Empathy on the rise:
Mosque-synagogue
"twinning" doubles in one year
25 November 2009
"The creative individual has the capacity to
free himself
from the web of social pressures in which the
rest of us are caught.
He is capable of QUESTIONING the assumptions that
the rest of us accept."
--John
W. Gardner
"If you expect to see the final results of
your work,
you simply have not asked a big enough
QUESTION."
-- I.F. Stone
QUESTIONS
with power for change result from Q-Storming -- http://www.qstorming.com/
Q-Storming is a collaborative thinking method that
generates new questions for breakthrough thinking, new possibilities, and
extraordinary results.
SEE the paths to questions with (1) little power and (2) great
power illustrated at http://www.inquiryinstitute.com/CM.pdf
2009 WEEKEND OF TWINNING
Synagogue-Mosque pairs
double, cross the ocean
In Fall 2008,
a few questioning, creative Muslims and Jews explored how they might close
the gap between their peoples.
They invented the WEEKEND OF TWINNING, as 50
mosques and 50 synagogues and their congregations participated in a North
American weekend of study, prayer, and sharing of stories and food.
This 2009 year, November 13-15, 2009 participation
more than doubled and crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
Thousands of Muslims and Jews from across North
America and Europe came together last weekend to break bread, pray, perform
community service and pledge to nurture ties of friendship and trust between
their communities.
This worlds
largest gathering of Muslims and Jews twinned congregations from seven
European countries including Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland,
Belgium and Netherlands.
In France, with sometimes--tense Muslim-Jewish relations,
19 mosques and 19 synagogues twinned with one another, offering a powerful
affirmation of the two faith communities.
The WEEKEND OF TWINNING was organized by the New
York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and endorsed by the Islamic
Society of North America, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the World Jewish
Congress and the Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims.
"We have managed to summon into being a grass
roots movement of Muslims and Jews committed to communication, reconciliation
and cooperation," wrote the FFEU program director, Walter Ruby (
WalterRuby@gmail.com ) .
VIEW the inspiring list of participating synagogues
and mosques at:
https://www.ffeu.org/twinning09_participants.htm
EMPATHY ON THE
RISE
More
diverse communities are seeking help to engage at the heart.
Eight weeks in Fall, 2009, participants of a
single 17-year-old Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue in California were
asked to:
1. Convene
city-wide Dialogue for youth and adults from neighborhoods of San Mateo,
California
PHOTOS -- http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbtmbJq0aMlEZE
2. Facilitate
a circle of 85 Women, men, and students of diverse Fresno, California
DESCRIPTION
-- http://traubman.igc.org/fresnonight.htm
3. Broadcast two
1/2-hour KNXT-TV Fresno television programs of "Forum For A Better
Understanding" about communication skills and the public peace process.
VIEW 1st
program -- http://www.blip.tv/file/2828811/
VIEW 2nd
program -- http://www.blip.tv/file/2829649/
4. Guide
campus Dialogue for students at the University of California, Berkeley in a
class studying CONFLICT RESOLUTION, SOCIAL CHANGE, AND CULTURES OF
PEACE.
PHOTOS -- http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbtmbJq0aMlEdU
5. Present
at Seton Hill University a communication skills
workshop "DIALOGUE AND STORY: Utilizing Communications Tools from the
Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue Movement in the Service of Intergroup/interfaith
Understanding for the Holocaust Classroom" for the LeFrak
Holocaust Education Conference 2009 of the National Catholic Center for
Holocaust Education for "educating the educators in the hope of reaching
the whole of humanity."
PHOTOS -- http://traubman.igc.org/zimmerman.pdf
6. Initiate
at the 4th Annual International Conference on Engaging The Other: The Power of
Compassion" a workshop, "Story As Entry to Relationship and
Change."
PHOTOS -- http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbtmbJq0aMlEfc
At
the same time, social science is telling us that media technology enables us to
increase our empathy to others ourside our own
selves, families, communities and cultures.
As the world grows smaller and more connected, transhuman technologies are becoming more important than
ever.
Practically, empathy is created through
storytelling -- the most successful remote means of creating social empathy and
the engine of social and cultural change.
Today, storytelling is the key to empathy
creation.
Empathy in the Time of Technology:
How Storytelling is the Key to Empathy
by PJ Manney
Journal of Evolution and Technology - Vol.
19 Issue 1 September 2008 - pages 51-61
http://jetpress.org/v19/manney.htm
HEAR
why Story is the new every-day Power.
Storyteller Noa Baum
Radio All For Peace interview (19 min)
http://traubman.igc.org/stream.htm#NoaBaum
THE HOME RUN
A story of empathy
and responsibility
The Home Run (7
min video)
http://www.responsibilityproject.com/films/player/the-home-run/
"The creative individual has the capacity to
free himself
from the web of social pressures in which the
rest of us are caught.
He is capable of QUESTIONING the assumptions that
the rest of us accept."
--John W. Gardner