at the 1997 Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA) Annual Meeting at Washington Hebrew Congregation.

In her 13 years on the JSSA staff, Bobbie Gottschalk was instrumental in developing a wide range of programs for individuals with disabilities. She considers that accomplishment as “doing the impossible” in an era when such programs were just beginning to emerge.

Now she’s again doing the impossible at Seeds of Peace—bringing together Arab and Israeli teenagers together at a Maine camp where they share their lives for four summer weeks. As JSSA’s Special Services director, Gottschalk created, developed and managed counseling, case management, and advocacy programs for individuals with disabilities and their families.

“When I first started at JSSA there was nowhere for families to turn,” she said. “Society didn’t expect people with disabilities to lead normal lives. When we first started offering services, people came pouring out of the woodwork. We had opened a Pandora’s box that needed to be opened.”

Gottschalk also helped establish JSSA’s innovative and widely acclaimed counseling program for deaf and hard of hearing individuals, and was instrumental in the successful effort to make JSSA offices barrier-free. During her tenure, a JSSA Special Service Subcommittee investigated the need for group homes for adults with disabilities, eventually developing the now-independent Jewish Foundation for Group Homes. She also helped develop a dance troupe that includes deaf and hard of hearing members under the auspices of the Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts.

Gottschalk was invited by journalist John Wallach, founder of Seeds of Peace, to become the organization’s first executive director. Dedicated to teaching Arab and Israeli teenagers to forge the personal friendships that are the building blocks for peace, Seeds of Peace achieves its goal by bringing Arab and Israeli 14-year-olds—175 of them this past summer—to camp, where they share every aspect of life, from sleeping and eating together to playing sports to learning conflict resolution.

The five-year-old organization has graduated more than 600 teens from Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia, and the United States—as well as Bosnia and Serbia. “When they come to us, the kids believe their enemies are not to be trusted, that they’re dirty cheaters out to get them,” Gottschalk said. “Then they come to camp and experience the opposite. They sleep in a cabin together, eat together, play together, brush their teeth together—and nothing bad happens. So then they have to adjust their thinking, because what they believed just doesn’t fit anymore.”

Central to the success of the four-week program is its neutral, supportive environment, and coexistence workshops, in which professional American, Arab and Israeli facilitators teach listening and negotiation skills, leading to empathy, respect, confidence and hope.

Back in the Middle East, the camp graduates participate in art weekends in neutral communities, creating “Building Blocks for Peace” sculptures out of building materials; participate in coexistence workshops, reunions and conferences; make presentations and initiate projects at their schools to help dispel the misconceptions of their peers; and, in Arab-Israeli pairs, write articles for their eight-page newsletter, “The Olive Branch,” published four times a year.

In March, Gottschalk received the Medal of Honor from Jordan’s King Hussein. Gottschalk describes herself as an “expert audience, because I love watching people make progress, and I’ll do anything to foster it. At JSSA, we helped people achieve as close to a normal life as possible, and that is an extremely satisfying experience.”

At Seeds of Peace, Gottschalk is reprising her role, “but on a larger scope. I’ve moved from my neighborhood to another part of the world to be an expert audience—to laugh and cry and respond—and to watch the important progress taking place. What is more important than bringing Egyptians, Palestinians and Israelis together 24 hours a day?”

Gottschalk has fostered progress in her local community as well. She served on the Montgomery County Commission on People with Disabilities, and on the boards of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington and UJA Federation, chairing UJAF’s 1993 Super Sunday fundraising effort. She is a board member and past president of the Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts and is a founding board member, past secretary, and current advisory board member of the Jewish Foundation for Group Homes.

According to Gottschalk, the Seeds of Peace participants best describe its benefits. “An Egyptian boy said that Seeds of Peace is the place where you find out what kind of character you really have,” she said. “And a Jordanian girl said that to make peace, you first have to go to war with yourself, and this the place you can do that safely.”

‘Who’s gonna bring the change?’ Pakistani Seed hosts dialogue for changemakers

Oct 30, 2021 / No Comments

What’s better than youth taking part in Seeds of Peace dialogue? When Seeds use their facilitation skills to create opportunities for more youth in their communities to do the same.

