Dear JPB Family and Friends,
 
As we awaken from the long night of COVID, holiday music once again fills us with comforting memories of past joys and undying beliefs. Christmas carols, Hanukkah hymns, and secular songs provide a welcome antidote to the hardships of this past year. Dorothy and I are happy to assure you that Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Tel Aviv are abuzz with the same vibrant music!
 
Our young JPB leaders there are singing of Hanukkah’s miracle and Christmas’ messiah in English, Arabic, Hebrew, and Armenian. Despite widespread divisions in Israel and the West Bank, their voices harmonize as one. In them, the revered truths of equality, compassion, and life’s sanctity are sung being anew.
 
Our essential goal at Jerusalem Peacebuilders (JPB) remains harmonizing the truths of our Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Druze participants into a living hymn that heals wounds and equips leaders for inclusive, democratic change. Thanks to your generosity, JPB worked directly with over 2,000+ teens and adults during 2021. Undaunted by COVID restrictions, we successfully operated four intensive, in-person, peacebuilding institutes for Israelis and Palestinians in August.
Sing "Maoz Tzur" with our
Jewish friends!
Sing "Silent Night" with our
Christian friends!
Now, with your continuing help, we are composing our repertoire for 2022. To empower highly-motivated educators, women, and youth in the U.S. and the Holy Lands, JPB’s high notes will be:

  • Leveraging our EXCEL teacher-training institute for Arab and Jewish educators in Israel to expand the use of our curriculum in public school classrooms. This strategic shift will geometrically scale up our impact in Israeli schools and effectively promote systemic change. We hope to train local peacebuilders for the long haul – thereby avoiding the need to hire additional staff.

  • Launching an interfaith Leadership and Business Empowerment Program for Palestinian women in the West Bank. The initiative will prepare young, university-educated women to claim new space in governance and the economy. Improving women’s lives inevitably improves local communities.

  • Strengthening JPB programs for Israeli, Palestinian, and American youth. One hundred of the most responsive students will be recruited into intensive, summer institutes in New England and Texas.
 
This is JPB’s song sheet for a living hymn that heals wounds and equips leaders for inclusive democratic change. Yet its orchestration requires funding! That's why we are reaching out to committed friends like you who recognize the vital importance of building lasting peace in the Holy Lands.
During this holy season, won’t you help JPB educators, women, and youth turn up the volume of their song for all to hear by making a contribution? Together, may our voices reach the heavens! No gift is too large or too small.

Thank you and God bless you.



(The Rev. Canon) Nicholas and Dorothy Porter
Founding Directors, Jerusalem Peacebuilders

Please make your donation payable to Jerusalem Peacebuilders at 6221 Main Street, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Safe online giving is possible at www.jerusalempeacebuilders.org. To donate securities, please contact bonnie@rb-accounting.com. JPB is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and all donations are tax deductible (EIN 45-2233148).