Founded in 2002, Kids4Peace  is a grassroots movement of Jewish, Christian and Muslim youth (ages 12-18) that fosters interfaith dialogue, community building and non-violent action in the face of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Now the organization is expanding its mission to create a new platform for peace with young adults (ages 18-25) who are especially vulnerable to violence—both as victims and as perpetrators.  I have the privilege of being invited to help to establish this new program: Dialogue to Action.

I have the opportunity to intern for 6 months in Jerusalem for Dr. Yakir Englander , Vice President of Kids4Peace. Dr. Englander was my professor at Northwestern University, and is an inspiring visionary who is dedicated to dialogue across difference and the dream of peace. His new project is Dialogue to Action, which will provide training, guidance, mentorship and support to a community of young peace activists as they develop their own strategies for change.

 As Dr. Englander’s assistant I will be doing everything from working on publicity campaigns and fundraising to meeting with stakeholders including clergy, congregations and political leaders. I will also be working directly with the young adults, including teaching yoga and meditation—using movement and breath as a means of traversing boundaries of language, ideology and religious identity.

Project Details: 

 Dialogue to Action will tackle problems such as:

-      How can communities of Palestinians and Israelis in     Jerusalem work together to change the reality of the conflict that they face each day?

-       What obstacles do they confront as peace activists and how can we help?

-       With religion at the center of Dialogue to Action and spirituality at the heart of interfaith efforts, what unique challenges do our young adults encounter and how does our approach help to further peace processes?  

 There are three components to Dialogue to Action:

1)   Young Adult Programs that will train participants in non-violent action and coach them to design social change projects that respond to urgent realities in Jerusalem: the rise in racist attitudes, dynamics at checkpoints and anti-normalization campaigns. Facilitators will provide participates with practical and spiritual resources.

2)    Public Scholarship on interfaith peace activism and faith-based social change in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be created through blogging, lectures in faith communities, and public events. Through this scholarship, Dialogue to Action will bring religion to the center of conversations about peace and provide the theoretical and theological context for the new young adult programs.

3)   Community Engagement: By developing relationships with key political, religious and civil society leaders, the young adults can challenge their leaders and advocate for change.


About Me:

Having grown up in a family of religious difference, I have always been interested and engaged in interfaith dialogue. I was raised in New York City by my mother who is a life-long active Unitarian Universalist and by my father who is a non-observant Jew. As a child I attended church every Sunday, participating in the youth group, Christmas pageants and community life. When I was fourteen I asked my father to join me for our first Friday night service at a Reform Synagogue in Brooklyn. I fell in love that evening. It was like returning to something I had not known and yet understood somewhere in the recesses of my body. That night I became determined to immerse myself in Judaism.

Ever since then I have been on an emotionally and intellectually complex and beautiful Jewish journey. After independent tutoring with my rabbi I became a Bat Mitzvah at the age of 16, and went to the mikvah for my conversion at the age of 21. I attended Northwestern University where I majored in Jewish Studies and spent the entirety of my junior year studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In Israel, visiting Jewish communities in the West Bank and Palestinian communities in Hebron and Bethlehem, I was overwhelmed by the intensity of conflict. Even simply walking around Jerusalem I could feel the tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, between secular and observant religious communities and between Muslims, Jews and Christians. It was emotionally challenging to process these intricate, ancient and fraught relationships.

Upon graduating from Northwestern I knew that I wanted to become a rabbi. I am passionate about exploring and questioning tradition, spirituality and religious identity. I want to continue to enquire into and deepen my faith, to help others on their spiritual paths and to work on creating dialogues between peoples of different traditions so that we can learn from each other, respect one another, and build peaceful relations.

I have been accepted to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City and have deferred rabbinical school until the fall of 2016 so that I can work with Dr. Englander and Kids4Peace. I very much need your help so I can take this opportunity.

Funding:

If you are able to contribute your support to me as I build this program please donate through this GoFundMe page. Any donation would be very much appreciated!

If you are interested in funding Kids4Peace in general here is a link to the organization’s donation page: http://www.k4p.org/waystogive/