Not long after attending Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine, Samir, a 2019 Pakistan Seed, conceived the idea of a program that would allow opportunities for more youth to get a taste of the transformative power of dialogue that he had experienced.

“I honestly felt enlightened after my dialogue and felt that I had the power to change the world,” Samir said. “I still carry that power, and I am not ready to let go of it. I will pick myself up if I fall down, because if not me, then who’s gonna bring the change?”

Earlier this summer, with the support of 2018 Seed Ali Haris and the Wonder Y Academy (which Ali founded), Samir organized and hosted “Dialogue for Changemakers,” a six-day dialogue program for teenagers.

The in-person program took place at Titan College in Karachi and was completely student-run, including with several volunteers who participated in the Seeds of Peace 2021 Pakistani Youth Leadership and Dialogue Camp. Thirteen students (selected from a pool of 50 applicants) explored complex topics like religion, culture, nationality, and gender within Pakistani society while learning the fundamentals of dialogue in a supportive environment.

“You bond in a different way with your dialogue group because you speak your heart out without the fear of being judged,” Samir said. “That kind of comfort is not available for people

out there. So, I wanted this space to be a safe space for them and the people to be there for each other as support systems so they can hold each other in the tough times we find ourselves shackled in.”

It is especially during these challenging times, Samir said, that it is most important for youth to hear opposing viewpoints and learn from one another.

“Dialogue is an alien term to many Pakistanis,” said Hana Tariq, head of curriculum for Beyond the Classroom, which partners with Seeds of Peace to run local programs in Pakistan. “Seeing Seeds like Samir creating safe spaces for dialogue in the most meaningful way possible, is the change we wish and hope to see.”

Learn more about our South Asia Programs ››

Seeds of Peace alumni concerned about campers coming this summer
Lewiston Sun Journal

Feb 11, 2017 / 1 Comment

OTISFIELD | The gates of the international Seeds of Peace camp on the shores of Pleasant Lake must remain open this summer to ensure the continuation of its mission to bring unity to the world, members of the organization said.

“The (Trump) administration is saying we’ll be safer by building walls,” said Salim Salim, a Bowdoin College freshman and Seeds of Peace camper. “The more you close your doors to people, the more hate there will be.”

For the past 25 summers, about 200 young people from some of the most troubled areas of the world have come to Otisfield to raise their nation’s flags, join hands and voices, and begin a process of unity that is unknown in some of their homelands.

But this year, many in the organization are worried that President Donald Trump may undo their efforts.

Decisions by Trump to build a wall along the border with Mexico, to indefinitely suspended Syrian refugees, and to bar nearly all travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Libya and Sudan — has many in the Seeds of Peace organization concerned.

“At Seeds of Peace, we create rare spaces — spaces filled with people who wouldn’t otherwise find themselves in the same room together, let alone in the same room working together, learning together and leading change together,” Executive Director Leslie Lewin said in a statement issued following the travel ban.

Each summer, Lewin leads the campers in an emotional opening ceremony at the gates to the camp on Powhatan Road and then works throughout the year with leaders and others around the world to promote the organization’s work.

“We know that our work is not always easy and not always popular, either,” she said. “It takes enormous courage to engage and speak up when pulling back feels so much safer. Our work rests on a set of core values: courage, respect, critical thinking and impactful engagement.”

The actions and orders of President Trump “stand in stark contrast to these values. In fact, the very notion of shutting people out and choosing to disengage undermines the very reason why Seeds of Peace was founded nearly 25 years ago,” she said in her statement.

Campers come to Otisfield from Egypt, India, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States.

At the opening ceremony, second-year campers serve as leaders. Each delegation sings their national anthem as their flag is raised and then together all campers sing the Seeds of Peace song as that flag is raised.

It is the only flag allowed on the campgrounds for the next three weeks.

The program is aimed at shifting attitudes and perceptions, building respect and empathy. From there, camp alumni, now 6,500-plus strong, lead change throughout some 27 countries in the Middle East, South Asia, the United States and Europe.

