Search Results for “SAFe-SASM Test Prep 🦧 Exam SAFe-SASM Braindumps 🏧 SAFe-SASM New Dumps 😝 The page for free download of ⏩ SAFe-SASM ⏪ on 《 www.pdfvce.com 》 will open immediately 🧲Reliable SAFe-SASM Test Topics”

Seeds of Peace
Hadassah Magazine

Mar 1, 2000 / No Comments

BY LESLIE CHESS FELLER | There are laughter and tears, playful roughhousing and intense debate-just as you would find in any group of teens enjoying summer sports and heart-to-heart camaraderie—only these kids are the sons and daughters of enemies—and the future may lie in their hands.

“My daughter attended an Israeli-Palestinian peace camp last year in Maine,” Saeb Erekat, senior Palestinian negotiator, told the Wall Street Journal in January 1998. Erekat added that when floods hit his home town of Jericho, none of his Israeli counterparts called to ask how his family was doing, but 21 Israeli kids immediately contacted his daughter. “Every single one of the kids from that camp called Dalal to see if she was O.K. This is the future.”

For the past seven summers Israelis and Arabs, ages 13 to 17, have come to the Maine woods “to make peace with the enemy” at the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield. After a three-week period, the young people and their delegation leaders emerge uplifted from the often difficult process. They arrived separated by allegiance and religion, but sharing the bond of growing up shadowed by war. They leave united in their determination to build a better future.

At first glance, it looks like any other summer camp. Under towering pines, shrieks of laughter mix with birdsong and a bugle announces lunch. The dining hall resounds with syncopated table-thumping as green-shirted campers express their disdain for the blue “bug juice” and mystery meat du jour. The uproar ceases briefly while grace is said: “For friendship, health, love and opportunity, we are thankful.” The carefully worded prayer sets the stage for the difficult work ahead.

Later that afternoon, Anna Tunkel, an Israeli Jew from Ashdod, listens while Nizar Al-Wasir, a Palestinian from Gaza, describes the death of his uncle, Khalil, a leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, killed by Israeli commandos in 1988. “I was six and I woke up and heard my mother screaming,” he says, pain in his voice. “My mother’s never talked to an Israeli … but she wants me to.”

“We’re friends even though we see certain things differently,” Tunkel says. She pointed out that Al-Wasir’s mother, who works for the ministry of education in Gaza as director general of students, made sure he was selected to come to Seeds of Peace. “She put her feelings aside because she wants her son to have a different life.” “We must stop the killing,” Al-Wasir says. “Now I think, ‘it could be my friend Anna on that bus.'”

After the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, John Wallach, former foreign editor for Hearst Newspapers and son of Holocaust survivors, felt compelled to wage peace. “I went to leaders I’d come to know while covering the Middle East,” Wallach explains. “I asked them to trust me with their children, to help me give the next generation a chance to escape the poison.” The late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak all responded. Forty-five English-speaking Arab and Israeli teenagers attended Seeds of Peace that year.

In 1999, the program welcomed 435 campers for three sessions. The third, sponsored by a chapter of the Jewish federation and held in Kent, Connecticut, was an experiment to see if the program could be run in a different location. In an environment that lets them see the enemy has a face, campers learn to listen even if they don’t like what’s being said. “Our idea of winning is to see them able to take the other side’s point of view and argue it effectively,” says facilitator Linda Carole Pierce, one of a hand-picked and ethnically diverse team of conflict-resolution experts. In daily and often tumultuous “coexistence” sessions, confrontation and the sharing of pain soon lead to empathy and friendships with the potential to affect the course of history. Delegations come from Israel, the Palestine National Authority, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, Tunisia, Cyprus, Greece and the United States. Each formally represents its government. The program, which received a UNESCO Peace Prize in 1996 and was the subject of a CBS 60 Minutes segment, has graduated nearly 1,500 “seeds” and more than 70 delegation leaders.

The latter, whose program parallels that of the campers, are already in positions of leadership, usually in ministries of education. “I arrived not knowing what to expect,” says Ron Zohar, an Israeli who is head of Scouts in Afula. “I am now feeling very hopeful.” Zohar and Hanaa Herzalla, a Palestinian delegation leader who is principal of a girls’ elementary school near Jenin, left camp planning on working together to spread the message. “Afula and Jenin are only 20 miles apart,” says Zohar. “We’re arranging meetings between the kids and their families.” “They will come to us and we will welcome them,” says Herzalla, adding that this was the first time she had ever met Israelis face to face.

