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Letter to Seeds

Nov 15, 2012 / No Comments

Dear Seeds,

I want to let you know how much you are all on our minds right now. I am thinking of you, your families, your communities, and our Seeds community and struggling with how to offer support from so many miles away.

There’s no doubt that it’s moments like these that challenge us in fundamental ways—not only as Seeds—but as human beings. It’s understandable to feel angry, hurt, disappointed, and afraid of what is happening.

Communication is often hardest when it is the most needed, but I hope you will work through this challenge in a way that shows respect. Talk to each other, ask questions, be honest. Support each other, even if it’s more difficult and painful than it has ever been before.

We are lucky to begin our journey together in Maine, where the violence and realities of what you are facing today do not exist. At the same time, we recognize that the reality we create together in Maine has not yet become reality at home.

These moments test us. They test our commitments to each other and to a different future. There is no doubt that we all want and deserve to live free from violence. This path towards change will get harder before it gets better, but know that I—and the Seeds of Peace staff—will continue to believe in you and support you as best we can.

Please stay safe. Please be in touch. Please don’t give up.
All my love,
Leslie

Leslie Adelson Lewin
Executive Director

Planting seeds of peace
Tazewell County Free Press

Aug 20, 1997 / No Comments

Children are talking peace in the woods of Maine.

BY JERRY SMITH | At Camp Seeds of Peace, about 20 miles west of Portland, 175 Jewish and Muslim teenagers are living together “as one nation” in a camp under the Seeds of Peace flag. The teens are from Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar and Tunisia, and unlike many adults in their homelands, they’re finding ways to resolve conflict without bombs, bullets or stones.

I spent more than a week teaching table tennis and listening to the young people at the camp, where my son is head counselor. The teens split their days between recreation and attending what are called “coexistence sessions.”

In the sessions, the Arab and Israeli teens learn skills that they draw upon while they live, play and work together each day.

This is not easy for these young people, who have been taught prejudice by adults and by life experiences, such as the recent bombing in Israel and the offensive paintings on th wall at a Muslim mosque in Palestine.

The camp began five years ago as the embodiment of the vision of John Wallach, who left a 30—year career in journalism to become president of the privately funded Seeds of Peace. During my visit to camp, one morning before breakfast I talked about the program with this ambassador of peace, who told me much about the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He was enlightening with dates and events from 1000 B.C. to 1997, ranging from the impact of the Roman Empire, the birth of Mohammad in 636 A.D., British and French control after World War I, the effects of World War II and the Holocaust, the United Nations land treaty in 1948, the Arab and Israeli wars, and the ongoing initiatives by Arabs and Israelis for peace.

At the flag—raising ceremony on the opening day of the camp, I listened as Wallach told the assembly, “This is the first day you are standing together. No where else in the world are your people standing together in peace this way. You are here to show your people that there is a better way.”

At another meeting he told campers, whose ranks included a nephew of Palestinian president Yassar Arafat and a cousin of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netan Yahu, “You are here to think for yourself. You are not here to represent your government.”

At a news conference with the Maine press, Wallach told reporters about the focus of Seeds of Peace: “It’s a sensitizing process here for the kids. We teach them how to listen, how to respect one another. It is back to the basics, almost like a detoxification process.”

Returning home from the peace camp, where several days earlier I witnessed Arab and Israeli teenagers walking with their arms around each other, I was broken-hearted to hear about the bombing in Jerusalem.

The suffering and loss that the children had talked about in the coexistence sessions seemed more real now. It was easier to understand what the teens meant when they said that they distrusted compromise but feared the no—compromise attitude of conservative elements from both sides.

I empathize with the teenagers. They hardly have time to be children before they must face the cultural, political and ethnic conflicts in their homeland.

I went to Maine to teach table tennis to children from the Middle East and to spend time with my eldest son. Thanks to a tip from a Moroccan teenager, I am a better table tennis player; however, my greatest satisfaction is that those Arab and Israeli children will take seeds of peace planted in America and transplant them to Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia and other countries in the Middle East.

One day these seeds will bear the fruits of peace in the land where Elijah, Mohammad and Christ once walked. Then the people of that land will walk as the children did at camp—with their arms around one another.

Seeds of Peace: Camp helps children think beyond Mideast stereotypes
Detroit Free Press

Feb 2, 1998 / No Comments

BY TERRY AHWAL AND DAVID GAD-HARF | A few months ago, the two of us shared an incredible experience that has changed the dynamic of how we relate to each other. Along with five other Detroit-area leaders in the Palestinian and Jewish communities, we traveled to a small town in Maine for the dedication of a children’s camp called Seeds of Peace.

For years we had crossed paths, giving Jewish-American and Palestinian-American viewpoints on issues in the news. Our debates were on television and radio, but never done face-to-face. Eventually we seized the opportunity represented by the 1993 signing of the Middle East peace agreement, and we began to talk directly to one another.

We continue to disagree on many fundamental issues: the proper interpretation of Mideast history, the reason for the Arab-Israeli conflict, the causes of terrorism, and the best way to reach a comprehensive peace agreement. Our commitments to our particular communities have never wavered. We do agree, though, that a just peace is necessary for the survival of our people.

Our trip to the Seeds of Peace camp created a new bond between us and a bond among all of us who traveled there. We realized all of us share the same hope for peace. With this shared commitment, we have dedicated ourselves to support Seeds of Peace and other initiatives that will help bring a brighter future to the Middle East.

The camp is the brainchild of John Wallach, a journalist who cared deeply about the Middle East and wanted to contribute to its stability. It brings together young Israelis, Palestinians and other Arabs for four weeks in which they share sleeping quarters, participate in camp activities and talk about co-existence.

During our visit to the camp, we observed heated discussion on subjects such as Jerusalem, terrorism and history. Facilitators helped the youngsters convey their feelings honestly and then explore solutions to even the most complex problems. The youngsters did role-playing to try to experience each other’s perspectives, an activity that would have been impossible to do in their homelands.

Listening to the intense debates, the conclusion could be that there is no hope for the future. But as the discussions ended, the youngsters began interacting in ways that showed some real friendships had developed during their weeks at camp. They had arrived as enemies, but they were able to cross the boundaries that divided them.