Camper Abdul Mohamed, a junior at Lewiston High School, said there is a lot of pain now and a lot of uncertainty.

“No one really knows what to do,” he said. “If we have unity, it’s the height we have to reach right now.
“My mom and dad came to this country to seek a better life for me and my family,” he said.

After Trump’s election, Mohamed said he suddenly felt excluded from classmates, particularly those who supported Trump.

Although he initially felt that he should not try to hang out with them, he soon realized that his mindset was “not going to get me anywhere.”

“It’s OK to (peacefully) protest, but having a conversation there also has to be listening,” he said. “You have to be respectful and let people talk.”

In Lewiston, he said, dialog began among the students and unity returned.

Open dialog is at the heart of the Seeds of Peace process.

Two years ago, Mohamed said he and other Maine campers who were visiting the international camp for a day encountered Palestinian and Israeli campers who could not come together and talk. They convinced them that they needed to talk to each other, to “be open-minded,” and soon they were engaged in conversation and understanding.

Salim Salim, who moved from Iraq to Maine in 2010 and is vice president of his freshman class, said he worries about the Seeds of Peace campers coming to Maine this summer.

“Our mission is to put a face on the so-called enemy,” he said. “To have Israelis and Palestinians end up friends in just three weeks is an amazing, amazing result. It says so much about the things we’re told and the lies we’re told.”

Salim said students at Bowdoin have been upset with the current state of affairs.

“We’re trying to have discussions,” he said. “As class vice president, I tell them I’m here for them. I’m a resource if they want to talk. The challenge is to connect with people when there’s so much hate.”

Salim’s parents live in Portland and he said the fear and anger around them is evident.

“My parents get dirty looks when they’re in the supermarket,” Salim said. “The identity of a person has no connection with who that person is.”

Salim said other members of his family are in Turkey and hope to come to the United States on their Iraqi passports but fear they may not get in.

“The longer they stay in Iraq the more dangerous it becomes,” he said. “Once ISIS finds out, it only gets worse. There’s a high chance they might get killed.”

“I think my biggest concern right now is they will not feel welcome in this country,” Salim said of those coming into the U.S.

“They were brought here to be provided with a safe place,” Salim said. “They can’t do that at home. They’re realizing they have First Amendment rights, they have the freedom to say whatever they want to, but to have Trump strip away that right from them is not much different than what’s happening in their homes.”

“Making America more ignorant is what’s going on,” he said.

Read Leslie Dixon’s article at the Lewiston Sun Journal ››

Sowing seeds of peace in nice kids
The Day (Connecticut)

Aug 25, 2002 / No Comments

We on the shores have torn down walls;
We stand hand in hand as we watch the bricks fall.
We’ve learned from the past and fear not what’s ahead;
I now I’ll not walk alone, but with a friend instead.
– from “I am a Seed of Peace”

I first learned about Seeds of Peace in articles in The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and on the television show “60 Minutes.” The more I heard about this world-wide organization, the more curious I became. I was fascinated with the idea of bringing children together from warring cultures and then “replanting” them in their societies to try to grow peace. I had to see for myself, so in July my husband and I visited the camp.

Each summer, hundreds of teenagers spend a month at a summer camp in Maine, living side-by-side with people they have been led to by their upbringing to hate. Founded in 1993 by the late author and journalist John Wallach, Seeds of Peace now is recognized as the leading international conflict resolution program for youth. From 46 Israeli, Palestinian, and Egyptian teenagers in 1993, the organization now conducts extensive year-round coexistence programs and has more than 2,000 graduates representing 22 nations.

Growing up, I always had been drawn to people of different ethnic backgrounds. I loved learning about world affairs, social problems and civic virtue. In the 1960s I was caught up in the struggle of civil rights. I remember my husband and I going to Boston to hear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak. The world was changing, and I believed becoming a better place. Seeds of Peace appealed to my sense of optimism. Being a Jew, I was also attracted by the hope it raised for the possibility of peace in the Middle East.

