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Elisa Birnbaum on being in the business of change

Jul 10, 2018 / No Comments

As a journalist, Elisa Birnbaum has dedicated her career to telling people’s stories.

In co-founding SEE Change, the magazine of social entrepreneurship, Elisa was able to merge her two great passions—social enterprise and storytelling—to create a platform that spotlights entrepreneurial social change in communities around the world.

Since GATHER is all about in the intersection of social change, entrepreneurship, and conflict transformation, it’s no coincidence that our paths would cross—most recently with this year’s GATHER Fellows being featured in SEE Change Magazine!

We spoke with Elisa about her work as well as her new book, In the Business of Change, which highlights changemakers across the United States.

Seeds of Peace: Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us, and congratulations on the release of In the Business of Change! To start things off, we were wondering whether you encountered any new opportunities—or challenges—you weren’t expecting while writing the book?

Elisa: Thank you. I’m excited too. I think the biggest challenge was determining which of the many, many fabulous social entrepreneurs would make the cut into the book. There are only 10 chapters and my publisher and I wanted to ensure the stories covered a range of issues, sectors, and cities across the U.S. and beyond, so I had to be a bit strict. That was tough. But I was delighted about how supportive the social enterprise community was, introducing me to inspirational folks I hadn’t yet met, embracing my work, and telling me their stories in the most honest and transparent way. It was wonderful.

Seeds of Peace: Tell us a little bit about your journey into the world of social entrepreneurship.

Elisa: I first became intrigued with the world of social entrepreneurship as a reporter in the nonprofit sector. I saw it as one of the ways organizations could become more sustainable and resilient. I immediately felt it was an important movement and one that would play a pivotal role in the future. I had also carved a niche writing business pieces as a freelance journalist and became particularly enamored with the idea of the two areas of interest merging together. I then read David Bornstein’s seminal work, How to Change the World, and my eyes were further opened to the potential of social entrepreneurship in affecting change across communities around the world.

Seeds of Peace: How did SEE Change Magazine come about?

Elisa: When I tried pitching stories of social enterprise to mainstream publications, most of my ideas fell on deaf ears. This was a decade ago when these stories weren’t yet embraced as they are today. A journalist/editor colleague of mine felt the same frustration. So we decided to start our own magazine focused on social entrepreneurship, to help get these stories out and to support the field in the best way we knew how: through storytelling. We didn’t know what we were getting into, to be honest, but we just decided to give it a shot. It’s been over eight years now and the magazine is still rolling on. We have subscribers, readers, contributors, and content from all around the world and have introduced a video series as well as a podcast to the mix of content. It’s been a fun ride.

Seeds of Peace: What drew you to Seeds of Peace’s mission and work?

Elisa: I first heard about Seeds of Peace because someone on staff pitched a story about your work on the ground. We published it happily and then I started looking deeper and was blown away by the level of work that you do. It’s truly impressive. So I reached out, wanting to tell help the organization tell more of its stories in SEE Change. I’m looking forward to a greater partnership moving forward.

Seeds of Peace: What’s your No. 1 piece of advice for aspiring social entrepreneurs seeking to make impact?

Elisa: It’s so important to have a powerful social mission—so hold onto it tightly—but it’s equally important to have a viable financial/business model. Make sure you are able to juggle both, know that it won’t be easy, but that without the two working in tandem, strongly and sustainably, it’ll be that much more difficult to fulfill your mission.

Seeds of Peace: What’s next for Elisa Birnbaum?

Elisa: SEE Change has been gaining even greater momentum lately, which is exciting. The podcast, in particular, is getting a wonderful reception by listeners across the globe. And I do love telling stories in all mediums so that’s been fun. My other business–a communications consultancy for the social impact sector—is also growing nicely. And I’ve been exploring ideas for the next book. Still, I’m always open to new and exciting opportunities and partnerships. I have been approached with a few ideas … so we’ll see what happens.

We are so excited to continue deepening our partnership between SEE Change and Seeds of Peace. For now, you can read SEE Change’s writeup of our 2018 GATHER Fellows. In the Business of Change is now available at New Society Publishers.

Israeli and Palestinian kids plant the Seeds of Peace
Kids Copy

Nov 30, 1993 / No Comments

BY ANDREA FINE | Israelis and Palestinians are still uncertain whether the new peace agreement between them will really work. Although the majority of people seem hopeful, it’s hard for enemies to trust each other after years of bitter fighting.

Building trust isn’t impossible, though—especially if it is taken one step at a time. Coming together is the first and, in many ways, the hardest step.

That’s what 46 boys from rival groups in the troubled Mideast region learned for themselves last summer when they came together in a camp program in the United States called Seeds of Peace.

Now back in their own countries, they’re telling their friends and neighbors about their experience and asking everyone to give peace a chance.

