Two leaders of Interfaith Encounter Association, Yehuda Stolov and Salah Alladin, won this year’s Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East. The $10,000 prize is awarded each year by the the Institute of International Education (IIE) to one jewish and one Arab in recognition of their work toward coexistence.
The Jerusalem-based Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA) is dedicated to promoting peace in the Middle East through grass roots interfaith dialogue and cross-cultural study. The apolitical and all-inclusive approach of the organization and its activities enable them to successfully recruit a wide range of participants and thus to continuously build a -grassroots movement which constitutes the human infrastructure for peace in the Holy Land.
“We realized building peace in the holy land has to be first a grassroots process, because we live side by side and have no option of having no interaction,” says Stolov. “As long as we don’t learn how to interact positively, we interact negatively. When the process is advanced enough, it will be possible to think about political models. Right now all are equally unrealistic but they’ll be equally realistic if we succeed.”
Alladin said that, “when others see that Arabs are real people, it builds a stronger connection. A 1,000 mile journey starts with one step in the right direction. I can’t put a finger on when and why it happened, but I’ve begun to see changes in the way Palestinians have been describing Jews.”
In its thirteen years of existence, the IEA has held more than 1,900 programs. Since its first group in 2001, the IEA has expanded to include 71 ongoing interfaith community groups from the Upper Galilee to Eilat. In 2014, more than 4,000 men and women of all ages took part in IEA projects such as Women’s Interfaith Encounters, Youth Interfaith Encounters, The Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue, and The Middle East Abrahamic Forum. Altogether, they have touched more than 10,000 people. “Five or six research studies all concluded that these conversations are effective in changing the attitudes of participants, most of whom have never had other experiences like this”, said Stolov. Some IEA groups are open to everyone, while others are specifically for young adults or women, for educators, religious leaders, midwives, or college students.
Thomas Genton, the US embassy’s counselor for press and cultural affairs, shared his impression on the important work of IEA: We have watched the IEA grow from a few small groups into a forum for change. Their work represents the profound importance of individuals coming together to overcome differences.”
In his speech at the award ceremony, Goldberg said that the grassroots work of IEA contributes directly to peace, “because real peace is more than a political deal. It is also a state of mind in which one must work to transcend the injustices of the past and the personal realities of the present. To understand the basic humanity which we all share. It is a multi-generational effort, and it will require courage, effort and time to manifest itself in people’s hearts. And it must start and end with getting to know each other as human beings.”
Read more in Jerusalem Post
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