The very site evokes the sentiment of peace. It is situated in a pine forest on beautiful Pleasant Lake in Otisfield, Me. The wind whistles through the trees. The air is filled with the aroma of pine needles. There, these children of distant wars engage in soccer, canoeing, swimming, sailing, cricket, basketball, tennis and arts. This year, the campers created a float for the local July 4 parade.

Yaakov Sadan, 17, is an Israeli Jew. Dark-haired and handsome, he was spending his third year at the camp and this year returned as a counselor.

Yassin Fayed Ghoz, 15, from Cairo, Egypt told me his dad runs a business back home. He is fascinated by computer science. He said the camp has opened his eyes. He has learned that each camper is a human being and has similar feelings. He said, “Sometimes people see peace with their own eyes, but do not admit it.” In speaking of the Mideast war he said he supports “the truth.” He was hesitant to speak further.

Sara Abuhijleh is a 16-year old Palestinian from Jerusalem. She told me her favorite subject is history and she is in the 11th grade. She has four sisters and her father is a professor in Birzeit. She emphasized, “My family wants peace. It is the governments who want war, not the people.” She was delightful to talk with, and at the end of the day hugged me and said, “You remind me of my grandmother.” I was touched.

For two hours I sat in on a session on coexistence. Emotions were so strong the room was electrified when they talked about conflicts and politics in their own countries. One Palestinian stated it was not right that they do no have a state of their own. He was angry. His eyes blazed and he confronted his Jewish friend who sat next to him. His Jewish friend stood up and shouted, “Your country has to learn to be responsible and have a credible leader. Arafat is not trustworthy.”

Another said, “You and I are human beings. We and our families have to learn to live side by side.”

Yet another said, “Israeli troops are everywhere. I don’t want to feel safe by having 20 Israeli soldiers around me. I want to feel safe in a free atmosphere.”

An Egyptian boy stated, “Intifada happens in many countries when that country has been oppressed—even in the U.S.” He was referring to civil rights.

At the conclusion of the session, one Palestinian girl said, “I learned new things. I had a chance to listen to the other side.”

From a Jewish boy from Tel Aviv: “We understand each other better. Arguments came up, but we still respected each other.” The two counselors who led this session felt many good things had come about from all the emotion and opinions expressed. At the end of the session individuals teamed up into couples, each couple deciding to swim together or take part in another activity.

One of the most vivid memories of my visit is when the entire group of campers sat in a huge circle, arms around each other, all wearing green Seeds of Peace T-shirts, and sang the signature song of the camp. Its refrain was:

I am a Seed of Peace, a Seed of Peace, a Seed of Peace
I am a Seed, a Seed of Peace,
I am a Seed, I am a Seed of Peace.
Peace, peace, peace, peace

The question arises: Once these “Seeds” return to their own countries and eventually are called to serve in the Army, will they be the same? Will they be the same Edi or Tzachi that all the campers knew at summer camp? That is an answer that only time can provide. But until then, I have the deepest faith in these kids. Asel Asleh was a strong Palestinian and a friend to dozens of Israelis. He was a proud Muslim who learned at Christian schools and visited Jewish friends on their holidays. He worked for peace, and stood for his rights without hurting anyone. He was a Seed who was so loved at camp.

Sadly, he returned to Israel in 2000 and was one of those killed. He wrote while at camp, “Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. Until we meet in the field, my friend, take care.”

At the end of the day I felt wonderful. I had grown and learned so much. I continue to believe in Israel and all it stands for. I also believe the Palestinians should have a homeland they can call their own. I urge anyone who has the chance to visit Seeds of Peace. As United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, “There can be no more important initiative than bringing together young people who have seen the ravages of war to learn the art of peace. Seeds of Peace certainly is an example of the world the United Nations is actively working for.”

Claudia Shapiro lives in Waterford.

Seeds of Peace
Down East Magazine

Dec 1, 2002 / No Comments

A unique camp in Otisfield shows kids from around the world they’re all pretty much alike

BY JEFF CLARK | At a time when the drums of war echo from the Balkans to the Bay of Bengal, from southern Sudan to Kabul, Barbara “Bobbie” Gottschalk doesn’t see herself being out of a job anytime soon. And she hates that thought.