Fadi, a Palestinian boy from East Jerusalem, told a reporter, “I hope from my heart that peace will take place in all of the world. And I think that justice and the stopping of killing between the two sides is the only road to peace.”

Discouraged by fighting

The boys were among thousands of people who gathered in Washington, D.C. on September 13 to witness a ceremony during which the leaders of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed a peace agreement and shook hands.

For two weeks before the ceremony, the 46 boys had been living together in the woods of Maine at a Seeds of Peace summer camp.

John Wallach, a newspaper reporter and the author of three books about the Mideast, came up with the idea for a peace camp after the World Trade Center in New York was bombed last February.

Wallach was discouraged by all the fighting in the world. He decided that if he could get young “enemies” to become friends, they might choose to live in peace when they got older. A camp, he thought, would be the perfect place to bring kids together.

The boys were chosen because of their leadership qualities and their ability to speak English. Fifteen were Egyptian, 20 were Israeli and 11 were from the Palestinian West Bank. They ranged in age from 11 to 13.

Kids can get along

Camp Director Joel Bloom said the boys were immediately suspicious of each other.

“One boy said he had been brought up to believe all Israelis are assassins and killers,” Bloom told Kids Copy.
They were encouraged to talk to each other about their suspicions, which helped, Bloom said. More importantly, they shared cabins and were teammates in games of baseball, soccer and basketball.

Uri, a 14-year-old Israeli, said in a television interview that while he was at camp, he learned that friendship is more important than politics.

“You can have an argument, but then you can go back to being friends and playing baseball or softball or something,” Uri said.

Camp Director Bloom believes the camp proved “that children who are given the opportunity can get along without conflict.”

Seeds of Peace has plans for another camp next summer and hopes to start a similar program for girls.

Think about it

Is there a group of people you consider an enemy—people who live in a certain country, practice a certain religion, or belong to a certain political party? Have you ever approached a member of that group as a potential friend and gotten to know him or her as an individual person? Do you think your feelings about the “enemy” group would change if you did that?

Family Gathering
The Jerusalem Post

Sep 7, 2006 / No Comments

BY RYAN NADEL | JERUSALEM As the final rays of the summer sun drifted through the large windows, participants of the Seeds of Peace Cafe gathered in a luxuriously appointed room at the American Colony Hotel.

The Seeds of Peace Cafe, a program run by the organization Seeds of Peace, is a forum for individuals from Jewish, Arab and Christian communities to become acquainted with each other in an apolitical environment.

“The Cafe allows people to learn about each other’s customs,” explained Dorothy Gitter Harman, co-coordinator of the Seeds of Peace Cafe.

This event, the first since the closing of the Jerusalem center and the inaugural gathering after the summer break, featured descendants from two of the oldest and most prominent Jerusalem families—the Alamis and the Havilios.

The Seeds of Peace Cafe program was initiated last February, this being the sixth meeting. The title for the evening was “Tales of Prominent Jerusalem Families: Jewish, Christian and Muslim as told by Muhammad Alami and Abraham Havilio, Lovers of Jerusalem and Marvelous Story-Tellers.

As the participants found their seats, music floated above the conversations in the room, accenting the mixture of Arabic, Hebrew and English with a Mediterranean rhythm. Teenagers sporting the green Seeds of Peace T-shirts punctuated the mature, distinguished crowd with a sense of youth.

Harman called the program to order and reminisced about a time in Jerusalem when Arabs, Jews and Christians “lived, labored, laughed and experienced life together,” before introducing the men who lived during this period and remembered what that life was like.

“The idea is to have Jews, Muslims and Christians meet and talk about different things in which politics does not have a place, to get together and get to know each other,” said Dr. Muhammad Dajani, co-coordinator of the cafe with Harman. “We are here to talk about coexistence during a time in the past when conflict did not exist, when we lived as one.”

Avraham Havilio, 76, a man whose presence emits the type of wisdom gained through experience, then took the microphone. Speaking with sweeping hand gestures, he introduced his tales with the title, “Once Upon a Time.”

Havilio opened his presentation by expressing his belief that talking and understanding each other—even if in disagreement—is the beginning of ideological unity, “because understanding is the first step toward agreement.”

His voice filled the room as he recounted the history of his family in Jerusalem, beginning in 1265. He emphasized that his family was always involved in both the commercial and communal aspects of the city, and distributed pictures of family members and artifacts documenting his family’s illustrious Jerusalem heritage. Havilio Sweets, which was sold 10 years ago, has been a feature of the Jerusalem landscape for about 250 years. The company operated out of a small factory in Jerusalem and was sold by stores in the area.

Havilio called upon his friends in the audience to share memories of their father’s and grandfather’s era.

