HOW-TO for successfully knowing each other

in classrooms, camps, neighborhoods, nations

17 July 2010

"Dialogue demands more courage than waging war.

It takes you to that uncomfortable space where

you have to question your own assumptions and,

rather than speak on other people's behalf,

truly listen to what they have to say,

take it into consideration, and

present your own views in a way that

addresses the misunderstandings that have arisen."

-- Haider Al-Mosawi   (July 2010)

"This is the shortest way to a political solution:

through people's hearts."

-- Dr. Leila Alieva, President

Center for National and International Studies

Baku, Azerbaijan

Below are tools -- a how-to for the practitioner of face-to-face engagement
     This is for difficult relationships that require crossing daunting chasms and lowering old walls to reach people's hearts.



Film Evening
A dozen very short films with popcorn highlighted last Monday evening -- 12 July 2010 -- to celebrate the 18th Anniversary of the Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue.
Fifty youth and adults in the large circle together viewed the short videos then sat in triads of three to answer two questions:

(1) What touched you? 

(2) What creative ideas occurred to you?

The printed program with links to those online videos is at http://traubman.igc.org/eveningprogram2010.pdf
SEE PHOTOS of the night at http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbtmbJq0aMlE04


Camp Activities
Best practices for conferences and camp-like programs are collected in Camp Activities for Relationship Building -- http://traubman.igc.org/campacts.pdf
    The 17-page booklet outlines Introductory, mid-session, and Ending experiences, with photographs and other graphics.


New TV Series:
"If You Really Knew Me"
Beginning Tuesday, 20 July 2010 at 11:00 pm on MTV, a new, long-awaited,12-episode TV series will demonstrate that the miracles of connection and compassion are available to everyone.
     Week after week -- from 12 different U.S. school campuses -- tools will be provided to allow any youth or adult to Be The Change we wish to see in the world.
     See how students take down walls that separate them, when they stop talking about each other and start listening to each other.

Television at its best lets you watch amazing transformation each week as the student participants in Challenge Day courageously open up for the first time. 
     By dropping their waterlines and revealing who they really are, the students break down the walls between cliques, and work to change their view of school and each other.
Each episode takes place at a different high school, and follows five students from different cliques as they go through the life-changing experiences available to all.

After viewing, practice the tool of If you really knew me by having people share their experience of the show and how it applies to their lives.
A small-group guide is at http://www.challengeday.org/downloads/If_You_Really_Knew_Me.pdf

After each episode, a discussion guide will posted at http://www.challengeday.org/mtv
More information is at MTV -- http://www.mtv.com/shows/if_you_really_knew_me/series.jhtml and with the pioneering creators, Challenge Day -- http://www.challengeday.org
Check your local listing for the broadcast where you live.


Music As Connector
Musaique -- http://www.musaique.org -- brings together diverse Middle East musicians to lower barriers that divide religions and nations through music!
     Music is a language understood by everyone -- women and men, youth and elders, poor and wealthy -- beyond race, nationality, and faith religion.

Musaique - Music without Boundaries

Worldwide Good News Network

6-1/2 minute news interview -- July 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkLA7PSQ_Ms

     The core of 20 participants include Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians, Muslims, Christians, Jews,and others.
     Their first workshop -- Music as a Tool for Reconciliation and Non-violent Communication -- was for attendees from Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Dubai, Morocco, and Algiers.
     It was during December, 2009, in Madaba, Jordan -- The City of MOSAICS.
Musaique's next meeting will be in Israel or Jordan.
     Get more information from co-founder, Lee Ziv -- LeeLuZiv@gmail.com


Theater As Bridge       
     The mixed Jaffa Arab-Hebrew Theater -- http://www.arab-hebrew-theatre.org.il/ -- is an "island of sanity," says it's director, Igal Ezrati.
     "I've been working with groups of Arab and Jewish actors producing plays and events for over a decade, so don't tell me it can't be done."
     The joint efforts are 'joint' in every sense of the word, with productions, scripts, and even performance dates decided upon together.
     The productions chosen generally reflect the troupes' point of view on coexistence.

     For example, the theater's production of 1001 Nights last year was chosen because it has an important message for Arabs and Jews.
     The well-know story describes a depressed, violent king who meets Sheherazade, who beguiles him with her stories until he learns to trust in love again.
      It is symbolic of the power of stories and especially art, to overcome violence.
     READ MORE at:

Putting coexistence center stage

Israel21c -- July 05, 2010

http://israel21c.org/201007058100/social-action/putting-coexistence-center-stage

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These and hundreds of other success stories are preserved at http://traubman.igc.org/messages.htm