Gottschalk is the executive vice president for Seeds of Peace, the organization that each year brings hundreds of young people from opposite sides of conflicts all over the world to the shores of Pleasant Lake in Otisfield, Maine, to meet the enemy and learn that he or she has a name and a face.

“We’re at a point in our civilization where we can annihilate all human beings or learn to get along with all human beings,” Gottschalk says. “I don’t see annihilation as an option. Seeds of Peace is.”

Seeds of Peace is a unique concept, the inspiration of a distinguished journalist named John Wallach who realized that the only path to peace in the future led through the hearts and minds of youngsters today. For three weeks Israelis and Arabs, Turks and Greeks, Pakistanis and Indians eat together, play together, share the same bunkhouses and homesickness together. And they talk together in daily, structured—and often emotional—”coexistence sessions” with trained counselors and in casual conversations over breakfast pancakes.

The program can be disconcerting for youngsters who have been told their entire lives that they must hate someone for being Palestinian or Bosnian or Greek. “I think the process of humanizing the conflict shakes them,” Wallach told reporter Morley Safer four years ago in an interview for “60 Minutes.” “If you begin to know your enemy, if you begin to hear your enemy, if you begin to understand your enemy, it’s inevitable that you will begin to feel some empathy.”

And for Wallach, who died of cancer in July, Maine was the only place that could happen. “The state of Maine is ideal for this. We’re back to basics. We’re in the world God created,” Wallach told Safer. “You couldn’t do this [over] there. One side or the other would be dominant. You have to have a neutral, safe, supportive environment.”

These days the camp that has worked so well to bring traditional foreign enemies together is also helping smooth rough relations right here in Maine. For the past three years Seeds of Peace has included sessions for local and immigrant teenagers from Portland and Lewiston, cities with growing refugee communities, as Mainers come to terms with the arrival of newcomers from Somalia, Sudan, Central America, and other exotic parts of the globe.

“It’s very rare to have the opportunity to work on a project that ultimately could make a difference in the world,” muses Merle Nelson, of Falmouth, a member of Seeds of Peace national board. “I’m proud Maine is part of this.”

The genesis of Seeds of Peace has become part of the organization’s lore. The February 1993 World Trade Center bombing left Wallach, an award-winning veteran foreign correspondent who had broken major stories on the Iran-Contra scandal and the Middle East, severely shaken. He had written several books about the Middle East, including a biography of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Wallach decided that peace had to start among the young, because hatred was already too deeply ingrained among their parents. At an A-list Washington dinner party in March 1993 honoring Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres, Wallach rose to make a toast and announced that Peres had agreed to send a group of Israeli teenagers to a summer camp devoted to finding peace and understanding between Arabs and Jews. He challenged the Egyptian ambassador, who was sitting at the same table, to match the offer. The diplomat had no choice—he said yes. Wallach promptly called the head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington with the news and got him to agree to send Palestinian youngsters from Gaza and the West Bank. Just to make sure no one backed out when the afterglow faded, Wallach called a press conference the next day and announced the establishment of Seeds of Peace with ground rules that continue today.

Each country can choose its own campers, but no country can help underwrite the camp. The program’s $4-million annual budget comes from private fund-raising efforts. Seeds is strictly nonpolitical, a stance so firm and so respected that even when the PLO and the Israelis aren’t talking to each other, they talk to Seeds of Peace and continue to send children. Nor is Seeds of Peace affiliated with the United Nations or traditional “peace” groups. “It’s very important that this is not seen as some left-wing peace organization,” Wallach once said. “We’re not here to plant a tree, sing a song, and call it peace.”

That first summer in 1993 forty-five boys (girls began attending the next year)—twenty Israelis, fifteen Palestinians, and ten Egyptians—attended the first Seeds of Peace camp at Camp Powhatan in Otisfield. Wallach’s son Michael had spent several idyllic summers at Powhatan, and owner Joel Bloom quickly agreed to host the Seeds program.

