July in New York: Peacebuilding as an Art and Practice
June 28th, 2006
From Sally Mahé, Director of Organizational Development for the URI:
Dear friends,
Eliyahu McLean, with the Abrahamic Reunion CC, is helping to lead a Peacebuilding Workshop in Accord, New York this July.
Please review the information below about this offering and please pass along to others who might be interested.
Eliyahu is a remarkable young adult leader and teacher.
Best wishes,
Sally
Attention: community and religious leaders, educators, activists & artists:
PEACEBUILDING AS AN ART AND A PRACTICE
a workshop to inspire and prepare future Jewish peacebuilders
When: July 24-30, 2006
Where: at Elat Chayyim, the Jewish retreat center in Accord, NY
Course description:
You will be briefed and trained by a diverse team of experts coming together from Israel, New York, California, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut for a six-day intensive training in peacebuilding.
You will learn effective, constructive tools to use in your community to respond to the tensions around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle-East.
You will learn specific techniques and models to organize and facilitate dialogue, including:
- how to create inspiring bridge-building events with Muslim and Christian communities
- how to integrate the arts–music, film, theater, dance and visual arts-in interfaith community activities, to reach the widest possible audience
- how to present sources from the Jewish tradition that support a universal, peace point of view and how to grapple with problematic texts about the ‘other.’
This is an introductory course in what will become an ongoing series. Those completing the full series will become eligible to be ordained as a Rodef Shalom (”pursuer of peace”), a title and professional designation to empower individuals engaged in peace/interfaith work. This title is inspired from the ancient Jewish tradition of seeking and pursuing peace.
Our intention is to create a vibrant community of Rodfei Shalom-peacebuilders and, though the course is geared towards the Jewish community, it is open to anybody.
We invite you to participate in the birth of this unique undertaking, to take up the challenge of becoming a Rodef Shalom, and to fulfill the mitzvah of the holy pursuit of peace.
Co-teachers will be Eliyahu McLean and Ruth Broyde-Sharone.
Eliyahu McLean was ordained as the first Rodef Shalom by Reb Zalman-Shachter Shalomi. Eliyahu is the director of the Jerusalem Peacemakers- a network of religious peacebuilders working towards reconciliation in the Holy Land. He is also the coordinator of the Abrahamic Reunion and the inter-faith advisor to the Sulha Peace Project.
Ruth Broyde-Sharone is a public speaker and documentary filmmaker. She lives and teaches the “art of interfaith” and is a leader in dialogue with the U.S. Muslim community. Co-founder of the Festival of Freedom, a world interfaith movement for friendship and peace, Ruth produced and directed “G-d and Allah Need to Talk,” a highly acclaimed documentary which she made following the traumatic events of 9/11, to promote healing and reconciliation.
Guest instructors:
Rabbi Mayer Schiller, is an ultra-Orthodox rabbi, author, lecturer and expert in Jewish sources for tolerance. He is a guidance counselor and assistant principal in major Orthodox yeshivas in the New York area.
Yehezkel Landau is a Faculty Associate in Interfaith Relations at Hartford Seminary. He co-founded OPEN HOUSE, the Center for Jewish-Arab Coexistence in Ramle, Israel.
Sheikh Fara Gaye is a Senegalese Sufi leader in projects for Muslim-Jewish dialogue in the US. Fara teaches about Islam and peace at the ‘On the Way to Sulha’ gatherings, held annually in the Holy Land.
Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener is the spiritual leader of Congregation P’nai Or in Central Connecticut. She is also a trainer in the Compassionate Listening technique.
Cost: $450 plus room and board. Various discounts and financial aid are available. Space is limited, so please register ASAP.
To register for this course, contact Vicki at Elat Chayyim (800) 398-2630 or visit: http://jewishretreatcenter.org
For more info contact:
Eliyahu: eliyahu@actcom.co.il
Ruth: rabsharone@aol.com