At the camp dedication ceremony, government officials from the United States, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan attentively listened to the campers as they voiced their hopes, dreams and distress. The leaders seemed inspired by the children and took the opportunity to get to know one another in this informal setting. The children had taught the diplomats a lesson in diplomacy.

The future of the Middle East depends on young people such as the ones we observed in Maine. Their attitudes have not yet hardened and experiences such as those at the camp can provide a foundation for the rest of their lives. In an age of cynicism and despair, especially in the Middle East, these children can hope for a better future. A durable peace will be achieved only if tomorrow’s leaders can break from their past stereotypes and hatreds of each other.

Although the camp environment is artificial and bears no resemblance to what the youngsters will encounter when they return home, a “seed of peace” has been planted. We wish today’s leaders could be mandated to attend the camp, to learn from the children the art of negotiation and mutual respect.

For generations, conflict in the Middle East has shattered the lives of the people entangled in it. Years of battle have left them insecure and fearful of each other, unable to carry on a normal existence. From the children, we have learned that being on different sides of this conflict does not mean that we have to be enemies.

Terry Ahwal serves on the Board of Ramallah Club of Detroit. David Gad-Harf is executive director of the Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit.

Bringing the program home: Seeds of Peace focuses on Arab/US relations
The Free Press (Maine)

Sep 7, 2005 / No Comments

Michael Garber

BY IRIS BURKE | Last Monday, Seeds of Peace finished up the first session of a new program called Beyond Borders, a summer camp where Arab and American teens come together to learn about each other.

The new Seeds of Peace President Aaron David Miller, who worked on the Middle East conflict for the State Department for 25 years, created the program.

Founded in 1993 by John Wallach, an author and journalist, Seeds of Peace is a place where young Israelis and Palestinians, Indians and Pakistanis, and other conflicting groups live, work, and play together. The idea is that eventually they will learn to look beyond their conflicts and understand each other.

According to Rebecca Hankin, Seeds of Peace director of communications, the organization noticed the misconceptions being created after 9/11 about Arabs and Americans, and decided to apply the philosophy of Seeds of Peace to this new problem, and Beyond Borders was born.

The new program follows the same basic model as the other camps, with a month-long summer session and then later in the year a conference where the participants, known as “seeds,” reconnect.

Beyond Border Seeds are chosen in much the same way as the participants for Seeds of Peace. They go through a series of tests and interviews and are chosen by their academic and leadership abilities.

The camp is much like any other summer camp with the exception that Seeds meet daily to discuss issues specific to their conflicts with professional mediators on hand. Those same groups rotate together through the rest of the day.

Hankin said that through activities like sports, bonds are formed between traditional enemies. Participants learn tolerance and respect in the daily dialogue sessions, and later to trust each other through games and everyday living situations.

Many wonder if this is necessary, if there is really that much of a cultural rift between the United States and Arab worlds.

Tamer Omari and Amer Kamal, two USM students who have participated in the Israeli/Palestinian camps, said yes, there has to be something out there to help people understand each other.

Since 9/11, many Arab-Americans say, they have suffered from a steretype that casts them all as Islamic extremists. At the same time, many in the Middle East see Americans as gluttonous and selfish.

Both Omari and Kamal pointed out that the media is partially to blame, saying that it has blinded people on both sides of the conflict.

Seeds of Peace says they are a-political, but some activists accuse the organization of being biased, based in America and Jerusalem, and influenced by Jewish-Americans.

Burke points out that there are no offices in Hebron, Gaza, or other Palestinian territories and that it is extremely difficult for Jews to go to the Palestinian areas.

When asked about these complaints, Kamal, a senior business and international relations student, said the organization used to be strongly influenced by Jewish-Americans, but after Miller took over in 2003 things became more balanced with more Arab counselors.

He said that one of the ways that the program avoids being biased is by allowing people to talk about anything they want during the dialogue sessions.

Kamal, who didn’t speak to the Israelis at the camp for the first two weeks, said, “You grow up knowing that person is an enemy and when you go to the camp it helps break the ice, and you realize that person is human like you … It made me able to listen to them … I wouldn’t say its always successful because even though I understand them, I’m still angry. My country is still occupied.”

For Michael Garber, a 15-year-old from Massachusetts, the Beyond Borders program was a great experience. Before he participated in the camp he thought that most Arabs agreed with the extremists.

After spending time with them, he learned that Arabs are not all extremists and he now believes their religion is very peaceful. He was also able to teach them about American culture. He said that a lot of the Arab kids didn’t understand that what the government does in America is not necessarily what all Americans want or believe.

Since he is Jewish a lot of the Arabs asked about his views on Israel, and he was able to help them understand his point of view.

Many of the activities were geared toward helping the Seeds understand themselves while also looking through each other’s eyes. One activity Garber said was especially challenging was one where he was asked to list the 10 most important parts of himself. Then he was asked to cut seven of those things, forcing him to decide on the top three. When the lists were made, Seeds switched chairs and were told to read each other’s lists and try to imagine themselves as that person.

Garber said, “Its hard to cut out pieces of yourself. It’s hard to think of yourself without your family … but it taught us a lot about ourselves and each other.” Garber said that his time at Beyond Borders will be useful as he plans to go into international relations and now he has a better understanding of Middle Eastern cultures.

He said perhaps one day, some of the participants will become leaders for their countries and these experiences will help them communicate and understand each other’s side.

Garber plans to continue the friendships he built at Beyond Borders, saying “there is a second session in Jordan later this year and I can’t wait to see everyone again.”

Ten Giving Tuesday #SeedsOfPeaceStories

Dec 12, 2018 / No Comments

On Giving Tuesday this year, we asked members of our community to share their #SeedsOfPeaceStory on social media.

Our goal was not just to spread awareness of our work, but also to celebrate the diverse voices of our family. And to be honest, we had no idea what to expect.

That day, hundreds of people shared poignant experiences, lessons learned, and moments of transformation—their reflections reaching far beyond our own social media following. To read this cascade of heartfelt testimonials was magical, and we were so happy to see the connections they fostered within our community. Hopefully, they even reconnected alumni to each other.

We’re happy to share just a few of these amazing journeys with you.

Rona, Israeli Seed

Over 24 years ago I heard about a summer peace camp in the US for kids my age. I thought it was a cool way to score a trip to the United States with other kids. I didn’t know it would be one of the most defining experiences of my life. I couldn’t imagine that I would make some of my best friends there, learn the most important life skills such as listening and being able to find common ground, even with the people I never thought I could.