Along with the camp came camp director Timothy Wilson, a former football coach, a member of the cabinets of Governors Ken Curtis, James Longley, and Joseph Brennan, and an all-around supporter of youth causes. “I had no expectations initially,” Wilson recalls. “I was there to run a camp. I’d been in the Middle East back when I was in the Peace Corps, but that had been a long time ago.”

Even today, ten years later, Wilson says his commitment to the project “has to do with my commitment to kids. I don’t know what countries the kids come from and I don’t care. My main interest is, I want them to have the best experience possible and to go away with respect for everyone else. They don’t have to be friends with everyone, but they do have to have respect.”

One of the original 1993 campers, Tamer Mahmoud, of Cairo, recalls that he arrived in Maine with plans to become an architect. When he left, it was with the determination to go into Middle Eastern politics. “Seeds of Peace extended my horizon,” he recalls. “It made me realize that as much as I could detest the Israeli government, I could still have an Israeli as a friend.”

Mahmoud has returned every year since, first as a camper (repeat visits are not uncommon) and then as a counselor and administrator. “I’ve made Israeli friends I wouldn’t have made anywhere else,” he explains. “We don’t always agree — we argue and tease each other all the time — but we realize that we can still be friends.”

Next summer’s Seeds of Peace sessions will be the first in ten years that Mahmoud will miss. He has a good excuse. In August, he went to work in Washington, D.C., for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In the years since that first summer at Powhatan—which Seeds of Peace bought in the mid-1990s—more than 2,000 teens from twenty-one countries have conquered their own doubts, centuries of fear and mistrust, and a world’s worth of jet lag to find common ground in Maine. It isn’t easy. Each camper is chosen by his or her home government and goes through an application and interview process before being accepted. Potential campers are judged by their leadership qualities and fluency in English, the only language allowed at the camp.Wallach knew then and Seeds’ leaders today recognize that means that, at least initially, many of the young teens are well-educated true believers in their nations’ causes largely drawn from the top echelons of their societies. As the governments gain experience with the program, the selection process generally becomes more democratic and broader-based. It also means that many of today’s campers are tomorrow’s leaders. “We know a lot of them are going to be senators and presidents and leaders in other areas,” says Timothy Wilson.

He isn’t referring only to the campers from overseas, either. The Maine youngsters who attend the camp go through the same selection process, and after three years Wilson sees them already moving into leadership positions in their high schools. “There are kids in this state who are future Olympia Snowes, future Maine governors coming out of the Seeds of Peace program,” he observes.

Breaking down the prejudices starts with the first night, when exhausted new arrivals are shocked to find they are expected to sleep within a few feet of someone they have been raised to see as a mortal enemy. Some refuse to close their eyes that first night, fearing they’ll be attacked if they doze off. Over the next three weeks, they both learn and unlearn a great deal about the other side. They cheer for each other in sports, they shout at each other—at least initially—in the coexistence sessions where each side explains and defends and ultimately understands, and they complain about the food and the bugs together. “And just three weeks later, many have undergone profound changes,” Wallach wrote in his book, The Enemy Has a Face, published two years before he died. “They stay up talking until the last hours. They tell each other their closest secrets. They e-mail back and forth constantly once home. They are now friends with those who once were their enemies, and spokespeople for a peace they once dismissed.”

Wallach called it “making just one friend.” Others call it subverting the dominant paradigm, the prevailing mindset. It’s a strategy that hasn’t gone unnoticed in the homelands of the young campers.

“I’m always surprised by the continual criticism we hear that Seeds of Peace brainwashes kids,” Wilson says. “We get criticism from every side in the countries that send us children. Maybe it’s only natural when you have a large group of people of a particular persuasion who feel that Seeds of Peace threatens their views and their ability to pass those views down to the next generation.”

In their last week the campers receive special training in how to deal with friends and families and communities who will criticize and challenge the attitudes they learn at Seeds of Peace. “My parents used to say if you’re doing good things, you are always going to be criticized,” Wilson says. “You need to develop a thick enough skin to keep going.”