“My name is Ibrahim and I am ice,” says a 15-year-old Palestinian at his first coexistence session. It didn’t take long for the ice to melt. “I thought Israelis are enemies of Palestinians so I had to be ice and not get upset,” he explains a week later, flashing the easy smile that made him a leader of the Kent session. Arm in arm with Israeli Eitan Moss, one of his closest friends, Ibrahim’s smile vanishes as he describes his anger three years ago when a relative was shot by Israeli soldiers. “At first, I just wanted to kill the guy who did that; then I thought, we will all go on murdering each other and what good will that do?” (Ibrahim’s family name is being withheld for security reasons.) “I have three older brothers,” says 15-year-old Moss, whose parents settled in Sinai and then were forced to leave. “My family is very right wing, but not because of religion. It’s about defense. My father fought in two wars. There are things he cannot forget. I always had a brother in the army. We worried all the time and my mother would cry when anyone got killed.” In the last election, though, his father voted for Ehud Barak. “Before I come to camp,” Moss says, “even my father tells me to go make peace.”

The two hadn’t spoken to each other on the plane, nor on the bus coming to camp-even though they had to sit next to each other. Then they found themselves at the same table in the dining hall, in the same coexistence group and bunk. “We stayed up late at night talking,” Ibrahim recalls, “emotional, personal stuff…you just go deep and you feel so close.” The two agreed they have to face the facts and find a compromise.

“These are extraordinary young people, tomorrow’s presidents and prime ministers,” asserts Wallach, an inspirational presence whether shouting “Good morning, Seeds!” at the 7:30 prebreakfast lineup or singing 60’s peace songs at evening campfire. “Every morning I say, ‘Go out and make just one friend from the other side.’ I have faith in these kids. They have the power to wake up the world.”

Arabs and Israelis, some initially terrified to sleep in the same room, soon share everything from toothpaste to bunk chores. “We don’t serve pork,” explains camp director Tim Wilson, “because both Jews and Muslims don’t eat it.” Meals can be kosher if required. Although everyone wears the Seeds of Peace green T-shirt with its olive-branch logo, the religious might choose a long-sleeved shirt and jeans instead of shorts. Some Muslim girls wear a head covering called a hejab, some Jewish boys the traditional skullcap.

Romance is forbidden, but hugs are encouraged. Historic enemies attend each other’s religious services, compose camp songs and whisper to each other after lights-out. On a steep climbing wall, a Palestinian holds the rope for an Israeli and vice versa. They play tennis, baseball and soccer as teammates. Competition reaches fever pitch during color games, instead of the usual color “war.” The winning team gets to jump in the lake first, their victory even sweeter for being immediately shared by the other side.

When violence erupts in the Middle East, campers and staff struggle through the aftermath. With the guidance of skilled facilitators, painful incidents can trigger the sort of catharsis that heals. In July 1997, a Hamas bomb attack on a Jerusalem market killed 15 Israelis and threw camp into turmoil. “It was terrible,” says Reem Kaldowy, a Palestinian who lives in Israel, “but in a strange way that bomb united us.” As Israelis cried and raced for the phones to make sure their families were okay, Arab friends stood behind them, equally shaken, trying to offer reassurance. Recalling how she ran to find her best friend, Mira Knyazhitsky, Kaldowy says, “We cried together.”

When two Jewish students were murdered in Megiddo last summer, an Israeli girl left her coexistence group distraught. “It breaks my heart,” says Tamar Bukaya, “so I go to cry by myself and then Rima from Jordan came to find me. She say everyone feels bad like I do.”

“There are tears,” Wallach says, “but they are perhaps the most hopeful sign of all. To be unafraid to cry in front of each other, to be so vulnerable and so human, that’s what draws them together.”

At one session, a coexistence group exploded in reaction to plastic world globes used unwittingly as table centerpieces at a dinner following former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s visit to the camp. The globes showed Palestine as a nation bordering Israel. “It is not a state yet,” says Mor Lankry, an Israeli from Moshav Devora, trying to explain her delegation’s anger. “It will be when peace is negotiated. But for now the world does not recognize a country called Palestine-which makes the globes wrong.” Her best friend Asmaa Maloul, a Palestinian from Jenin, led the chorus of furious replies. “Palestine was existing for hundreds of years before the Israelis came! It was our homeland always!” The verbal battle raged for an hour until interrupted by the facilitator who initiated an exercise to show how to argue successfully. As in all activities, Israeli is partnered with Arab. Lankry and Maloul sit side by side, engaged in intense but no longer hostile discussion. They leave the session together, still talking.

