We will probably remember 2023 as one of the most difficult years in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Besides the great humanitarian cost, the war posed new challenges for inter-communal relations building. Yet, after the outbreak of the war some of our groups, of the Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA), chose to boost their activities, meeting more frequently or planning activities of mutual support in addition to their regular dialogue encounters. IEA coordinators and staff worked around the clock to conduct joint and on occasion one-on-one conversations, helping participants talk through difficult feelings, while focusing on maintaining hope. To date, 25 groups have already met, some more than once, and IEA was even able to launch a new group on October 26. Five additional groups are now working to schedule their encounters.
Here, IEA’s methodology proved most valuable: not directly addressing political topics, but instead providing spiritual and existential topics people could use to translate their personal experiences to others. This made it possible for the vast majority of our groups to continue meeting and having sincere conversations, instead of stopping their activities or “exploding” into anger and chaos. It was also evident that most of the groups who had been meeting for a while had developed strong bonds that allowed them to discuss the situation with the “other” in the context of the relationship they had built with one another, instead of as strangers.
It is especially meaningful to highlight the work of groups that include marginalized communities, focusing on women’s groups that include Bedouin women.The Women’s Interfaith Encounter group in the Arad area in the Negev, for example, was one of the groups that responded to the October 7th events by increasing the frequency of their encounters. They supported each other emotionally, and after learning about the lack of basic necessities among the Bedouin women of the group, the Jewish women engaged in helping them access what they needed.
Towards the end of 2023, the Women’s Interfaith Encounter group in the Yeruham area, also in the Negev, which had been inactive since the coronavirus pandemic, renewed its activity and decided to meet regularly every four to six weeks. Together they put the needed mechanisms in place to overcome language and cultural barriers. For example, in the more traditional Bedouin culture, women cannot just go and join an encounter. At the same time, they are able to invite friends for dinner. Therefore, all the group’s encounters are labeled as dinners and include a meal as a part of their programming.
Another example is the Women’s Interfaith Encounter group in the northern Jordan Valley, who began meeting in 2022. After the war started and the security situation deteriorated, the group decided to continue meeting online. They met on October 25th to reassure each other and share their feelings. They talked about hope and how it helps them cope with the current crisis, and discussed their desire to continue working together despite these difficulties. They met again in January and are now planning their next encounter.
It is important to stress again that in all these encounters, as well as in the encounters of all IEA groups, we do not talk about the politics of the conflict or debate how to solve it. We do not believe we were appointed to provide the political formula, but we are very much responsible for building and sustaining bridges between our communities. We tackle the conflict by transcending it, and we focus on conversations that teach us to know each other deeper, appreciate each other’s culture, develop care for each other, and build relations that are based on good neighborhood. This approach results in outreach that goes beyond the “usual suspects” and engages people from all parts of the political spectrum in the active building of intercommunal bridges.
We will continue to face the consequences of the war within our groups but we are positive that now, more than ever, our work is essential for building cross-community trust, which is the only possible way to envision a “day after” that will bring peace for all communities in the Holy Land.
Yehuda Stolov
Yehuda Stolov is the executive director of the Interfaith Encounter Association (www.interfaith-encounter.org), an organization that works since 2001 to build peaceful inter-communal relations in the Holy Land by fostering mutual respect and trust between people and communities through active interfaith dialogue.
Dr. Stolov has lectured on the role of religious dialogue in peace-building throughout the world, including Jordan, India, Indonesia, Turkey, South Korea, North America and Europe. He also published many papers on related issues.
In 2006, he was awarded the Immortal Chaplains Foundation's Prize for Humanity, which honors those who "risked all to protect others of a different faith or ethnic origin"; and in 2015 he was awarded the IIE Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East.
Among other activities, Dr. Stolov was a member of the International Council of the International Association for Religious Freedom and a member of the steering committee for the United Nations Decade of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace.
He holds a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Physics and a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is married and father of three children, living in Jerusalem.