I became a part of a living, breathing, constantly growing organism which is Seeds of Peace. That experience at 14 led to a second, a third, to different opportunities and even jobs over my teens and 20s.

Today, in my late 30s, I’m still proud of being a part of Seeds of Peace and I will do everything in my power to help it move forward and award many more kids (including my own!) to have this life-changing experience. This is my almost-quarter-century-long #seedsofpeacestory.

Syed, Pakistani Seed

In 2014, it was probably the best summer of my life. I interacted with more than a hundred people from all over the world. I played with an American, I dined with an Israeli, I swam with an Egyptian, I walked with a Palestinian, I danced with an Indian, I learned with a Jordanian, I shared the bunk with an Afghan.

Camp was a place where I was not treated by my national identity, but as a human being. I experienced diversity and coexistence, I heard people who came from different conflicts, I heard their different stories. It was an experience of a lifetime for me. My perspective of peace, war, and hate have all turned upside down into this idea that the world is a beautiful place to live.

Sophia, New York Seed

My #SeedsOfPeaceStory started only last July. Entering Camp for the first time, I had little idea of what would come next, and any preconceived notions I had coming in were quickly shattered. Quickly I fell into the routine of dialogue, group challenge, and other activities, and I found myself in a community as I had never experienced before.

At Seeds of Peace, I was free to express myself without limitation. The collective energy inspired me to do things I never would have thought I would do, like walking on a tightrope blindfolded. I made meaningful friendships and learned so much from a variety of perspectives I had never experienced before.

Overall, going to Camp was one of the best experiences of my whole life!

Luma, Jordanian Seed

My #SeedsofPeaceStory started more than 10 years ago in the summer of 2008. I was a 14-year-old shy, awkward kid that, for some reason, thought she knew more than enough about the politics in the region. I did not arrive at Pleasant Lake with an open mind—I went there to prove a point.

It took me two minutes after getting out of the bus to completely forget the point I was determined to make. I did not join Seeds of Peace with an open mind, but after the three weeks I spent in Camp, I left with an open mind, open heart, and an open soul.

Seeds shaped my life 10 years ago and continues to until this day. It shaped the way in which I think, I listen, and I speak. It opened my eyes to the world and helped me understand the power of dialogue. It made me wait for the other side’s perspective before formulating my own “point.”

Watching the news over the past 10 years, the only comfort is that “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field,” and I’ve been there. And I’m so grateful for that opportunity.

Netal, Israeli Seed

Seeds of Peace has given me so much more than I could ever explain. It has given me family, friends, unconditional relationships that I would have never found in other places in my life. More than anything, it has given me the option to live my life differently. And for that, I’ll always be thankful.

Sarah, Maine Seed

Nervously clutching my inhaler outside the Infirmary on my first day of Camp in 2006, I had no idea how this Bunk 5 family and Seeds of Peace would change my life. From camper to counselor to facilitator, I have continued to rely on this community for strength and hope as the world works hard to make us doubt everything we know about the power of empathy and love to create change. They tried to bury us but they didn’t know we were Seeds (even though all of my clothing says “Seeds of Peace” on it … they really should be able to tell).

Krisha, Indian Seed

I knew I was excited and yet I could feel a knot in the pit of my stomach. I was very nervous. I was going back after three long years. It had been difficult keeping in touch with everybody. Would people remember me after all? What was I supposed to say? What would people think? Would I be able to be there for my campers? Could I be a good PS?

These loud, rapid-paced thoughts clogged my mind as the bus headed towards Camp. I could hear the energetic chants as the bus rolled in. I could sense the enthusiasm in the air as soon as I stepped out. Passing through the human tunnel, there I was, in the line-up pit, jumping and dancing and celebrating togetherness with a hundred beautiful people I was yet to know.

That evening, as I was strolling through Camp, I noticed a plaque in the trophy room that read, “This is where we belong.” I knew I was home.

Seeds of Peace has been a process of great essence and transformation for me. I am grateful to Seeds of Peace for creating a community where vulnerability does not feel so uncomfortable; where differences are accepted and individuality is celebrated.

I have been able to witness and foster my rawest self at Camp by opening my heart and mind to people, embracing fears and insecurities whilst challenging myself to overcome them, understanding who I am and what I believe in!

At Seeds of Peace, I have learnt to recognize my voice and give it power not by undermining the voices of others but by standing by it when needed, for myself or for others. For the friendships, love, opportunity, and sense of purpose, Seeds of Peace, I am thankful!

Ameer, Palestinian Seed

Thank you, Seeds of Peace, for letting me know people from Gaza, Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron, Nazareth, Tira, Arraba, Kofor Qassem, Ramallah, and Jerusalem. I never imagined the barriers between us would be broken, that we would gather in one place and be a family.

People from Cairo, Amman, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, Morocco, Maine, Somalia, Pakistan, India, and many more places are all my family, too, and mean a lot to me.

I spent three weeks with them in a journey of finding ourselves, sharing stories and becoming more open-minded. The experience changed me to a better person, a person who now has a real passion about something, about giving back to my community, and Palestinians in general.

Now I believe in the change I can make and how I can be the change.

Thank you, Seeds of Peace, for giving me the space to share my opinions and to represent Palestine.

Habeeba, Egyptian Seed

At 14 years old, I struggled a lot with dialogue at Camp. It wasn’t until the end of the program that I realized why it was so hard—I just wasn’t communicating.

Seeds of Peace taught me what it means to truly communicate with others. We, I, often take communication for granted—it’s hard, it’s challenging, to pour my heart out to you, to tell you the reasons I stay up at night, to allow my body to showcase my insecurities. And that’s what I was asked to do at Camp: to shed all my exterior armor, to let down my guard, and just be human—fragile, open, loving.

And I learned to listen. I shared parts of myself I never knew I could put into words, and I listened, intently, to others do the same. I learned to be empathetic, and warm, and welcoming—to stop myself from falling into the cycle of indifferent and apathetic communication, one that we all know too well.

At 16 years old, back at Camp as a PS, I learned to question—question everything I thought I knew about myself, everything I’ve been told, everything that I believed to be a constant.