After the governments negotiate a treaty, the two girls agreed, real peace will depend on people from both sides realizing they are all human beings. “At camp, I met the enemy,” Lankry says. “Her name is Asmaa and now she is my friend. She is just like me. We’re teenagers. We like the same music and sports. We love our families. We all want peace.”

The girls intend to continue their friendship back home. “What happens after camp is so important,” says Sami Al-Jundi, an Israeli Arab from East Jerusalem who is a Seeds of Peace regional coordinator. “We are very careful, but it’s worth it when you see Israeli and Palestinian families welcome each other to their homes.” This past October more than 500 graduates joined diplomats from around the world to celebrate the opening of a year-round Seeds of Peace Center in East Jerusalem. The building was chosen because it straddles the old border between Arab and Jewish sectors. Israeli and Palestinian teenagers can now meet on home turf to publish The Olive Branch, a quarterly newspaper; participate in coexistence sessions; and take classes in subjects ranging from culture to computers. “What we did at camp, it changes you so deep,” says Asel Asleh, an Israeli Arab from the Galilee, “to believe maybe we can make a difference. It’s like music to my spirit and food to my mind.”

In May 1998, Dalal Erekat was one of 75 16-year-old Seeds who participated in the world’s first Middle East Youth Summit held in Villars, Switzerland. At the end of an intense week, the teenagers produced and endorsed a peace accord that addressed all the major issues. The Charter of Villars was formally presented to each of the leaders in the region by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.

When Saeb Erekat was his daughter’s age, he says, he was “throwing stones at Israeli vehicles, demonstrating and fighting.” With her friends from Seeds of Peace, Dalal Erekat is working to create a different future.

Leslie Chess Feller, a freelance writer living in Weston, Connecticut, is a recent National Federation of Press Women award winner.

What’s cooking? Meet the chef who feeds Camp

Aug 2, 2019 / No Comments

We hope you’re hungry, because we’re bringing you this interview from inside the kitchen at Camp. Meet Michael, Food Service Director and Executive Chef. He’s been a chef for 20 years, but this is his second summer at Seeds of Peace.

Seeds of Peace: What does it take to feed such an international staff and group of kids?

Michael: For us, specifically, we have to have knowledge. I have to have a pretty sound grasp of dietary restrictions for Muslims, for Jewish people, for Hindu people—and then within that, just knowing, for example, the laws of kashrut [keeping kosher]. And then of course, we’ve got other dietary issues, like allergies. But I think that’s probably the biggest challenge.

Seeds of Peace: And how do you balance the cultural needs of those different groups?

Michael: It’s hard. So, you know, it’s a lot of chicken. That’s one thing. I think a lot time people don’t realize that we are trying to accommodate and make it universal. So, yes, there’s a lot of chicken. And not mixing meat and dairy, for everybody, which I know is off-putting for some.

Seeds of Peace: How much chicken do you cook each week?

Michael: We cook about 400 pounds of chicken in an average week. For the first session, it’s more, because we do just chicken. We can do beef now in second session.

Seeds of Peace: And eggs?

Michael: I’d say we go through 20 dozen every day.

Seeds of Peace: Is it hard to keep everyone satisfied?

Michael: I wouldn’t say that it’s hard, no. It’s more like trying to keep everybody happy. Even just getting what they want. I think we talked about pancakes. As soon as I heard that that’s what they wanted, I was like ‘oh yeah—let’s do that.’

Seeds of Peace: Next day it was there!

Michael: Yeah! It’s really just knowing what everyone wants—it’s hard to know the general will as opposed to one or two people who come up and say they want this. And that might not be what everybody wants. But definitely the suggestion box is a big help.

Seeds of Peace: Can you talk a little bit about the suggestion box?

Michael: Sure. We started one just so campers could express things that they like and dislike, are tired of, or want more of. I think it’s worked out really well. I don’t know why we didn’t do that last summer. It would have been a huge help. Most of the stuff is super easy. Sometime it’s just something like ‘crunchy peanut butter.’ We’re like ‘done, easy—we can do that.’ Just had to hear it.

We could definitely tell when we get multiple things like ‘mac and cheese.’ We probably didn’t even plan on doing it. Sarah and I, when we plan out the menu, we’re trying to do healthier foods. But the campers might not feel that. They may just send all the food we give back.

Seeds of Peace: Let’s talk about healthy meals. Is it challenging to make sure that the food is nutritious for the campers?