And perseverance. In the face of current events, with war and rumors of war on every front page, it would be easy to feel overwhelmed. “I don’t get discouraged,” Bobbie Gottschalk insists. “Most of our Seeds [as graduate campers are called] are out on a limb. They’re unusual in their families, their communities, and their schools. They’re teased and taunted and accused of being traitors. If they can keep going, I should be able to as well.”

Gottschalk sees a future where Seeds of Peace is needed more than ever. “Each year we’ve grown faster and expanded more than we felt we would,” she says, noting that Seeds now operates a Middle East office and year-round program as well as maintaining offices in New York and Washington, D.C., plus a website where former Seeds can stay in contact with each other. At three sessions every summer, the former Camp Powhatan in Otisfield is at capacity, and Gottschalk is already wondering if one of the four other summer camps on Pleasant Lake might become available soon. She wants to preserve that Maine mystique.

Peggy Golden, owner of Greenhut Gallery in Portland’s Old Port, became a supporter of Seeds of Peace in 1996 when Wallach came into her shop to inquire about a painting in the window. “I didn’t sell him on the painting, but he sure sold me on Seeds,” Golden recalls.

She is still moved by the memory of a coexistence session between Palestinian and Israeli children she listened in on last summer. “One of the boys said being in Maine was like being in a fairy tale, that it wasn’t real life,” she says. “One of his friends said, ‘No, it’s our lives that aren’t real. This is the way life is supposed to be.’ ”

Over the years, Seeds of Peace and John Wallach have created a critical mass of dedicated and talented young people. “The key word is seed,” head counselor Wil Smith points out. “Even if the camp were to close tomorrow, that seed is sown. Many of these kids will grow up to become leaders in their nations, in business and politics and education. I hope they remember these times and I hope they remember these people in Maine. I hope they make a difference.”

Wallach had a favorite fantasy that he once shared with Timothy Wilson: “He said he hoped that one day in the future there would be a world summit meeting at the camp in Otisfield, and that all the leaders of the countries at the summit were former Seeds of Peace campers. I mean, can you imagine …”

Maine camp tries to harvest peace
The Times Record (Maine)

Jul 29, 1998 / No Comments

BY JILL DUBE | OTISFIELD Under ordinary circumstances, Edi and Ahmed probably wouldn’t be friends. They probably wouldn’t even know each other.

But now, because of Seeds of Peace, they share a camp cabin and talk about what most teenage boys talk about, such as cars and sports and computers and girls.

Edi Shbitz is an Israeli. Ahmed Saadeh is a Palestinian. Back home, every day, the boys see conflict between the two nationalities. Here at the Seeds of Peace International Camp on the edge of Pleasant Lake, about 30 miles northwest of Brunswick, the two teens instead see Arabs and Israelis laughing and living together.

And learning from one another.

“Before I came to Seeds of Peace, I thought I would see Palestinians throwing rocks at me,” said Edi. “Now they are my friends. The camp gets rid of the stereotypes.”

Since 1993, Seeds of Peace has been bringing together teenagers from war-torn countries, predominantly from Arab countries and from Israel, to build a generation of peacemakers. As Seeds of Peace founder and president John Wallach says, the purpose of the camp is to “put a face on the enemy.”

“This camp is the last, best hope for peace,” said Wallach, an award-winning author and journalist. “This is the only place in the world Arabs and Israelis are together.”

It also is the place where any country in the world engulfed in war can send its next generation to learn about peace.

Past campers, ages 13 to 17, have come from the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Serbia, Northern Africa and this year Cyprus, to live for two weeks alongside their enemy to return home with the message of hope and peace.

“Some people back home are against the camp,” said Ahmed, a tall, freckle-faced strawberry blond, “but I see it as a good camp. The people here love each other.”

At the end of August, Seeds of Peace will have graduated more than 1,000 campers who have learned to deal with conflict peacefully and respect for other cultures and beliefs.

“I don’t always agree with what Ahmed says,” said Edi, a rugged, 15-year-old, “but I respect his opinion because he is my friend.”

“That is what is so great about Seeds of Peace,” Ahmed added, “you can say what you want to say and express yourself.”

For the first time in its six years, the camp invited back previous campers, before the new group of kids arrives at the end of July. Wallach said he wanted to give past campers a “refresher course” to reinforce the peace-keeping tactics they had learned.

