Training 80 Youth Encounter Leaders

Bar Ilan University's Interfaith Encounter group operates as a course that grants credit points to its participants. Upon completion of the course, the students are invited to continue meeting as part of a follow-up group.

The group met to conclude the semester and the entire course and held a round where the students shared their impressions of the course. Here are several points that came up in the conversation:

- This is an extraordinary opportunity to get to know others and myself.

- Never before have I had the opportunity to have a real conversation with a Muslim/Jew/Christian.

- The need to explain my religion and culture to others made me delve deeper into them.

- In political science, the conflict is always emphasized and here was a special opportunity to get to know a more complex picture.

- It is very difficult to talk about the conflict immediately when you meet for the first time. I liked the approach here that starts with building good communication.

- In secular approaches, religion is often thought to be the source of problems and is ignored. But then the depth of everyone's identity is not touched.

- I'm not religious and I was afraid of the process but I really enjoyed it, precisely because we didn't learn in a scholarly way but through personal conversation.

- The mutual respect allowed for a relaxed conversation, without the need to defend my religion and culture.

The encounter, and the course, ended with a shared Iftar and registration for the follow-up group.

Links:

• IEA website
• Activity and annual reports
• Get involved

"This little piece of land, even with all the wars and conflicts, connects so many people from all over the world. And I feel so lucky to live here and to be able to meet all of these people" -- Hadar, 14, Nes Ziona.

When school was suspended, we began online programming to provide support for both teachers and students.  The initial idea was to provide a virtual space for students to come together, talk and listen, with the help of empathetic and supportive guests from abroad. Since the Tuesday after October 7th, I have been able to hold at least one zoom encounter a day (including before and after shabbat). Participants in the zooms have included Arab and Jewish students from all over Israel, ages 14-20, as well as several teachers. Our guests have come from over a dozen countries. At these encounters students were able to share their experiences and emotions – their fears, anger, frustration, hopes, aspirations, concerns for loved ones, and above all, a lot of love to combat the hate.

In addition, we set up weekly activity groups: art therapy; a reflective writing course, and mindfulness/yoga sessions. These sessions include both Arab and Jewish students. We also held guest lectures from Professor Dan Ariely (Duke University); Professor Emma Sky (Yale) and Professor Tomer Ullman (Harvard). These are 1 hour zoom talks with plenty of time for Q&A, to offer students a welcome intellectual diversion from war, and an opportunity to engage and learn.

Finally, I am sharing resources with hundreds of educators around Israel and others in need. This includes mental health support for a 24 hour hotline in English, as well as all kinds of resources for English teachers (from lesson plans to virtual guests in the classroom).

We have touched on many important and powerful topics, all while in the thick of this war (leaving the session for a few minutes to enter a bomb shelter because there are rocket warnings is sadly common).  Much thanks to the many people who volunteered to zoom with our students and all who helped. 

Links:

• IEA website
• Activity & annual reports
• Get invovled