Michael: It really is. It’s a high-wire act. Dietary restrictions. Health and nutrition versus what the teens want. For example, if I want to do French fries and chicken strips, they’re like, ‘oh my God!’ They’re feeling that. Now, if I do that every meal, then I hear from Sarah, saying, “yeah, we’ve got to give these teens something better than just that.” I think that’s probably with all camps, not just ours.

I try to keep them healthy. If I just asked the campers what they wanted, it would probably not be that nutritious. And then sometimes we try stuff. We put out black bean salad on taco night. I think we first started with the bigger white bowls full of it, and we used to get a lot of it back. So now we have smaller amounts. We still try to offer it … but they might not eat it.

Seeds of Peace: What other foods have been a new experience for the campers?

Michael: Last year, we served corned beef hash—I don’t know if you remember—for breakfast. Corned beef hash kind of looks like dog food. It was horrible. The sous chef wanted to do it and the campers were like “What … is … this? We’ve never had this before.” It was terrible.

Seeds of Peace: And how far ahead do you plan these meals?

Michael: I have a month between when I get out of school—I work as a chef at the University of Nevada—and when Camp starts. So we spend about 30 days, Sarah and I, just emailing back and forth on menus and what restrictions there are.

And then, throughout the summer, we make adjustments. We’re about a week ahead on everything, as far as ordering. Things change sometimes at the last minute.

Seeds of Peace: How is Seeds of Peace is different—especially in terms of meals—from other summer camps?

Michael: I worked for six years for a synagogue, which also had a summer camp. So I had some background in kosher-style cooking. And then I did full kosher for Orthodox kids for a couple of summers.

I just wanted to work here so badly. I literally was waiting for the phone call back, just because of what you do here. I really believe in the mission. And I feel like what I should do is just facilitate, and not interfere. I just try to make it so everyone’s happy, because I believe in the actual work that’s being done here.

It’s the most awesome place I’ve ever worked, honestly.

Seeds of Peace: Eating together is somewhat similar to dialogue or our activities, where you need to maybe sacrifice what you want to eat in order to understand where other people are coming from, their cultural needs and their dietary restrictions, to create this equal community.

Michael: Yes. It’s a complete parallel. When we do International Night, it’s completely the same thing. Everyone’s got to work together to make a menu that incorporates dishes that represent where they’re from, and they are literally fighting for space. And usually the delegation leaders—maybe four people from each delegation that are cooking—they’ll set up on the Pine Side [staff dining hall] and do all the prep … chop vegetables.

I order all the food that they need. And they sort of come in after lunch that day and start chopping away, making their dishes. Then they get in the kitchen to cook, and they share an area for stoves and for the ovens and everything. Everyone kind of coordinates, works together.

Perhaps some of the same stuff they are talking about in dialogue, territory or space, it’s the same thing in the kitchen. People have to learn to work together.

And then of course, the differences in what their diets are like and what foods are like from different places. I’m conscious of what we call our food. If we make tomato salad, I don’t call it “Israeli Salad.” I know there’s a dispute over some of that terminology.

Making it universal for everybody is hard, but good for everyone.

But I think people, once they get out of here, probably must not eat chicken for like a month.

After long journey, men’s basketball star finds home at Brandeis
Brandeis University

May 25, 2007 / No Comments

WALTHAM, MASS. | Forgive Florian Rexhepi if the “war” under the boards doesn’t really feel like a war and the “battle” for a loose ball hardly resembles a battle. You see, the Brandeis University freshman men’s basketball player knows all about real wars and battles. In 1999, the native of Skopje, Macedonia, lost his grandmother when a stray bomb hit the bus she was riding in while traveling from the Kosovo region of Serbia to Macedonia. As a member of the Albanian minority in Skopje, Rexhepi often fought with gangs of Macedonian youth. He routinely heard gunfire from the window of his family’s apartment.

“It’s post-conflict so it’s better now, but it still hasn’t all calmed down,” the 20-year-old says. “People are finally realizing that all the different people in Skopje have lived together (in relative harmony) for a long time.” Sports, particularly basketball, kept Rexhepi out of trouble. He joined a prestigious basketball academy at age 12 after impressing the coaches with his ability to make a layup with either hand, a skill he developed while shooting off a window in his apartment.

“Where I come from, kids aren’t concentrating on school,” says Rexhepi, whose English has only the slightest hint of an accent. “There’s a lot of drugs, alcohol and partying. It seems not a lot of people there see their future as school. For me, basketball kept me away from other things.” Rexhepi started his first season at Brandeis slowly, in part because he missed three weeks of preseason drills with a pulled groin, but came on strongly. He led the team in scoring during the last three games of a five-game winning streak just before break, earning himself a spot in the starting lineup when the players returned.