Dr. Ali Qleibo, himself an expert on the ancient families of Jerusalem and author of a book on the subject, told of a time when “Jerusalem was not segregated, it was one city and we coexisted as a matter of the course of life, it was a time when people interacted on a personal level.”

Another friend of Havilio’s, Albert Hazan, born in Jerusalem during the 1930s, recounted school boy adventures with Arab and Christian friends. “We would walk the streets of Jerusalem with joy, not fear,” he reminisced. “My stories of Jerusalem are the stories of the love of two boys from two different worlds.”

Hazan expressed wishful sentiment that the stories of past cross-cultural friendships “blossom into friendships of the future.”

Havilio concluded his stories and turned the microphone over to Dr. Muhammad Alami, who immediately commented that he is too much of an academic to tell stories, admitting he is “too young to know the stories firsthand, but not too young to know what society was like.”

Alami, in his early 60s, explained that historically, connection to society focused on associations with institutions, all of which were religious and created the great families of Jerusalem. However, he added, when the institutions collapsed in the 19th century, the dynamic of the families and society changed.

Alami remarked that “during the Ottoman Empire, the city was very calm” and society was unchanging and “stagnant.”

The floor was then opened to all for comments and stories. As Havilio had hoped, by the end of the evening it was clear that all in attendance had a better understanding of what Jerusalem life was once like.

As the evening concluded, attendees mingled and shared their own stories and memories of old Jerusalem. Their conversations of times past drifted into the evening sky.

Seed Stories: A matter of perspective

Nov 6, 2018 / No Comments

One day, after a soccer game, my best friend Tareq and I plopped ourselves down in the field’s overgrown grass.

In any other situation, he and I would be an unlikely duo. At Seeds of Peace, however, the sight of a Muslim Palestinian boy and a Jewish American girl together is nothing unusual.

Once seated, I immediately noticed a sour, putrid smell in the air. Searching for the culprit, I realized that Tareq had removed his sneakers. I winced and yelled, “Tareq! Your feet smell like ass!” Without missing a beat, he smirked and responded, “Nah, Lex, it’s the inside of your nose that smells like ass.”

What an absurd answer, I thought. As I instinctively began to formulate a zinger to fire back at him, I paused for a moment to consider the logic of his response. Never would I have considered that the source of the bad smell could be the inside of my nose.

Tareq and I simultaneously burst into laughter. We had spent the summer connecting over shared experiences as intensely personal as coping with the death of a best friend and as seemingly insignificant as a mutual love of pickles on our turkey sandwiches.

Through Tareq’s stinky feet, I began to understand the power of perspective. It was not always easy to see the world and its conflicts through a new pair of eyes. With time, though, I recognized that Tareq and I could have passionate debates without having to prove the other’s core belief wrong. I had simply learned to take his view, lay it next to mine, and see that his belief was as valuable to him as mine was to me. Ultimately, I realized that I could remain deeply tied to my Jewish faith and still find meaning and truth in the way Tareq looks at the world.

When I think of Tareq, I think of the words Seeds of Peace was founded upon. Thirteenth century poet, Rumi, wrote, “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” I reached that field with Tareq.

Our friendship, and my Seeds experience more generally, has inspired me to surround myself with people who will challenge and broaden my worldview, shown me the importance of listening with an open mind, and led me to believe governments do not make peace. People do.

Post Camp, my greatest identity is that I am Seed. As an American Seed, I seek opportunities that push me to think a little differently. When debates regarding the conflict—or any conflict—arise, I challenge myself to stand up for the Palestinians—or the “other” side.

I studied Arabic—not Hebrew—at Washington University, and in high school decided to take classes about Jewish History and Ethics offered by my synagogue, Washington Hebrew Congregation. I was selected as one of three Americans to return to Seeds of Peace after my first summer at Camp, and subsequently spent two summers working there.

Yes, that makes four years in a row—I can’t get enough. I hope you are beginning to understand why.

Why I’m Shocked and Inspired by Kids4Peace | The Forward

Oct 27, 2015 / No Comments

By Elana Sztokman

Last Thursday, at a meeting of parents of Kids4Peace, I had a remarkable experience that both shocked me and inspired me.

It’s unique Jewish-Muslim-Christian camp for residents of Jerusalem and its environs, in which my daughter participated last summer. Over the last year, the children have met regularly and their parents have met simultaneously in adjoining rooms. It has been an eye-opening experience, a powerful reminder of the importance of getting to know people around you — especially people who are different from you.

This sounds like such a simple concept. But it is a remarkable fact of life in Israel that Arab and Jews who are sharing the same air and the same space and the same hot, daily grind, whose lives are so intricately bound up on one another, for the most part barely speak to each other.