This questioning has stayed with me until today, and has transformed the way I carry myself and view the world.

Abukar, Maine Seed

Long before I discovered my passion for journalism, I was interviewed by the BBC, thanks to Seeds of Peace. It was August of 2012 and I was a 17-year-old activist. I shared how an identity I once considered a burden—being a black immigrant, from a Muslim background—turned into a source of strength, even in the whitest state.

I don’t know how that experience has shaped what I do now, but this I know: Seeds of Peace has given me the opportunity to learn more about myself and the world around me, so that today I am able to do that for others. And for that I am grateful.

This is only a small handful of the more than 400 compelling experiences our community shared during Giving Tuesday. You can search the #SeedsOfPeaceStory hashtag on Facebook or Instagram to see more. And if you missed posting on Giving Tuesday, we’d still love to hear your own #SeedsOfPeaceStory!

On Mobility, Trust, Breaking News, and Going Home
The Yale Globalist

May 4, 2011 / No Comments

On Mobility

In mid-July, a teenager I had worked with for three weeks asked me if I knew where he was from. I thought Gaza, but I didn’t know for sure. I knew Mohammad* was Israeli or Palestinian or maybe Egyptian. I knew he wasn’t afraid of heights, that he was 15 or 16, and that he was a whiz on the ropes course once he got over being too cool to play games. But I wasn’t sure that he was from Gaza, and the answer to his second question—“Do you know what it’s like there?”—I knew for sure I didn’t know.

I don’t know what it’s like to live in Gaza, or Kabul, or Mumbai, or Jerusalem, or any of the cities the campers at Seeds of Peace International Camp call home. Seeds of Peace deliberately brings together kids who have grown up to hate each other. As a counselor at the camp in Otisfield, Maine, I wasn’t surprised to hear sharply contrasting stories about family histories and daily routines. What surprised me was realizing, through rest-hour conversations and heated debates on the ropes course, how different each of my camper’s sense of home is from my own.

Leaving home for three weeks on a visa secured by Seeds of Peace gave Mohammad only a momentary sense of possibility. He wasn’t the only camper who had left home for the first time this summer, or the only one for whom the end of the sentence “I am from 
” means not only the place he lives now, but also the place he expects to start a career and a family.

I have never felt bound to one place. Talking to Mohammad, who can’t leave Gaza, and Deepa, a camper who wrote to me that she was “disallowed from applying to college abroad” because her parents believe there’s too much important work to be done in India, made me realize how much I have been shaped by a breathtaking sense of mobility, how much my sense of who I am comes not only from where I am, but also from the fact that I choose to be there.

On Trust

DALIA: If you’re a soldier at a checkpoint and someone tells you to shoot me, will you shoot?

DAN: No.

DALIA: But if you were ordered to? Would you disobey?

Dan didn’t answer Dalia’s question. Dalia is 15 and Palestinian. To her, checkpoints are routine. Dan, like nearly every Israeli teenager, will serve in the army when he turns eighteen. I didn’t hear their conversation. I didn’t hear Dalia ask Dan if he would shoot her. I didn’t see the look on Dalia’s face when Dan paused, or the one on hers when, minutes and conversations later, he answered.

DAN: No, I would disobey.

She said she didn’t believe him, and the dialogue session ended, and they left the wooden cabin where every day for two hours, teenagers from the Middle East who have taken enough of a chance on peace to come to a coexistence camp in Maine talk to each other.

Talking is harder than they thought it would be when they left home.

The day after Dalia asked Dan if he would shoot her, I led their dialogue group on the ropes course. I handed Dalia a blindfold and asked her to tie it over her eyes. I told her Dan would take her hand and lead. After hearing from the dialogue facilitators about Dalia and Dan’s conversation, my co-facilitator and I decided to put kids who didn’t like each other in pairs and have them lead each other blindfolded. “Trust walks” are done in ropes courses across the country. But though I helped plan it, I thought the whole activity sounded silly. What did leading someone through the woods for five minutes have to do with trust?

That was easy for me to say. I don’t trust everyone I meet to give me good directions, or to keep me safe from speeding cars or petty crime. But I trust that the people with whom I interact don’t want me to get hurt.

Dalia didn’t grow up with that expectation. Half of the teenagers in the group raised their hand when my co-facilitator asked at the end of the activity, who peeked? When I asked why, one girl said she didn’t want to get hurt. Dalia said she peeked at first, but after a few minutes she started keeping her eyes closed, because Dan hadn’t led her into a tree.

Something felt different the next time we led that group on the ropes course. The kids I’d paired because they came from opposite sides of the conflict, or because they fought in the bunk or in dialogue, hadn’t suddenly become best friends. One activity on a ropes course doesn’t do that. But the trust walk, which originally seemed silly, did change how Dalia saw Dan. She said in dialogue the next day that Dan didn’t lead her into a tree, and that if someone told him to, she thinks he wouldn’t shoot her.

I don’t know if that’s true. I do know that I asked more than I realized of Dalia and Dan and all the teenagers I worked with this summer. I asked them to do something that’s easy when you’ve grown up safe and scary when you’ve grown up knowing you have something to fear: close your eyes and let someone else take the lead. Trust someone else to keep you safe.

On Breaking News

At the end of bunk cleanup in August of 2010, Saadia burst into Bunk Three and said something to Amira in Arabic. My cocounselor asked them to speak in English, Amira told her to go to hell, and Amira and Saadia dashed out of the bunk. I followed the two campers outside and learned that there had been more casualties in Gaza, and a rocket had just landed in Jordan, 30 meters from a camper named Dara’s home.

“It would be better if I were there,” Dara told me after speaking to her parents on the phone, but she couldn’t explain why she wanted to be in Jordan right then. Maybe because if you’re not home you can’t know for sure that the people you love are okay, and more than safety, you want comfort and familiarity. Maybe because you feel guilty for being so safe when the people who matter most to you in the world are in danger, and it feels crazy to be waterskiing,or cleaning Bunk Three, or talking about a conflict as your family watches it unfold.

Does the safety of the Seeds of Peace campground feel scary at moments like this? It scares me that we spend three weeks helping kids feel safe, and then send themhome to places where danger is often inescapable. But the safety, even temporary, lets campers see a side of the violence they can’t at home: the way it affects people they’ve been taught to see as enemies. When violence erupts in the Middle East while kids are at camp, they see reactions on each others’ faces and not just the news on TV.