Rexhepi showed Coach Brian Meehan’s faith in him was justified when the 6-foot guard struck for a game-high 27 points, including 12-for-12 shooting from the foul line, and grabbed eight rebounds to help the Judges erase an 18-point deficit in a stirring win over New York University.He finished his freshman year as the team’s No. 2 scorer, and repeated that accomplishment as a sophomore. He was named one of three tri-captains before the 2005-06 season. “This kid has been through so much, there’s nothing that will happen on the basketball court that will rattle him,” Meehan says. “He’s getting better and better every game.”

Rexhepi took a circuitous route to Brandeis, using his considerable basketball prowess and a fierce determination to make a better life for himself and his people back home to finance the lengthy journey. After spending time in the summer of 2001 in Maine as part of the Seeds of Peace international coexistence program, he accepted an invitation to enroll at St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont. He spent two productive years there—improving his English, developing proper study habits, and becoming a standout basketball player—but the transition was not easy. “The first week in Vermont I couldn’t sleep because it was so quiet,” Rexhepi says. “It was hard to leave my family and friends. It was hard waking up and not seeing them.

At first, it was a struggle in class. I had to start concentrating in school.” His play on the court attracted the attention of the coaches at Phillips Exeter Academy, and he was offered a scholarship to the prestigious New Hampshire prep school for a post-graduate year. He averaged 17 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals a game against high-level competition. Rexhepi is enjoying his time at Brandeis—on the court and off. He is taking advantage of an opportunity he would not have gotten had he stayed in Macedonia. “I didn’t come here to get away from somewhere,” he says. “I came here to get somewhere.”

Arm wrestling and oil pricing: Inside a negotiation and mediation training for Seeds

Nov 27, 2019 / No Comments

A dozen pairs of arm wrestlers, with each competitor giving it their all to score the required 10 points, is not what one might expect to see at a program run by an organization dedicated to transforming conflict. But this was an important moment in the Mediation and Negotiation seminar for high school-aged Seeds held recently in New York City.

Bob Bordone—a Seeds of Peace Board Member, who, alongside his Harvard Law School team, has been facilitating such workshops for Seeds of Peace for eight years—ended the tussling and asked who forced their partners’ arm to the table more than 10 times. One person in almost every pair raised their hands with a smile.

“Did you know,” Bob asked, “that both of you could have gotten 10 points? Getting as many points for yourself has nothing to do with beating your partner.” A collective “ohhh” followed as Seeds recognized how Bob’s suggestion of cooperation, though less exciting, would certainly have been more mutually beneficial.

This arm-wrestling activity was one of many skill-building exercises for the 20 New York City and US/UK Seeds participating in the program. Running over the course of a weekend in early November, the training combined lecture and practice, using simulations and role-play to help Seeds practically apply the skills being introduced.

As Eliza O’Neil, Seeds of Peace’s US/UK Programs Manager, explained: “The program was about offering Seeds the opportunity to convene meaningfully, build new skills around better conversations, and strengthen their Seeds of Peace community here in New York City following Camp.”

Sacrificing other commitments, such as an SAT prep session, a school play, and extra hours of sleep, Seeds attended the seminar and began to see how these skills would apply to everyday life, from family dinners to friend groups, student governments to Model U.N., even a fantasy football league.

The program began on a Friday evening with community-building activities and the setting of ground rules. Seeds shared their hopes and fears as well as their common goals and commitments. Saturday began the crash course in negotiation.

Defined as communicating with the intention to influence others, negotiation is an important element of the human experience. Seeds realized that they have been practicing negotiation techniques for much of their lives, starting with the time they could speak and make requests of their parents. But instead of negotiating for a piece of candy or a later bedtime, much of Saturday consisted of role-play as Seeds practiced negotiation as oil pricing executives, politicians, and climate change activists.

Sunday, the final day of the seminar, was focused on the practice of mediation. Seeds learned how mediation shares a process with dialogue facilitation, something they experience at Camp, but differs in its purpose. While dialogue facilitation is only focused on fostering a deeper understanding of self and others, mediation is also concerned with producing a mutually acceptable agreement between two conflicting parties. Dialogue and mediation, however, both require clear ground rules (such as no interrupting and respect), active listening, and empathy.

One activity about active listening—an essential skill when it comes to negotiation and mediation—was, according to Seeds, particularly useful and engaging. As one Seed described it, “it was like my Thanksgiving dinner, but, like, no one left the table in tears.”