One of the most precious aspects about the Kids4Peace parent meetings is the discovery that, as parents, we are all pretty much the same. We all try to get our kids off the computer, we all try to get them to clean up their rooms, we all live for school plays, academic presentations, sports games, and we all really just want a nice life for ourselves.

Still, Thursday night, October 22, was a little different. This was the first time we were meeting in a context of violent tension. Many people at the meeting said that they don’t remember a time when Jerusalem was this edgy: when life had completely come to a halt as everyone seemed to be staying home.

People are so anxious right now that Kids4Peace held a phone meeting for parents a few days earlier, under the assumption that most would not want to come in person. Significantly, Thursday’s group proved them wrong and, despite the surrounding events, some 60-70 parents turned up, from all sectors of society.

As people began sharing feelings and experiences, one Arab woman described a scene that really shook me. She had been looking after her elderly father in the hospital for the past few weeks, which gave her a ringside view of the comings and goings in the hospital around terror attacks. One day, when a female soldier had been stabbed and badly injured, the hospital staff made visitors make room for them to wheel the victim through the corridors. As she stood with her 8-year-old son she had a jarring conversation with him. He assumed, she told us, that the victim was an Arab woman. The mother said, “No, she’s Jewish”

“I don’t understand,” the child replied. “Why would a Jew stab another Jew?”

“No, no,” she gently explained. “The attacker wasn’t Jewish. He was an Arab.”

The boy could not comprehend this. His mother recounted that in his mind, the only violence that exists is Jews hurting Arabs. This is all he knows, and it’s all he has seen. He had no idea that the violence goes the other way, too.

When he realized his mistake, he said, ”That’s okay then.”

The woman, who is a long-time peace activist from Jerusalem who currently works in hi-tech, was also shocked by part of the conversation. And she said plainly, “I failed as a parent.” How can her son ever justify violence, she painfully wondered out loud.

Still, I don’t think she failed at all. First of all we cannot control everything our children see and experience. Second, she is trying to have compassionate conversations with her son and instill in him a deep sense of shared humanity — which is I think what many of us are trying to do. And let’s face it, considering the social and political tensions we are living through, it is a hard task. I told her, in the way so many of my female friends are constantly telling one another, to be kinder to herself. Still, she was shaken by the discovery that her son had it in him to believe that sometimes violence is okay, if it sort of “balances the scales” so to speak.

I was shocked because I could not believe how different the world looks for Arab children and Jewish children living in the same city.

For Jews, the only violence that we see or that “counts” is violence perpetrated against “us.” Against Jews. Meanwhile, for Arab children, apparently the only violence that they see is violence perpetrated against them. There is a symmetry here that would be charming if it weren’t so utterly tragic.

Jews like to deny this. When “numbers” of killed and injured on both “sides” are counted, Jewish pundits will go immediately to arguments of self-defense. Israeli news outlets frequently report only numbers of Jews dead, not Palestinians. News reports say, “There was an attack. No casualties reported; three terrorists were eliminated.” So actually, three Palestinians are dead, but their deaths don’t count as deaths if we can call them terrorists. Nobody dead means nobody Jewish dead. It is chilling that this is standard reporting in Israel.

Why are we then surprised that in the Palestinian community, they do the same thing? Why do Jews have so many media watchdogs to correct Palestinian narratives when our own narratives are just as skewed? It’s all messed up.

Plus, there is something even more chilling in this new round of violence in that so many of the terrorists are kids. I cannot conceive of a 13-year-old boy as a terrorist. I don’t know how he got to be a knife-wielding, but we cannot simply label a 7th or 8th grader as a “terrorist” without asking difficult questions about how he got to where he is. I don’t know the stories of these teenagers committing acts of violence, but I do understand that their families and friends will mourn their death regardless of their weapons. Israel may not count Palestinian dead as dead, but we should not be surprised that 8-year-old children witnessing events certainly will count their dead as dead.

One of the opinions shared by almost everyone in the group was that there is an awful lack of leadership — on both sides. When Palestinians said that Israelis need to elect better leaders, I could feel myself sinking into my post-election depression. Bibi again? What’s worse, he won precisely because of how successfully he instilled a fear and hatred of the other in Jewish Israeli minds: Run to the ballots because Arabs are voting in swarms, he effectively told voters on Election Day. And it worked! When people in the group last night said, “Elect different leaders”, all I could think was, I wish I knew how.

Significantly, it seems from our discussion that the Election Day experience has had a powerful impact on this current wave of violence. The dreadful validation that Arab Israelis — citizens and taxpayers of Israel — are still viewed by Israeli leaders as “the enemy” was a slap in the face to so many people. I totally get that. Rather than embrace Arabs who want to create a normal life for themselves in Israel, rather than look for ways to build bridges and find common ideals and passions, Bibi time and again reverts to the narrative that all non-Jews are potential enemies. Bibi created this nightmare that we are all living in.