An Israeli camper told me at the end of three weeks at Seeds of Peace that her political opinions hadn’t changed, but she understood better the feelings behind what “the other side” says and does. She had caught a glimpse of what was behind thoughts and ideas that made her want to scream and seen that some of the core feelings weren’t so different from her own: caring about her family, missing home, wanting to feel safe.

On Going Home

Some Israeli campers had never met a Palestinian. A Palestinian refugee from Jenin whose bed was beside mine knew only the Israeli soldiers who sometimes stopped her from going to school. Israeli and Palestinian campers often pack their bags in bordering neighborhoods, a closeness that belies vastly different lives. Checkpoints often block the roads between campers’ houses.

My strongest memories from the two summers I spent at Seeds of Peace are of evenings in my bunk, trying to convince eight teenage girls to go to bed, or turning out the lights, waiting until the camp director thought my campers were asleep, and then sitting with them on the back steps, watching the reflection of stars in the lake. I remember nights when arguments about politics and land rights exploded, and everyone went to sleep upset, and nights when arguments turned into conversations about campers’ families, who they had lost, and how it felt to be here, living together beside a lake in Maine.

I hope my campers remember those moments, though I know that for them, bringing home memories of camp has not been easy. A Palestinian counselor told me that he didn’t tell his friends he had gone to Seeds of Peace until two years after his first summer as a camper there. He was afraid they would call him a traitor. Naira, a camper from Jordan, told me over Skype months after camp ended in 2009 that she didn’t know how to talk about her experiences at camp with people at home.

A camper from 1996 who returned as a facilitator in 2010 didn’t sugarcoat his “life after camp” speech on the last day of camp. “Being here will make your life harder,” he said to kids who were chosen for the qualities that will only make it more difficult for them to go home: they care about their communities and ask a lot of themselves. Possibility flourishes at camp. Counselors decide to lead a camp-wide swim across the lake, and they make it happen. Second-year campers want to organize interfaith dialogue, and they have each other and the counselors, and they make it happen. But campers don’t have the same resources at home. When a 15-year-old breaks down at camp because caring about “the other side” is so hard and goes against everything he’s been raised to believe, there are people there to say it’s worth it. When the same thing happens at home, there are people there to say, well, maybe what you started to feel at camp was wrong. Just be here. Don’t worry so much about changing the world.

On the bus from the Logan Airport to the campground in Otisfield, Maine, in 2010, Naira, who had been one of fifty campers selected to return for a second summer, told me she almost didn’t come back. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go through it all again, learning to live at camp and then going home.

There are lively follow-up seminars in the Middle East and Facebook pages with multi-lingual conversation threads, but I learned from campers that once you leave Maine, you’re treading on different ground. You sometimes feel like you’re letting down everyone you met at camp, like you haven’t changed anything. Even you—you’re not as changed as you’d imagined. You want to live up to whatever kernel of capability someone saw in you that made them choose you for Seeds of Peace, to live up to who you felt you were there: more able to listen to people say things you hate, or more outspoken, fierier, more willing to say what you believe.

Two years after he returned from Seeds of Peace, the counselor who put away his Seeds shirt when he got home from camp started talking about his experience there. He told his friends about the friends he made. He talked about Seeds at school. He wears his Seeds of Peace shirt at home, and he’s glad he does, but it hasn’t been easy, and it won’t be easy for any 2010 campers if they choose to take that harder path. Then they have to figure out how to stick with their beliefs once they’re home, to work for peace without hurting themselves.

*Names have been changed to protect camper’s privacy.

Emma Sokoloff-Rubin ’11 is a History major in Timothy Dwight College.

Read Emma Sokoloff-Rubin’s article at The Yale Globalist »

Seed Stories: Transforming Israeli nightlife

Mar 11, 2019 / No Comments

Over the last four years, the night crowd of Tel Aviv has become familiar with a colorful logo comprised of a queen, the type you would find in a deck of cards, holding up her palm, signaling you to keep your distance.

The logo belongs to Layla Tov (Hebrew for “good night”), a nonprofit organization I founded in 2015 with eight other relentless women to create safe spaces in the nightlife. Our goal was to set a standard for Israel’s nightlife to become what it claims to be—fun. For everyone.

For too long, the bar and club scene has been considered an outlier from the spheres needing to be ‘cleaned up’ from sexual harassment. Where the feminist movement was able to change the norm, albeit sometimes declaratory, of personal safety from sexual harassment and assault—the nightlife somehow remained a scene with no boundaries.

The darkness, loud music, sexual atmosphere, alcohol, and drugs caused most people to assume that assault and harassment are an inherent price we must pay. As if dancing and enjoying drinks were somehow a privilege for men only, where us women were part of the set, objects to have fun with; definitely not the owners of our own experiences, and never entitled to draw a line.

Keren with the other founders of Layla Tov (TimeOut Tel Aviv)

Understanding these underlying assumptions was key. We wanted to “take back the night.” Where that used to mean being able to walk the streets or cross a campus without fear, for us it meant much more—we have the right to enjoy ourselves, to dance and feel free, without anyone assuming our presence is for their entertainment.

We launched a series of public discussions between nightlife patrons and bar and club owners, where each side was surprised: The owners, at how widespread the problem is; the women speaking out, at how much bar owners cared. Together, we came up with an innovative solution: a voluntary code. Each venue that chooses to join adopts, as a baseline, a policy of zero tolerance towards sexual harassment and violence.

The code binds them with the following principles: 1) The staff, managers, and owners must undergo annual training on how to recognize, prevent, and address sexual harassment. 2) Branded signs conveying the message of zero tolerance must be hung in visible places within the venue. 3) The venue assigns a staff member to coordinate all efforts relating to combating sexual harassment. 4) The staff has to always address complaints immediately, respectfully, and sensitively, in accordance with the training.

In our training sessions, we focus a lot on the value of mutual responsibility—that staff should keep an eye out for what goes on beyond the bar and notice if anyone is acting oddly. They should know that it’s not only allowed to intervene or kick out people who misbehave, but that we expect it from them, and are entitled to our safety.