During this activity, Seeds were split into groups of three and assigned the rotating roles of speaker, listener, and coach. At the beginning of each round, the listener shared their position on a controversial issue they are passionate about. The speaker then argued the opposite position, while the listener actively inquired about and acknowledged a position they deeply disagreed with. Arguments about abortion, police brutality, gun control, climate change, and affirmative action ensued.

As the activity progressed, however, (and with the help of coaches’ observations and suggestions) listeners became less combative and more curious. Approaching from a place of curiosity, rather than judgement, generated conversations that, as one Seed summarized, “were kinder and more constructive. And when I really listen, I’m able to actually improve my argument.”

“I didn’t know how to just be a listener without giving my opinion,” reflected another Seed, “and I’m still working on it. But I’ve proved to myself that I can come from a place of empathy and curiosity even when I might be angry.”

It was a practical and powerful weekend: Seeds practiced communicating clearly, cooperatively, and curiously; reflected on the role of trust; unpacked their own assumptions and actions; and applied the skills of negotiation and mediation to real situations.

“This is the nitty gritty of Seeds of Peace,” one Seed summarized. “It kind of makes the other stuff possible. Becoming better sometimes takes PowerPoints and practice.”

To learn more about our programs in communities around the world, visit seedsofpeace.org/programs.

 
PROGRAM PHOTOS

18 Israeli, Palestinian and American teens to sail tall ship into New York Harbor

Jul 1, 2012 / 2 Comments

Seas of Peace is bringing together Middle Eastern and American youth for a summer of sailing and conflict resolution training. As they sail nearly 1,000 miles, these young people must work together across the borders of war to arrive safely in the next port.

NEW YORK | Eighteen young Israeli, Palestinian and American youth leaders from Seeds of Peace will sail a 125-foot tall ship into New York Harbor on July 9 as part of the ground-breaking Seas of Peace sailing and conflict resolution program.

Started in 2011, Seas of Peace uses sail training and the secluded nature of life at sea to foster empathy, teamwork, cultural awareness, and intellectual curiosity among youth from Israel, Palestine and the United States.

“Seeing the program become a reality has been incredibly rewarding,” says Seas of Peace Co-Founder Monica Balanoff, age 24. “More importantly, those who participated in Seas of Peace have described the program as the experience of a lifetime that has the power to change the lives and minds of many.”

During their time at Seas of Peace, the students discuss who they are, where they come from, and how conflict has affected their lives.

“In choosing an environment as isolated as a sailing ship,” says Co-Founder David Nutt, age 25, “the program challenges the students to truly engage with one another, offering them no choice with whom they interact. These interactions are essential to understanding and feeling understood.”

This summer, the teens will crew Ocean Classroom Foundation’s Spirit of Massachusetts from Portland, Maine, to Newport, Rhode Island, and then to New York City before heading northeast to end in Boston.

“To go a mile in someone else’s shoes teaches empathy,” says Nutt. “Our students sail 1,000 miles together. By the end of the voyage we are family.”

“At the end of my experience at Seas, I remarked to my facilitators that I felt there was an important difference between a completed voyage and a successful one,” said one of last summer’s participants.

“It was the difference between the [ship] carrying 15 kids into Boston, and The Spirit being sailed by 15 Seeds into Boston. And for anyone who has not sailed on a schooner, it is no easy task. It requires unwavering trust in others, the ability to lead when it is required, and the maturity to follow.”

Both Nutt and Balanoff completed circumnavigations in sailboats at early ages. Nutt grew up sailing in his home state of Maine and spent six years circumnavigating with his family during his teenage years. Balanoff began sailing as a teenager. She completed a circumnavigation at age 17 with the high school program Class Afloat.

“Politicians might make treaties, but it is people who make peace,” says Balanoff. “Seas of Peace offers hope and a sense of possibility for a generation that will soon be leading their respective countries.”

For press inquiries, contact Eric Kapenga at eric@seedsofpeace.org.

www.facebook.com/seasofpeace
 
SEAS OF PEACE PHOTOS

October 21, 2013 | Stand Up for Peace (New York)

Oct 21, 2013 / No Comments

Stand Up for Peace, presented by the Seeds of Peace Young Leadership Committee, brings together 600 people in New York City for an evening of top comedy benefiting Seeds of Peace.