Still, I said that I also came out hopeful. And that is because despite all of this, there are still many people (many? I don’t know exactly what many means, but enough to fill two large rooms with engaged conversation) on both sides who believe that another way is possible. There seems to be a growing number of people who are willing to think differently from friends around them, who are willing to challenge traditional narratives that we have all been fed about the “other” in society, and who are willing to consider perspectives other than their own.

This makes me hopeful because, previous elections notwithstanding, I think we are living in changing times — times when social media creates blink-of-the-eye awareness of events and at times unexpected relationships. Although researchers are mixed about whether social media makes people change their views on things or whether it creates millions of echo chambers, I think that it is impossible not to be influenced, even a little, by the volumes and volumes of ideas and perspectives that come through our personalized news feeds. It’s just not possible that we are not all changing, even a little, as we learn more about others. We are exposed to so much stuff all the time. And sociologists generally confirm that we are all becoming a little less driven by traditional communal affiliations and are instead redefining boundaries of affiliations, creating our own customized connections and communities. I think maybe this creates new opportunities – like the Kids4Peace parents meeting – for all of us to come to new understandings and new awareness.

At least I can hope. Hope itself is an idea worth hanging onto at times like this.

Elana Maryles Sztokman, PhD is founding firector, The Center for Jewish Feminism

Read Elana’s article in The Forward â€șâ€ș

Dialogue Academy launches online, with potential to reach the masses

Oct 20, 2022 / No Comments

Prior to this summer, the word “dialogue” meant quotes and movie scripts to Ibrahim and Soha. Seeds of Peace’s new virtual program, Dialogue Academy, changed that.

“Every time my mind was blown,” laughed Ibrahim, a 14-year-old student from India who participated in the program’s pilot phase this summer. Soha, a 16-year-old student from Pakistan, nodded along with him: “It didn’t actually feel like we were taking a class.”

Dialogue Academy is one of Seeds of Peace’s newest initiatives to foster compassionate and critical conversations across divides. Inspired by the separation caused by COVID-19, Qasim Aslam, a 2001 Pakistani Seed and Director of Pakistani Programs, said the online program was designed to further expand the impact of Seeds of Peace in a time of isolation: no need to obtain visas, no worrying about contracting or spreading COVID, no travel fees.

With Dialogue Academy, all that is required is a laptop and an internet connection.

“The program has the potential to ramp up our outreach to 100,000 students a year in about five years, if we have the right resources,” Qasim said.

With the support of a U.S. State Department grant, the Academy offered its first course, Essentials of Dialogue, on Zoom to approximately 70 Indian and Pakistani students over the summer.

The daily lessons varied, from learning about the power of groups of people through a video on mobs, to students taking an organizing role establishing school dress-code policy. Each activity worked to explore different perspectives, understand the importance of listening and dialogue, and learn their different types and applications.

“The most important thing is that everything starts with you,” Shweta Patole, the project’s director, said describing the program’s first steps. “The deeper you understand yourself, the better you’ll be able to understand everybody else.”

While the course gave students skills to begin immediately navigating conflict within their homes, schools, and communities, for many, it also provided their first opportunity to meet someone from the “other side.” Ibrahim was one of many Indian participants who had never met someone from Pakistan.

“But here diversity was a positive thing because we came to know about each other, they were informative, and we really connected to each other,” he said.

In a short amount of time, Shweta said that the course transformed from a class where students were shy to turn on their cameras, to a space where they could be vulnerable, listen with respect to the stories of their peers from across the border, and share their own as well.

“I learnt how important it is to respect others’ cultural beliefs and religion,” said Haleema Sadia, one of the participants. “They also taught me how to create safe spaces in the environment for other people to be comfortable around me.”

Future plans for Dialogue Academy include offering both live and self-paced options, as well as courses on mediation and facilitation. Focusing for now in India and Pakistan, the hope is to expand Dialogue Academy both within the two countries, and then, internationally.

“Imagine if this program is available to every school, to every student, regardless of whether Seeds of Peace is already on the ground in their community,” said Seeds of Peace Associate Director Renee Atkinson. “For some students, it will really spark something, and they’ll apply for more in-depth programs with a foundation for deeper and more meaningful conversations and action. And for others, at least they will have the tools to apply within their homes, schools, and communities. It’s a powerful thing to imagine.”

To be clear: The program is not designed to take the place of, or to be compared to, an in-depth dialogue experience like the Seeds of Peace Camp. But by eliminating physical and financial barriers to basics of the tried-and-true Seeds of Peace curriculum, it could drastically increase the number of young people equipped to navigate conflict—and to change its course across societies.