The response to Layla Tov has been overwhelmingly positive. We have had 70 bars, clubs, party productions and festivals all over the country join us, only by word of mouth. Customers began demanding that their favorite venue talk to us; it has become almost like a basic condition a bar has to offer, such as fire safety and kitchen hygiene. We’ve collaborated with local councils and government ministries, and have received huge media coverage. It has really changed the way people think of safety and boundaries, even before #MeToo.

As a Seed, I feel like identifying a problem and immediately thinking of how I can help solve it has become part of my nature. But more than a general inclination towards entrepreneurship, it is also about ‘how’.

When we do our trainings with bar staff, we are often asked if we expect nightclubs to stop potential harassers at the door. It sounds at first like a positive attempt to avoid the problem before it even starts. But spending time understanding other people’s narratives, like Seeds of Peace has facilitated for me since I was 15, made it clear that this type of question entails a problematic subtext.

Bouncers can use Layla Tov as a pretext for not admitting minorities into the club. In our training sessions, we make an active effort to burst the myth that certain groups have a tendency to harass, and thus should be kept out. All people are liable to harass and harm others, with no relationship to the color of their skin or where they live, and we refuse to lend a hand to using sexual harassment to adopt racist practices.

Fundamentally, a lot of the members in the Seeds of Peace community have a flame burning within us. It pushes us to be in constant movement and action, but it also connects us, our stories and perspectives, to move in solidarity and sensitivity to what hurts, and to use those pains to create better, more just, more inclusive societies.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: Seeds of Peace “is the future”

Sep 23, 2014 / 4 Comments

NEW YORK | In a speech on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly meeting, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas outlined his vision for peace and pointed skeptics to Seeds of Peace.

“To those who say peace between Israelis and Palestinians is impossible, I say, let them visit America. I say, let them visit Maine,” he said to an audience at Cooper Union college on September 22.

“In Maine every summer, young Palestinians, Israelis, Americans, Arabs, and others meet in a camp called Seeds of Peace, founded in 1993. They build the very world I am calling for in Palestine.”

“It works. It is real. It is the future.”

Full remarks

President Bharucha, Mr. Clark, distinguished faculty and guests, religious leaders, dear students and members of the Cooper Union community, thank you for this opportunity to speak at one of the world’s most distinguished colleges.

From Cooper Union I would like to say: thank you America for extraordinary efforts that you have made to create peace in Palestine. And in particular to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, for their endless trips, back and forth, in search of peace.

What President Obama and Secretary Kerry did took courage. Just as it took courage for Abraham Lincoln to stand at this very podium to argue for the end of slavery.

I am honored today to stand in front of you at this podium, where eight men who were or became American Presidents have stood and announced their programs and platforms.

This great hall has been instrumental in furthering the Abolitionist Movement, the Women’s Suffrage Movement, American Labor Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Native American Rights Movement. These walls have heard men and women speak far more eloquent than me; I ask their accommodation for the next half hour, to also hear me.

I come here today to convey to you the greetings of my people in Palestine who aspire for peace and justice. Palestine is a country in the heart of the Middle East. A country in the Middle East where Christians and Muslims live in harmony. A country in the Middle East, the birth place of Jesus Christ, in Bethlehem, where I pray with my follow Palestinian Christians three times every year. A country that hopes to live in peace and security side by side with its neighbor, the State of Israel.

I come today to pledge to create the new peaceful State of Palestine. I come here to ask you to rethink Palestine.

This may especially be seen by some as an odd and hard place for a faithful Muslim to talk peace. Here, almost in the shadow of Ground Zero, where thousands of innocent American men, women and children were also victimized on a quiet September day.

But today in Cooper Union, I stand on the same place where Abraham Lincoln stood over 150 years ago and condemned the scourge of slavery, to state, loud and clear, that we the Palestinian people condemn terrorism, we condemn what happened on 9/11, we condemn the treatment of Christians and non-Christians by ISIS. I am speaking on behalf of 99 percent of the Muslim peoples around the world. Here, today, nearly in the shadow of Ground Zero, I state to the world: the barbarians of ISIS and Al Qaeda who kill innocent people are not faithful Muslims. And to the children and families of the victims of 9/11, I say as a Palestinian Muslim, I am sorry for your pain. These murderers do not represent Islam, we all stand against them to defeat their evil plans.

At the same time we must work to end the Israeli occupation and establish a Palestinian state, for we cannot fight terror only by the gun.

Recently at the Vatican, Pope Francis, Shimon Peres, the former President of Israel, and I prayed together for peace. We prayed together because though we come from three different religious traditions, we all pray, in fact, to the same one God of Abraham.

Our holy book the Quran says: “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of Allah the most righteous of you.”

I am older than you. 79 years old to be exact. My life has been largely lived–for better or worse. So today, I come to tell you young people what I prayed for in the Vatican. I prayed for different world.

I prayed that day for an end to the occupation of my country Palestine, and my people. I prayed for a free and independent Palestine that will live side-by-side in peace, security, and prosperity with its neighbor, the State of Israel.

As you may know, Jews, Christians and Muslims have lived peacefully together in Palestine for centuries. So peace between religions runs through the heart of the most sacred City in the world, Jerusalem. Peace between the world’s religions runs through Jericho the Oldest City on Earth. Peace between the world’s religions runs through Palestine.

I prayed with the Pope that day for a Palestine and Israel that build bridges together instead of walls.

I made a prayer that someday I will be able to enforce the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, which I have signed, and that we can make our new state of Palestine a model of women’s rights in the Arab world.

I also prayed that Israel will finally, after a long wait, live next to Palestine as a good neighbor and not as an occupier. So we Palestinians can continue to build our institutions for a modern and open state and society.

I made a prayer for an America that is a real friend of Israel, not a false friend. And just as real friends do not let friends drive drunk, so too a real friend of Israel would not let them engage in the widespread killing of women and children, including bombing United Nations schools and hospitals, such as we just saw in Gaza.

Just as real friends in America do not let friends break the law, a real friend of Israel would not let them advance 15,000 new illegal housing units while at the same time claiming to engage in peace talks.

Just as real friends in America don’t let their friends abuse their neighbor’s children, America as a real friend of Israel wouldn’t let them routinely arrest, beat and jail without charges Palestinian children, which has been well documented by both journalists and by independent human rights groups.

