NEW Israeli, Palestinian youth leadership
NEW stories for new Middle East, USA
Thursday, 16 September 2010
"The best way
to predict the future is to invent it."
-- Alan C. Kay (1989)
Scientist and visionary
"If we want a
new future, we have to have a new story."
-- Paul Costello (2010)
Founder, New Story Leadership
New Leadership:
New Story
Young Palestinian and Israeli leaders-in-the-making convened in
Washington DC during summer 2010.
Liel Maghen is a Jewish Israeli from Tel Aviv.
He is a student of Political Sciences and Middle
Eastern studies at the Hebrew University.
Mariam Ashour is a Muslim Palestinian from Gaza.
She is a student of Business Administration and
Marketing at Columbia College in South Carolina.
NEW STORY LEADERSHIP FOR THE MIDDLE EAST-- http://www.newstoryleadership.org/
-- brought them and other Palestinians and Israelis together in Washington,
DC, for a 2010 summer of shared internship experiences.
They understand "if we're going to have a new
future, we have to have a new story."
The young relationship-builders found new ways
to awaken trust, understanding, and better ways to cooperate in their part of
the world.
They found in Washington "experts" who
lacked our experience and perspective were trying to tell their story while
emphasizing mostly points of disagreement human failures, while mostly
excluding opportunities for compromise.
Mariam and Liel described what they learned:
Letter
to our leaders
by Liel
Maghen and Mariam Ashour
Common Ground News -- 16
September 2010
http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=28462&lan=en
These youth insist on being heard, and "to educate listeners about
how desperate our generation is, on both sides, for a peaceful and lasting
resolution."
They defined today's new "heroes of peace: those
who confront the conflict through an attempt to achieve reconciliation and forge
personal connections and cooperation with the other side."
". . .political agreements depend on trust and
understanding that can only come from people-to-people connections,"
agreed their fellow Palestinian and Israeli interns.
"We urge you to understand that you cannot,
and need not, achieve a peace agreement alone - you need the input from young
people," these young scholars of excellence remind government
professionals.
This wisdom from the youth was offered, they wrote, in
"a time of reflection and reconciliation in Jewish and Muslim
traditions..."
SEE and HEAR MORE NEWS about NSL interns
telling the "new story of people getting along together" while
"making politics personal."
Interns From
Israel and Palestine Work Together in US
Fox TV news -- 7-1/2 min Fox
News -- 19 Aug 2010
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/mornings/interns-from-israel-and-palestine-work-together-in-us-081910
A "New Story" for the Middle East
WAMU-FM 88.5 FM --
Friday, 27 August 2010
http://wamu.org/programs/mc/10/08/27.php
Mariam Ashour
New Story Leadership
10-min video -- 06 August
2010
Liel Maghen
New Story Leadership
3-min video -- 20 July 2010
TEMPLE OF PEACE:
Muslim Palestinian builds
Jewish synagogue
free of charge
In late 2006, a Palestinian-born American Muslim from
Springdale, Arkansas. reached out to help the local Jewish community build a
synagogue in the heart of the Bible Belt -- at no charge.
Passing
over toward each other in Deep South:
Muslim
Palestinian helps Jews find a home
Passover Tuesday, 03 April
2007
http://traubman.igc.org/messages/516.htm
Today in 2010, almost four years later, TEMPLE OF PEACE
is a forthcoming documentary film by Hayot Tuychiev ( HayotT@gmail.com ) to chronicle Fadil Bayyari's involvement and
grand opening in 2009 of Temple Shalom, the first permanent synagogue for the
Reform Jewish congregation of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Temple
of Peace
2010 documentary film
3- min video trailer -- 09
September 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWj4bvlwo-w
Temple Shalom -- http://atempleofpeace.com/
-- synagogue construction manager Jeremy Hess and Fadil
Bayyari embarked upon this ambitious venture to
bridge gaps between Jews and Muslim and bring these two communities together.
"Maybe in the United States we can show people a
different path. I can help you," the new film says of the Palestinian's
extraordinary of goodwill.
This new film about Muslims and Jews in Fayetteville,
Arkansas, shows the how-to of deciding to cross lines toward one another and
build new kind of "facts on the ground."
Fadil Bayyari,
a native of Tulkarem, West Bank, can be reached at
479-530-5555 or Bayyari98@aol.com
He says" "My dream is to go back to the old
country and see people have learned to get along."
MORE about this instructional story and process:
Temple ends 28
years of wandering
NWAOnline.com -- Thursday, 10
December 2009
http://atempleofpeace.com/news_15.html
Muslim helps build Jewish temple
Channel 5 News -- 3 min video
http://www.kfsm.com/videobeta/watch/?watch=89cdd5eb-1a1c-4456-ab05-7cce2693cdf6
Becoming More
Diverse
The Free Weekly -- 09 August
2007
http://www.freeweekly.com/2007/08/09/becoming-more-diverse/
Boston Jew and
West Bank Muslim Build a Temple, and Bridges, in Arkansas
The New York Times - 06
October 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/us/06religion.html
IFTAR IN THE SYNAGOGUE
Know They Neighbor
Iftar in the Synagogue 2010: Know Thy Neighbor was
Thursday evening, August 19th -- in Chicago.
Over 250 people met for the sixth year of removing
barriers, learning about different faith traditions and celebrating diversity.
Iftar
in the Synagogue 2010:
"Know
Thy Neighbor"
http://jmcbi.webnode.com/news/iftar-in-the-synagogue-2010-know-thy-neighbor/
The Jewish Muslim Community Building Initiative (JMCBI) and Anshe
Sholom Bnai Israel
Congregation hosted a wall-to-wall coming-together of Muslim and Jewish
community members who gathered excitedly.
Iftar in the Synagogue is a
unique interfaith gathering during the Islamic holy month of Ramadhan and the Jewish month of Elul.
The large crowd of youth and adults were reminded of
the evening's organizing principles.
"The Torah commands us to 'love thy neighbor,'
and the Quran reminds us that 'We created youand made
you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other' in Surah Hujurat 49:13.
"Throughout the night we will be reflecting on
the theme, 'Know Thy Neighbor.'"
THE EVENING PROGRAM looked like this:
5:30 pm - Community service
activity
6:30 - Welcome
Rabbi Asher Lopatin
Anshe Sholom
B'nai Israel Congregation
Mohamad Nasir
Executive Director, Council
of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago
Katharine Nasielski
JMCBI Committee Member
Aqeela Jogee
Muslim Women's Alliance &
JMCBI Committee Member
* Jewish Evening Prayer
* Muslim Break of Fast
& Prayer Maghrib Salat
* Communal Dinner
(Kosher)
* Film and Discussion
9:00 - Program conclusion
Co-sponsors were the Jewish-Muslim Community Building Initiative
(JMCBI), Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA), Council for Advancement of
Muslim Professionals (CAMP), Muslim Women's Alliance and One Chicago, One
Nation.
WATCH the inspiring video:
Iftar
in the Synagogue:
Muslims
and sharing and learning together
by the Jewish-Muslim
Community Building Initiative (JMCBI)
6-min video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GhZP5c0uos
- - - - -
These and hundreds of other success stories are preserved at http://traubman.igc.org/messages.htm