“What I realized is that, through dialogue, you can actually figure out and break down misunderstandings and conflicts instead of just acting upon your first thought,” Soha said. “I feel that if people were to learn to communicate through dialogue, we may have less violence in the world.”

Learn more about Dialogue Academy at thedialogue.academy.

What We’re Reading: Opening minds on mental health

May 24, 2019 / No Comments

Odds are that each of us knows someone living with a mental illness, or live with one ourselves. But unfortunately, because of stigma, lack of resources, or awareness, we often go through these struggles alone, sometimes never receiving critical support, or even knowing that what we are experiencing can be helped.

While the severity varies greatly from person to person, mental illness affects one in five people, including the teenagers that come to Camp each summer. Researchers estimate that as many as 50 percent of youth ages 13-18 will deal with some sort of mental health issue, and half of all serious mental illnesses set in by age 14.

This May marks the 70th anniversary of Mental Health Month, an initiative started to reduce stigma and raise awareness of mental health issues. So we’re focusing on books and articles that include courageous personal stories that put us in the shoes of people dealing with mental illness and trauma, as well as decades of research to help us better understand the pathways to healing. The more we know about mental health and what it feels like to be depressed or anxious, to carry trauma, or have a chemical makeup that prohibits you from thriving, the more empathetic, supportive, and successful we’ll be when it comes to helping others, and ourselves.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk
What does trauma do to our mind? What does trauma do to our brain (i.e. the physical organ that contains the mind)? What does trauma do to our bodies, and how do we heal? Based on work experience, lived experiences, and decades of studies, Dr. van der Kolk, a leading expert of trauma who has worked with clients ranging from veterans to sexual assault victims, explores how trauma imprints on our bodies, and how we can better understand and treat its detrimental effects. This book will be immediately useful and interesting to anyone who has experienced trauma, knows people who have experienced trauma, or works with people who have experienced trauma (hint: that means all of us). — Greg Barker, Manager of Facilitation Programs

Educated, by Tara Westover
This harrowing memoir gives readers a strikingly intimate and firsthand look into the toll that mental illness can take on individuals and families. Raised in rural Idaho by an ultra-religious, survivalist family, Westover describes in detail years of neglect and abuse at the hands of a mentally ill father and sibling. Despite having never stepped in a classroom until she was 17, she eventually finds freedom through education. From Brigham Young University—where she hears about the Holocaust for the first time—to the elite halls of Harvard and Cambridge, she struggles to reckon with the world she was told about, and the one she’s discovering for herself. Westover’s story is a uniquely moving, complicated, and eye-opening that is at times uncomfortable to read, but utterly impossible to forget. — Dindy Weinstein, Director of Individual Philanthropy

Bee Season, by Myla Goldberg
Myla Goldberg tells the story of a family of four growing distant from one another as they fight to find themselves and find connection with each other. The 9-year-old daughter, Eliza, strives to be seen as intelligent and accomplished as the rest of her family. Her brother Aaron rejects the family’s traditions in search of a higher spiritual understanding and sense of belonging. And while their father pressures them to fulfill his own dreams, their mother is struggling with a hidden life unknown to the family. Goldberg lyrically depicts the pain and pressure felt by each family member, exploring their deep inner selves and taking the reader along through layers of mental states and identity. Heart wrenching and beautifully written, Bee Season reveals how disparate our inner lives can be from our outward appearance, and the importance of human connection to care for and support each other. —Emily Umansky, Development Association

We’ve Got Issues, by Judith Warner
Journalist Judith Warner set out to write a book exploring the overmedication of American children. What she discovered in the course of her research, by spending time with families whose kids are dealing with a variety of mental and behavioral health issues and hearing their stories, is that, in fact, far too many children were not receiving the treatment they and their families so desperately needed. What they received instead was stigmatization and recrimination. Through listening to others’ stories and experiences, the author’s preconceived narrative was challenged, which fits very much in line with the work of Seeds of Peace! This book supported me at a time in my parenting journey when I needed empathy and understanding, not judgment. — Deb Levy, Director of Communications

Also don’t miss

The Anxiety Chronicles, The Lily (The Washington Post)
Women are nearly twice as likely as men to develop an anxiety disorder, a serious medical condition that, as 15-year-old Ella Gross wrote recently, “is so much more than just being scared of public speaking.” For nearly a year this series has put a spotlight each week on a different woman’s journey with anxiety. They vary from teenagers to grandmothers and experience a wide range of symptoms and effects, though a common thread is that many began experiencing symptoms years—sometimes decades—before receiving help. By sharing their stories, these women are helping shine a light on one of the most commonly ignored, and commonly experienced, forms of mental health disorders in the United States.