And so today, I come to ask you, the students of Cooper Union, I come indeed to ask all of the students of America and the world: Will you join this old man in his prayer? Will you help me to build a peaceful world? I am sure your answer is “yes, we will!”

Will you build this world I prayed for, and in fact, a better world than that, because, as the Christian Arab philosopher Khalil Gibran once said: “the future world of our children is so magical that an old man like me can never visit it, not even in my dreams.”

The people of Israel live today as our occupiers, and without a permanent vision of a peaceful coexistence with their very closest neighbors. This is not acceptable.

My people in Gaza live under siege by Israel, without freedom of travel, or of trade, with 80 percent of them now reliant on foreign aid, and in constant fear of being randomly bombed. They live locked in an open air prison. This is not acceptable.

To date, Israel maintains control of Gaza’s air space, territorial waters, electromagnetic sphere, population registry and the movement of all goods and people. The relatives of the very people in Gaza that Israel just killed even have to apply to Israel to obtain their death certificates. Is that a free people? This is not acceptable.

My people in the West Bank and East Jerusalem live under Israeli occupation, with segregated highways, behind huge walls, travelling through constant internal checkpoints, a large number of them with no running water, a large number of them still in refugee camps for decades, with no right to a fair trial and no right to post bail, often physically beaten and abused upon arrest, and with little hope for the future. Palestinians today have far fewer rights than African Americans in America had in the 1950s. This is not acceptable.

I ask you to rethink Palestine. You are smart. Study us carefully. Find the truth. Contrary to what is so often portrayed in your media, in the last decade we have done our part.

We tried for many months to begin serious negotiations with Israel. We said to the Prime Minister Netanyahu, since you openly state to the whole world that you support the two-state solution, why can’t we agree on a map for two states on the basis of 1967 borders? Despite many, many requests, we have never gotten a map.

I ask you to rethink Palestine. Help us stop the illegal stealing of our land. This week I will propose to the United Nations a new timetable for peace talks. The key is to agree on a map to delineate the borders of each country.

I say today to Prime Minister Netanyahu: end the occupation, make peace. A quarter century has passed since the Palestine Liberation Organization officially endorsed the two-state solution. In a historic decision, that has since been accepted by all the Arab states, Palestine recognized the State of Israel based on pre-1967 borders, conceding over 78 percent of historic Palestine.

Rather than accepting 78 percent of the land in question, the current Israeli government has chosen to use the peace process as a smoke screen for more colonization and oppression. We still wish to believe that our Israeli neighbors do not expect the Palestinian people to live under a system of apartheid. The desire of peace and freedom-loving nation for independence can’t be eliminated by force.

We are the only people on earth, who still live under occupation. This is not acceptable.

The fact is that the Arab League has presented a complete regional peace plan, the Arab Peace Initiative in 2002. This plan, which still stands, offers Israel full recognition and normalization of relations by 57 member countries of the Arab League and the Islamic Conference, in exchange for Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 border and a just and agreed solution to the refugee issue, based on UNGA Resolution 194. So our Nakbah can come to an end. If anyone ever again tells you that the Arab countries are the primary barrier to peace, that is simply false. And it has been this way for over a decade.

Rethink Palestine. Help us stop the illegal stealing of our land. Prime Minister Netanyahu, end the occupation, make peace. The Eighth Commandment says “Thou Shalt Not Steal.” America itself directly asked Israel to stop building illegal settlements on Palestinian land. But then Israel did the opposite: during the last nine months of negotiations sponsored by the United States, after being asked to freeze settlements, Israel advanced housing units for 55,000 new settlers in occupied territory, bringing to 600,000 the Israeli settlers population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Isn’t stealing land covered by the Eighth Commandment? Under international law Israel has no right to take that land. Israel’s constant confiscation of our land is our most pressing and fundamental problem. It obstructs the achievement of a just and lasting peace with Palestine. This Israeli conduct reminds us of the wise words of late President Kennedy:

“We cannot negotiate with those who say, ‘What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is negotiable.’”

When Palestine exercised its long-overdue right to seek recognition of statehood before the United Nations in 2012, it was not in an attempt to bypass a negotiated peace. Instead it was to allow us to be a leader for peace and human rights in the Muslim world, mainly through access to multilateral treaties and international organizations. The worldwide vote to make us an observer state was in our favor by count of 138 to 9.

138 to 9 in our favor.

Only 9 countries in the entire world opposed our application; the dozens of other countries who all voted for us found that we were well-qualified to join the peaceful community of nations. These countries have all rethought Palestine, just as you must now do.

We ask that the international community stop hiding behind calls for “resumption of talks,” without holding the Israeli government accountable for its stealing of our land. The international community has the responsibility to protect our people living under the terror of settlers, an occupying army, and a painful siege.

The attitude of the international community toward the Israeli government must be related to holding it directly accountable to international law and human rights.

On behalf of the brave Palestinian people, in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela, I still come here to deliver a message of peace and justice to Israel and the rest of the world.

Security requires justice and an end of occupation. We cannot understand how the Israeli government can be so misguided as to fail to understand that the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza that kills hundreds of women and children only sows more hate.

As the President of the Palestinian people, I remain totally committed to the vision of a two-state solution, so we can live in peace with our neighbor, Israel. This is the reason I joined Pope Francis, together with President Peres, in our prayer for peace.

Now, I have told you about my world. The world of this old man. But you are young. In the language of youth, there is no such word as tired. In the vocabulary of youth, there is no such word as failure.

In Maine every summer, young Palestinians, Israelis, Americans, Arabs, and others meet in a camp called Seeds of Peace, founded in 1993. They build the very world I am calling for in Palestine. It works. It’s real. It’s the future. To those who say peace between Israelis and Palestinians is impossible, I say, let them visit America. I say, let them visit Maine.

In closing again, at 79, I do not know for certain if I will ever hold in my hand and taste the sweet fruit of peace. But I do know this for certain. I have held in my hand, and seen with my own eyes, the seeds of peace. The seeds of peace are the young Palestinians, Israelis, Americans and others all over the world who form peace groups on college campuses like J Street and Students For Justice in Palestine. Those are the seeds of peace.

You are the seeds of peace. Do not underestimate the power of your youth.

It was the young people who marched in Birmingham, Alabama, with Martin Luther King, who caused race relations in America to be rethought. It was the young people in America whose protests on college campuses against the Vietnam War forced that war to be rethought. It was the young people in America whose protests on college campuses against apartheid caused that injustice to finally end. And I say this to you: you have the power to convince the American people to rethink Palestine.

