"The German non-profit organisation "Tor zur Welt...e.V." has been a
partner in our project from the beginning. For many years a groups of
young people around Rev. Ilse Wellershoff-Schuur from the Christian
Community in Überlingen, has been visiting Kibbutz Harduf and Sha'ar laAdam-Bab
l'ilInsan every
summer to do community work, meet young people from various Galilean
cultures, study and travel in the Galilee. The organisation was founded
in 1998 after the second youth camp and is trying to raise consciousness
- as well as financial resources - for the importance of intercultural
meeting in general and Sha'ar LaAdam-Bab l'ilInsan specifically in Germany. Among the
activities of the group are the annual summer camps in Israel and
Germany as well as the establishment of a guest-house in a Bedouin
village in our neighbourhood, a trilingual theatre-project and local
projects in Germany dealing with the history of the holocaust.
More information is available on the "Tor zur Welt...e.V." website:
http://torzurwelt-ev.de
Friends of Sha'ar laAdam - Bab l'ilInsan
constitute a group of Jewish, Christian and
Arab residents of Ann Arbor, Michigan that aimed to support the peace
and coexistence efforts of Bab l'ilInsan - Sha'ar laAdam, during the passed
four years. The group was sponsored by the Social Action Committee of
Temple Beth Emeth and eventually attracted a wider circle of friends.
Sha'ar laAdam-Bab l'ilInsan’s determination to bridge the two cultures and to bring
together Jewish and Arab youths and families, creating opportunities for
interaction and sharing which normally do not exist, served as an
inspiration to the Friends of Sha'ar laAdam - Bab l'ilInsan
. Grassroots bridging
activities such as these are an essential prerequisite for attaining a
peaceful society.
The Friends of Sha'ar laAdam - Bab l'ilInsan
came together to work on a number of
fund-raising initiatives including the sale of peace buttons with the
words “Shalom” and “Salaam”, an Interfaith Dessert Seder, and an
Interfaith Path to Peace Celebration. Generous contributions made by
many donors have helped to build tents and tipies, a kitchen and storage
facility, a path to the Shaar La’Adam site, the middle center with the
dome, and the amphitheater stage.
It is hoped that the connection between Ann Arbor and Sha'ar la’Adam - Bab
l'ilInsan will continue to grow as we collaborate in peace building
endeavors.
In the summer of 2002, a small group of Arab and Jewish women in Ann
Arbor, Michigan decided to get to know each other better. We shared a
longing to end the heartache and increasing polarization of our peoples,
both locally and globally. We named our group Zeitouna, Arabic for olive
tree.
Meeting regularly in each other's homes on alternate weeks, six Jewish
and six Arab women share food, narratives, and intimacy, and above all
we practice dialogue. We seek to deepen our experience of how personal
transformation can impact sociopolitical transformation.
For too many years our peoples have been divided. The hostility has
benefited no one. We, in Zeitouna, know there is a better way, and we
need our community to help us bring this about.
www.zeitouna.org