Primal Fear: Can Monkeys Help Unlock the Secrets of Trauma? Luke Dittrich, New York Times Magazine
In the weeks after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, a researcher began noticing unexpected patterns among one of its island’s monkeys: One, the monkeys seemed to be expanding their social networks, increasing the number of individuals that they had meaningful relationships with. Two, the monkeys appeared to become more tolerant of one another, despite living with radically diminished resources. “It was as if the hurricane had bonded even former foes against a common enemy and made the monkeys much more tolerant of life’s everyday frustrations, at least in the early days,” Dittrich wrote. Sound familiar? This fascinating article explores how researchers are seeing a rare opportunity in our genetic cousins to gain answers to long unanswered questions about the psychological effects that a disaster like Hurricane Maria has on humans.

Have any suggestions we should check out? Add them in the comments! And if you or someone you know needs information about mental health services, visit mentalhealth.gov or the World Health Organization.

Banner photo credit: Ella Gross/Lily/Washington Post

An “inspowered” kick-off to the 2019 GATHER Fellowship

Apr 16, 2019 / 1 Comment

What happens when Egyptians, Israelis, Pakistanis, Palestinians, Americans (two by way of Romania and Rwanda), a Turk, a Tunisian, a Jordanian, and a Canadian (now living in Mexico) meet up in Sweden?

They coin a new phrase.

The term “inspowered” may have arisen by accident through the kind of exhaustion that comes after a week of intense project and community building, but the Fellows immediately adopted it as their own. Because inspowered (a combination of inspired and empowered) is exactly what they were feeling by the end of their time together.

The 2019 GATHER Fellowship incubator began in Sigtuna, a small, lakeside village an hour’s drive from Stockholm. It was there that the Fellows met and began to learn about each other’s lives and life’s work. Through a needs mapping exercise and a candlelit personal storytelling session, the 16 social innovators began to realize that while leading change can be lonely work, they are not in it alone.

They participated in a storytelling and marketing workshop that prepared them for a speed-dating style pitch session with graduate students from Uppsala University, the Nordic region’s oldest university and one of the finest in the world. The students, who are studying conflict transformation, posed many questions to the Fellows, and were grateful to see real-world manifestations of their studies.

After two days, the Fellows departed Sigtuna for Stockholm, and spent the next morning at Parliament, learning the nuances of Swedish government and meeting with four members of Parliament who graciously answered questions for an hour and a half.

After lunch, they spent time in a co-working space called Norrsken House and discovered that social entrepreneurs are treated like rock-stars in Sweden. At Norssken, the Fellows explored new frameworks for utilizing the engine of business to power social change.

Fellows met in small groups to workshop their projects and support each other, and they also met one-on-one with Seeds of Peace and SE Forum staff who could advise them on specific issues. On the final night, they demonstrated both thoughtfulness and thought leadership as participants in a series of panels: changing societies through storytelling and the arts, creating platforms for systemic change, bridging differences through education and dialogue, and empowering marginalized communities through enterprise.

Saying goodbye was not easy. But the Fellows will meet again—every week in fact—on video check in calls. They will continue to “inspower” each other, and over the course of the fellowship, we will shine a spotlight on each of them and their projects. So stay tuned … you just might become inspowered yourself!

#DialogueIRL: Two reformed extremists find their “why”

Apr 19, 2019 / No Comments

One was once a white supremacist. The other, a former Taliban recruiter. On Wednesday, they joined Seeds of Peace Director of Global Programs Kiran Thadhani at Brooklyn Law School for the Tanenbaum Center’s Courageous Conversations series.

The duo discussed their journeys to radicalization, their paths out, and how we can use dialogue to confront extremism in a divided society.

“A huge pull for white supremacy,” Arno Michaelis explained to the crowd, “is that it’s forbidden. That it’s frowned on by civil society. If things aren’t going well in your life, if you’re not comfortable with who you are and you have a poor self-image, one real easy way to bolster it 
 is to think you know things that everyone else doesn’t know and to feel like you’re pissing off the status quo.”

Arno became an active member of the white power movement starting at age 16, and eventually co-founded what became the largest racist skinhead organization in the world. But over time, the cognitive dissonance of his worldview became too great to ignore.

“I was telling this story that the world was supposed to revolve around, when real life was contradicting everything I was saying on a regular basis. And that hypocrisy was driven home by the kindness of others.”

Arno recalled a moment where that came to a head. “I remember going to McDonald’s on my first payday, and behind the counter was this elderly black woman who has a smile on her face that is so authentic. Like everything that is good about being a human being was embodied in this woman’s smile 
 And it made me so uncomfortable, because I was trying so hard to hate her.”

When she saw the swastika tattoo on his finger, Arno said, it was the beginning of the end. “I’m 6’3”, but in that moment I felt six inches high. And when I finally looked back up at her, she just calmly told me, ‘I know that’s not who you really are. You’re better than that.’ I felt destroyed.”

