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"I'm here because I believe in peace, and I believe peace is possible between Jews and Muslims and also Americans..."
"We are learning about leadership skills and how to use them back home. We are also learning public speaking because a leader has to be a good public speaker too. Two years ago I wouldn't have had the guts to stand up in front of even ten people."
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Ghenwa Abu Ahmad of Nazareth, Israel
Participant in the
Jerusalem Peacebuilders
Leadership Camp in Vermont, and a 2019 graduate of Christ Episcopal School in Nazareth
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Nineteen ways to be inspired in Vermont
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Each summer Jerusalem Peacebuilders Leadership Camp invites young adults from Israel - Jews, Muslims, and Christians - as well as young Jewish people from the U.S. to engage in two weeks of challenging conversations, relationship-building, and lots of fun.
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I
n mid-July AFEDJ Trustee the Rev. Canon Nicholas Porter invited Executive Director John Lent and Communications Director Heidi Shott to Acer Farm in West Brattleboro, Vermont, to meet 19 young people chosen to participate in the 2019
Jerusalem Peacebuilders
summer leadership camp.
Porter, the co-founder and executive director of JPB, explained how these students came to the program, “This is their climactic time with us. Some of them have already participated in programs over three years to get here, either in a summer program or in a school program in their hometown. We’re preparing them to return home to be agents of change in appropriate ways.”
AFEDJ staff conducted video interviews with six students and were wowed by how poised, articulate, and thoughtful they were about the turmoil in their country and the difficult relations between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel. Despite the isolation they feel at home from other young people of different religions, each student expressed hope for the future and gratitude for the opportunity to build lasting friendships through JPB.
Sarah Benazera, a JPB instructor from Tel Aviv, told us, “They don’t know where the road will end, but they know they won’t walk it alone.”
Look for the interviews to be shared online in the coming weeks.
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Stay-tuned for new opportunity to walk with a child at HLID
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We need your help to sustain the work that changes the lives of deaf and deaf-blind students at the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf in Jordan.
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In early October you, as individuals and churches, will be invited on a journey to become a companion to a student at the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf in Salt, Jordan. Your support will ensure that this child, who you will get to know and love, will have a place at HLID and be nurtured, educated and supported to lead a productive life.
We are excited to share the opportunity to engage more deeply with the people whose lives are changed by the work of the Diocese of Jerusalem ministries. As AFEDJ Trustee Bishop Barry Beisner puts it, “This is our ministry. We’re not onlookers and cheerleaders. It’s our ministry, too, because we are all one in Christ.”
More to come!
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Learn about the urgent need for ministries of peace and reconciliation in the Holy Land with Archbishop Suheil Dawani
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Thursday, October 3, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Seabury Auditorium at The General Theological Seminary
440 West 21st Street, New York, NY
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On Thursday, October 3, the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem will host a reception at General Theological Seminary in New York to honor the Most Rev. Suheil S. Dawani, Archbishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East and Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.
All are invited to gather from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Seabury Auditorium to learn about the transformative ministry of the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf in Salt, Jordan. Archbishop Dawani will also speak about the urgent need for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East and the other humanitarian ministries of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem in Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Refreshments and hearty hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Prior to the reception, all are welcome to attend a special
Jerusalem
Evensong at 5:30 p.m. in General Seminary’s Chapel of the Good Shepherd.
Please RSVP to Betsy Wilson at
bwilson@afedj.org
or 203-655-3575 by September 25, 2019.
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Mainers learn about the power of pilgrimage
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AFEFJ Trustee Endicott Peabody, a summer resident of Maine, spoke movingly about his first pilgrimage:
“What I didn’t expect as we traveled to the holy sites was how powerfully I would be affected by the plight of the people living there today.”
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On August 1, Maine Episcopalians from across the state gathered at St. Paul’s Church in Brunswick to learn about pilgrimage and the ministries of the Diocese of Jerusalem.
Speakers included Maine’s new bishop, the Rt. Rev. Thomas Brown, who led several pilgrimages prior to his election, the Rev. Tom Mousin, who will co-lead a
pilgrimage
in January 2020, Cotty Peabody, and AFEDJ Communications Director Heidi Shott.
Describing conditions in Gaza, Shott made a comparison that illustrated the incredible population density of the Gaza Strip in a way that made a few of those gathered gasp. “Imagine 2.1 million people - almost twice the population of our state - living in the 25-mile stretch between Brunswick and Portland and with a width of just three to four miles from the sea to the border. That’s what it’s like in Gaza, but they can’t cross the border and they can’t go out to sea.”
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Purchase handmade goods to help Palestinian women earn stable, fair wages
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Visit the two new fair trade social enterprise ventures featured in the resources section at
www.afedj.org/resources
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Darzah
is a not-for-profit social enterprise working to empower refugee and low-income women on the West Bank by providing stable, living wages and positive working conditions. The shoes, bags, and home items are created by artisans who work in the traditional Palestinian Tatreez embroidery, an art form passed down from mother to daughter.
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Zeki Learning
is a part of a non-profit social enterprise called Child’s Cup Full, based in the United States and the West Bank. Its mission is to create high quality learning materials for preschool age children that support cognitive development and language learning. Its artisan center in the West Bank trains and employs refugee and low-income mothers to make beautifully hand-crafted educational products, available to preschools in the U.S. Learn more at
www.zekilearning.org
.
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Transforming lives of the vulnerable and displaced
in the Middle East through support of schools, hospitals,
and centers for children with disabilities
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AFEDJ offers a safe, secure channel to make gifts to support the work of the humanitarian institutions of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.
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American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem | 203-655-3575
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www.afedj.org
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