Wisdom may come from the old, but passion for justice is the province of the young. The old ask: what day will justice come? But for the young, the time for justice is always NOW. In the vocabulary of youth, the time for justice is always RIGHT NOW. And so it should be.

It was to the young, that Nelson Mandela, a great friend of Palestine, once said that South Africa could never be fully free until Palestine was free.

Now will each of you seeds of peace start tonight to build the world I prayed for with Pope Francis?

Will you seeds of peace create the world of tomorrow, where there will be no more Palestinians or Israelis killed?

Will you seeds of peace create a world that supports the 99 percent of peace loving Muslims, Jews, and Christians, and reject violent radical religion?

Will you seeds of peace rethink Palestine and ask others to rethink it?

Will you do that, for the sake of Palestinians and Israelis?

Of course you will. Because here at this magnificent college—the Cooper Union—where magical things are created, as at colleges across America, religious and ethnic diversity already exists. You have already created in your universities a model of the very world of interreligious coexistence and peace and love that the old people try to tell you is impossible in my country.

Despite all Israeli attempts to make our nation accept a reality of exile and apartheid, we continue our peaceful march toward freedom. Paraphrasing our late poet Mahmoud Darwish “standing here, staying here, permanent here, eternal here, and we have one goal, one, one: to be.” And I say, yes we will be.

So you already know how to build the road to future peace, and you know that it runs through Cooper Union, it runs through America and yes it runs right through Jerusalem and Palestine.

We have all made mistakes. But today, I say, let us move forward. Let us forgive not seven times, but as Jesus himself said, 70 times seven times.

Martin Luther King once said, “The arc of the moral Universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Today I say: the arc of fear is long, but it circles back to love. I intend to close that circle, and today I humbly ask you, the students of Cooper Union, of America, and of the world, to be part of that change. Rethink Palestine.

Get Inspired
A new radio documentary series that ‘reminds us of what is possible’

Feb 15, 2019 / 1 Comment

What do a community elder in the West Bank and a high school student from the south side of Chicago have in common?

What about an educator in Lahore and a human rights attorney living in an urban kibbutz? Or Israeli musicians and the first Muslim elected to the Portland, Maine, city council?

Find out in our new radio documentary series, Inspired, which just launched to rave reviews last week.

Journalists Marisa Mazria Katz and Bilal Qureshi have traveled the globe, meeting seven uncommon changemakers whose commitment to improving their corners of the world grows from a single, common seed. And listeners travel with them … to a dinner amongst friends on a rooftop in Lahore, an LGBT pride parade outside of Tel Aviv, the principal’s office in a Chicago high school, a music studio in Jaffa, the memorial to a Palestinian poet, and the shores of Pleasant Lake in Maine.

The stories of these educators, artists, politicians, and activists who are all challenging the status quo are available now on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play.

Download the series and find out why listeners are saying Inspired is “a critical counterpoint to the doomsday news cycle” and “gives me hope for a better world.”

(And if you love the music you hear at the beginning and end of each episode, thank GATHER Fellow Arnon who created the soundtrack especially for this series. He’s also featured in the final episode of Inspired, using his stage name, Sun.)

We hope you are inspired by this series, and will share it widely. #GetInspired

Amid Gaza rubble, new center offers kids art, storytelling, and hope
Christian Science Monitor

Mar 27, 2015 / No Comments

In a Gaza City neighborhood that saw some of the fiercest fighting in last summer’s war, a children’s center teaches free thinking, life skills, and ethics.

GAZA CITY | Seated in front of a makeshift puppet theater one rainy recent morning, about 20 girls sat in rapt attention.

“Think, think, think, girls!” say an elephant and a zebra, who are trying to help their rabbit friend deal with an enemy tiger.

The girls chime in as the animal friends come up with a plan to trap the tiger, and clap when they succeed.

The puppet theater, located in a new children’s center in Shejaiya, a neighborhood of Gaza City that saw some of the fiercest fighting between Israel and Hamas last summer, offers a refuge from the fallout of war.

“We’re using storytelling and art to teach free thinking, life skills, and ethics,” says Mohammed Isleem, who opened his home to the kids and secured funds for educators and free meals. “I created the Shejaiya Center to bring children after the war 
 to give them hope, and open their mind.”

His daughter-in-law, Doaa El-Jedy, was a driving force behind the center, with training in children’s education and a deep desire to help kids who have lived through so many conflicts they hardly know peace.

The center opened in November with support from USAID, allowing some 180 kids to come twice a week in groups of about 30 for storytelling, art, dancing, and free meals.

Mr. Isleem also donated the $1,200 he got to repair his home after the war in addition to private donations. But the center quickly ran out of money, and had to close temporarily before reopening with the current group of 110 kids, ages 10 to 12.

While the girls are enjoying a morning meal after the puppet show, schoolgirls passing on the street lean in through the doorway and start chanting boisterously, asking to join the center.

“We have rejected at least half of the applicants because we don’t have the capabilities to host them,” says Ms. El-Jedy.

She and Isleem say parents have noticed significant differences in their children, who encourage better habits in their elders, such as dressing nicely, and are more cooperative and less violent with others.

When the girls are asked what they’ve learned, hands shoot up.

“Respect for older people,” says one. “Discipline,” exclaims another. “Forgiveness,” offers a third. “Helping others,” another adds.

They also stand confidently and talk about what their family went through in the war, discussing topics that the teachers here say their parents are too busy or traumatized to listen to.

“The most important thing is we’re trying to motivate the kids to express their feelings,” says El-Jedy.

About 70 percent of the children at the center lost their homes in Shejaiya, which Israel’s military said was a hotbed of Hamas militant activity, weapons caches, and tunnels. Fighting on July 20 took the lives of more than 100 Palestinians, according to local estimates, as well as 13 Israeli soldiers in one of the single deadliest days for both sides.

During the war, El-Jedy was trapped in her house with her toddlers while her husband worked in the hospital.

“I felt like, what’s the future of these kids?” she says, explaining the genesis for the center. “It’s my dream for a long time.”

Read Christa Case Bryant’s article at The Christian Science Monitor â€șâ€ș