ADDRESS: 237 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036
DATE: October 21, 2013
TIME: 6:30 p.m.
LOCATION: B.B. King Blues Club & Grill
WEBSITE: www.standupforpeace.splashthat.com
CONTACT: Jenn Lishansky | jennifer@seedsofpeace.org

April 28, 2003 | Concert for Peace in the Middle East (New York)

Apr 18, 2003 / No Comments

Honoring His Majesty King Abdullah II and Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

— Performances by Broadway’s top shows and stars —

NEW YORK | The Annual Seeds of Peace Concert for Peace in the Middle East attracts over 2,000 people to benefit Seeds of Peace, an internationally renowned non-profit, conflict resolution program.

The evening will include star-studded live performances and honor His Majesty King Abdullah II and Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Additionally, it will honor Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, and Seeds of Peace graduates from the Middle East, India and Pakistan.

The concert portion of the program will include special performances from some of Broadway’s top musicals including Baz Lurhmann’s La Bohème on Broadway, Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp’s Movin’ Out with Elizabeth Parkinson and David Gomez, Chicago with Tony Award winner Bebe Neuwirth, Man of La Mancha with Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell, plus other surprise guests.

Tickets for the Seeds of Peace Concert for Peace in the Middle East start at $35. Gala packages with pre and post concert receptions begin at $250. Tickets can be purchased by calling Seeds of Peace at 212-573-8040 or online at www.seedsofpeace.org.

Since 1993, Seeds of Peace has graduated over 2,000 teenagers representing 22 nations from its internationally recognized conflict-resolution and coexistence program. Through these programs, at the International Camp in Maine and at its Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem, participants develop empathy, respect, communication/negotiation skills, confidence, and hope – the building blocks for peaceful coexistence. A jointly published newspaper, list-serve, educational conferences and seminars ensure year-round follow-up programming. For more information, visit www.seedsofpeace.org.

ADDRESS: Broadway and W. 65th Street, New York, NY 10011
DATE: April 28, 2003
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center
CONTACT: Tickets can be purchased by calling (212)-573-8040

In conflict zone, raising young Palestinian and Jewish voices
The Washington Post

Jun 19, 2015 / No Comments

When Micah Hendler first went to Jerusalem with the idea of starting a choir of Israeli and Palestinian high-schoolers, some thought his notion naive at best.

But in the three years since the YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus was formed, the group has recorded with Israeli musician-activist David Broza, gone on two international tours and is now on its first U.S. tour, which is bringing Hendler, 25, back to his Bethesda roots.

The tour began last week at the Yale International Choral Festival in New Haven, Conn., where Hendler earned degrees in music and international studies at Yale and was a member of the university’s famed a cappella groups the Whiffenpoofs and the Duke’s Men.

While in Washington, the Jerusalem Youth Chorus will perform two free public concerts — at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage and at Hendler’s alma mater, Sidwell Friends. The group, whose repertoire features songs in Arabic and Hebrew as well as pieces from South Africa, the American South and the world of pop, also will travel to Boston, New York and Philadelphia.

Hendler spoke with us recently from Jerusalem — where he was about to catch a bus to a voice lesson — about starting a youth choir in a region marked by conflict.

Was singing always part of your life growing up in Bethesda?

I’ve been singing since I was very small in a variety of contexts, both within the Jewish community and also more broadly. I sang with the Children’s Chorus of Washington. I sang when I was in middle school, and I sang when I was at Sidwell.

For me, singing is not only a mode of self-expression or something to do because it’s fun . . . it’s a way of connecting with others. Specifically, as I grew up and I started my own singing groups, I saw that I could use group singing as a way of creating community.

Around the same time when I was in high school, I went to Seeds of Peace [in Maine], which is a summer camp and dialogue program for teens from conflict regions all over the world, specifically focused on Middle East, Israeli/Arab issues. . . . In the context of a summer camp vibe, you have a facilitated dialogue process where you actually go into the political, the historical, the religious issues, the violence, the daily experience of what it’s like to live in a region of conflict and always being close to your enemy.

At the same time you’re talking about all these really difficult issues, these are the same people who helped you score a goal in soccer, or who helped you come up with whatever song in music class, or whatever it is. So the combination of these interpersonal activities, in terms of how you relate to these people whom you never met before, it’s very, very strong in terms of creating transformation both because you relate to the other teenagers as people, but also understanding where they come from and what their daily experiences are and what they bring with them.

You use facilitated discussion in the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, too. Does the singing help make that possible?

Particularly when you’re in a singing group — whether it’s in summer camp and you’re singing camp songs, or you’re in Jerusalem — there’s something that happens with the performing ensemble. There’s really a great amount of connection that happens both interpersonally between individuals and also in terms of the feeling of a group that helps create a containing space for some really transformative dialogue work to happen.

How receptive were people when you went to Jerusalem with this idea?