While teenage Arno thought himself an outcast, Mubin Shaikh was popular at his high school. But after his uncle caught him hosting a raucous house party with his classmates, Mubin developed an identity crisis over his relationship to his religion that drove him to extremism.

“[The uncle] was like, ‘Oh my God, what have you done, you’ve defiled the home, people pray here,’” Mubin told the audience. “And immediately this shame and guilt took over me. I decided that in order to fix myself and salvage my reputation, I had to get really religious.”

He travelled to India and Pakistan, where a chance encounter with the Taliban led to him spending years as a recruiter for the organization. But after the September 11th attacks, he began to reconsider his views. In 2002, he sold his possessions and moved to Syria to study Islam.

“I met with a Sufi priest twice a week,” Mubin told the audience. “He reminded us that when we read the Quran, we always say, ‘In the name of God, who is full of grace and full of mercy.’ And he asked us, ‘Before you do anything, do you do it with grace and mercy? If not, you’re not following the religion.’ He systematically debunked every idea I had. By the end, I became an adversary of my old self.”

After hearing their stories, Kiran remarked, “In both of your experiences there was this question that everyone, and especially teenagers, have. And that is, ‘Who am I? Who am I as I exist in my community, in this body, in this larger system and structure that I’m a part of?’ And that is where dialogue enters.”

After the panelists spoke, audience members broke into pairs to discuss subjects they have difficulty talking about with others, followed by a Q&A with the panelists. One person who identified as liberal and who has a gay child asked for advice on how to talk to her parents about their support of Trump.

“Something that has been very helpful to me personally,” Kiran responded, “is rather than framing the conversation around, ‘How could you be a Trump supporter, knowing what you know about me and about your grandchild?’ is instead taking a couple steps back and taking time to understand the why.”

“Maybe they’ll say, ‘I’m a Trump supporter because he’s a businessman, and I’m concerned about the economy.’ And so you can ask, ‘So why is that? Why do you care so deeply about the economy?’ and really try to peel back the onion, if you will. Because what makes dialogue so different from debate or a discussion is that you start to understand there are values, there are narratives, there are stories behind why people are making the decisions that they’re making.”

“Entering a conversation with that framing of stepping back,” she continued, “also causes them to step back. And then what they’re doing is having to ask themselves, ‘Why is that something I value? Is that something I’ve just been told to value? Is there a story that informs that?’”

Another useful tip Kiran told her was to name the discomfort in the room when having difficult conversations. “Pointing out that it feels weird, that it’s uncomfortable for you to tell your parents these things, and hearing that discomfort from your parents, is important. Because it’s about building trust, and it takes a lot of trust to do this work.”

“This may sound silly, but being true will find what’s true. If you’re being honest and uncomfortable, you’ll find that there will probably be that on the other side. There’s discomfort in conflict, so it’s okay if there’s discomfort in dialogue.”

Greg Barker, Seeds of Peace Manager of Facilitation Programs who attended the event, shared how talking with a stranger can make it easier to practice just that.

“There is this safety in anonymity with a stranger,” he said. “I can be vulnerable about what scares me so much because I don’t know you, and if you don’t like it, I can walk away. As I’m doing this, I’m building up my own resilience and my own courage so when I have a difficult conversation with, say, my family or friends, I’m more prepared and more able to deal with the things they say that hurt me.”

Afghan Seed named debate’s top speaker

Jun 13, 2015 / No Comments

KABUL | Eleven Junior Seeds competed alongside 30 other students from nine schools in the 2015 High School Debate Tournament on June 12th at the Jahan e Noor Institute of Higher Education in Kabul. The team from Ghulam Haidar Khan High School emerged as the 2015 tournament champions and Afghan Seed Faisal was named the debate’s best speaker.

“Seeds of Peace provided me a valuable opportunity, giving me the chance to compete in the debate championship against very intelligent competitors,” said Faisal.

“The celebration and people coming up to me and congratulating me was very exciting. The offers of future opportunities are equally thrilling. I know the debate championship has given my life a fresh transformation (and) it has taken me a step closer to my ambitions. Thank you, Seeds of Peace.”

The one-day debate tournament was sponsored by Seeds of Peace, the Jahan e Noor Institute, New Generation Organization and the Afghanistan Youth Education and Social Organization.

The debaters were assessed on their ability to communicate their ideas in a structured and organized manner, as well as thinking about a topic from a different perspective or angle. Secondly, the debaters had to demonstrate critical reasoning skills and respectful listening skills, rather than immediately respond via a counterpoint. At the end of the tournament, Afghan Seed Faisal was named the debate’s best speaker.

As the championship trophy was awarded, representatives of the Jahan e Noor Institute announced that they would provide scholarships to the winning team–an announcement that left the students excited and encouraged.