“They learned how to disagree with each other; now the challenge is to be negotiators,” said Wallach. “We wanted to give them another dose of inspiration.”

The 140 veteran campers will learn conflict-management skills from professional facilitators every night of their two weeks here. Linda Pierce, the head of facilitators at Seeds of Peace, said art and theater are two of the tactics used to teach kids how to discover and develop their skills.

“We try to raise the children’s consciousness and go beyond the obvious to see the human beings in each other,” said Pierce, a member of the Creative Arts Team in New York City.

Pierce said the former campers have already studied conflict management, so now the staff wants to challenge them.

“They’ve learned how to negotiate and reconcile,” said Pierce. “Now they have to determine where they want to go in the future and what they want to do about it.”

In May, 100 of the camp’s graduates attended the Middle East Youth Summit in Switzerland and drafted a 50-page “Peace Treaty” between Arab nations and Israel.

Some of those who worked on the treaty are here now, and for the next two weeks they and the others will become one “nation” under Seeds of Peace. Last Thursday’s flag-raising ceremony was the final day for the youths to consider themselves part of a separate culture. After the flags from Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia and the United States were raised, the national anthems were sung and the campers united under the Seeds of Peace flag to become one nation striving for an end to conflict.

“It’s emotional, seeing the Palestinian and Israeli flags together and hearing the kids sing each other’s national anthems,” said Jared Fishman, a camp counselor and senior Middle Eastern studies major at the University of Pennsylvania.

Counselors will lead campers in activities such as swimming, arts and crafts, baseball, soccer, archery, drama and boating, to give the participants the opportunity to learn how to coexist and respect each other. “The real bonding happens during the Color Games,” said Jerry Smith, head counselor, referring to the camp’s three-day Olympics. “The nationalities drop to the colors green and blue. The only thing that matters is the team you’re on.”

Campers also work with artist-in-residence Robert Katz to create a lasting memory through art to symbolize the group’s feelings of hope and optimism.

In 1996, “The Peace Wall,” a three-part sculpture representing different stages of human emotion through war, was constructed by wrapping campers in plastic gauze.

Last year, a boat called “Spirit of Peace” was designed to serve as a metaphor for the campers’ journey and their departure from conflict.

Katz said he still is working on this year’s project, and hopes to create a “round table” that will be used during negotiations by the campers.

Beginning this summer, the lawn located to the right of the camp entrance will be made into a sculpture garden with the help of the campers.

Katz, a Hallowell resident, is one of the few Mainers participating in Seeds of Peace. Most of the staff who live in the white cottages along the dirt road in Otisfield are from areas surrounding the two Seeds of Peace branch offices in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Seeds of Peace Executive Director Bobbie Gottschalk said the camp site was chosen because of the beautiful scenery, and the fact that Maine’s climate and terrain are the complete opposite of the Middle East. “It helps to put (the campers) in a new setting to give them a new perspective,” said Gottschalk, a psychiatric social worker from Washington, D.C. “And it’s safe here.”

As one Jordanian camper described it, Seeds of Peace is a place where “hope and love are created in the woods of Maine.”

In order to attend, applicants have to write an essay explaining why they want to be part of the camp and then must pass an interview conducted by officials from their country.

While most parents make a contribution to help pay for their child’s camp experience, most of the tuition comes from $1.2 million raised throughout the year from more than 5,000 private donations to cover the $1,200-per-camper cost. Wallach said the nonprofit camp does not accept government funding.

During the past six years with Seeds of Peace, Wallach has seen positive results from campers he calls “the best and brightest.”

Besides being involved in writing the “Peace Treaty” in May, campers have gone on to excel in college and have inspired the camp to do more every year.

This year, for example, after the second session in August, campers and the staff will pack up their belongings and head for the Middle East. Although they may live in close proximity to each other, most Palestinians and Israeli teens never have seen their counterparts’ homes or ways of life.

“We need to show the world we can make peace,” said a Palestinian camper. “We need to prove that the young generation can make a big difference.”