Sometimes I would encounter general skepticism about what sort of impact it might have or whether anyone would join. And some people’s politics were so opposed to the idea of people even meeting that they opposed the idea of a chorus with it.

I got there in July 2012 and prepared myself psychologically, thinking, “Okay, if I have five singers signed up by January, I’m doing okay.” And by October, we had 80. From those 80 auditions, we selected about 35, and we rehearsed and performed throughout that first year. By the end of our second year, we were touring internationally.

Have you seen some small and large effects from your work?

Absolutely. Our concerts are powerful not only because we do really interesting and innovative musical cultural fusion, but because you can tell the kids love each other. That’s what makes the performances so moving. Our singers are not professional musicians, they’re not particularly disciplined, they don’t necessarily stand like a classical choir. But you can tell in the performances that they love what they’re doing, love performing together and love being together.

Were there times when you thought it wouldn’t work?

Last summer with the war in Gaza and in Jerusalem, it was a really hard time for us. It was a really hard time for everyone. But particularly what was going on in Jerusalem in terms of violence on the street, and vigilante attacks against young people, it was very close to home.

The day after [17-year-old Palestinian] Mohammad [Abu] Khieder was killed [after three Israeli teens were kidnapped and killed], we happened to have a rehearsal scheduled because we were getting ready for our first tour of Japan. I was debating whether to have the rehearsal or to cancel it. I didn’t know if anyone would come. I didn’t know if any Palestinians would come. At the end of the day, I decided to have the rehearsal because, even if only three people came, the fact that we were still meeting was very important. About half of the kids came, including half of the Palestinian kids. And about a half-hour later, this girl came through the door from Shuafat[where Abu Khieder lived and was abducted]. It later erupted in rioting and police violence, and the whole neighborhood was shut down. There was a curfew and you couldn’t get out. I didn’t know physically how this girl got to rehearsal.

I asked her during a break and she said, “Well, I woke up this morning to gunshots and tear gas and everyone was going crazy. And I was sitting in my house, losing my mind, and at a certain point, I couldn’t take it anymore. So I left, and walked down the street and soldiers tried to stop me and I ran away.” . . . And she said, “This is exactly where I want to be.” For me, the idea that even in that kind of circumstance, that kind of imminent violence and injustice and everything that’s wrong about what’s going on here, at its most intense, that a place where she would feel at home was in a binational group of kids her age that were working together to change that situation, couldn’t possibly have been a greater testament to the fact that we’re doing things right.

What kinds of reaction do you get from audiences?

The reception from our audiences has been overwhelmingly positive at every single performance. Even if we mess up the notes or are missing half of the sopranos, or whatever is going on, people are really moved consistently by our performances, because we really have succeeded in creating on a very small scale an alternate reality.

Have there been some stumbles?

Of course. Particularly starting a new program in a city where I am a foreigner and working in two foreign languages. I started this program when I was 23. I graduated from college and moved to Jerusalem and tried to start this program, so of course I made tons of mistakes.

But the mistakes we made tended to be more in terms of program management, as opposed to political. Because really, what could doom something like this was political missteps such that one side or the other feels like you’re being biased and therefore they lose trust, and I didn’t make those mistakes. And that, I think, has been what’s really enabled us to be successful.

Catlin is a freelance writer.

The YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus Wednesday at 7 p.m. with the Children’s Chorus of Washington and the Sidwell Friends School Chamber Chorus at Sidwell Friends School, 3825 Wisconsin Ave. NW, and Friday at 6 p.m. at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, 2700 F St. NW. Both concerts are free. Visit www.jerusalemyouthchorus.org.

Read Roger Catlin’s article at The Washington Post ››

October 15, 2012 | Stand Up for Peace (New York)

Oct 15, 2012 / No Comments

The Young Leadership Committee invites you for a night of comedy at B.B. King Blues Club and Grill for the Ninth Annual Stand Up for Peace. On Monday, October 15, celebrated comics from diverse backgrounds will share the stage to bring people together in support of one common goal: peace. Come out to enjoy a night of laughter and drinks to support the work of Seeds of Peace in conflict zones around the world. This year’s performers include: Janeane Garofalo and Hannibal Buress.

ADDRESS: 237 West 42 St, New York, NY 10036
DATE: October 15, 2012
TIME: 6:30 p.m. – Doors Open | 8 p.m. – Show Begins
LOCATION: BB King Blues Club and Grill
WEBSITE: www.seedsofpeace.splashthat.com
CONTACT: Jennifer Lishansky | jennifer@seedsofpeace.org