NewGround Co-Directors 'Wrestle with the Elephant' at National Conference
October 27, 2009
Yesterday, my colleague, Malka Fenyvesi, and I led a workshop at the Inter-Faith Youth Corps Conference in Chicago, entitled “Wrestling with the Elephant: Crafting Constructive Conversations about the Israeli Palestinian Conflict.” We shared our experience in working with Muslims and Jews in Los Angeles to wrestling with one of the most contentious issues of our time -- the Israeli Palestinian conflict. It offered innovative ways to wrestle with the Elephant in the spirit of building authentic relationships and sparking transformational dialogue.
Through our work, research and practice with NewGround Fellows that properly approached, facilitated and framed dialogue about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be a transformational process. By addressing issues of language, personal relationships, identity, and by utilizing a variety of dialogue models. We hope that discovering and sharing our experience and models can help others learn to transform these often intractable conflicts on their campuses and communities.
Among many accomplished individuals, other conference speakers included Joshua Dubois, Director of the White House Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnership; Farah Pandith, U.S. Department of State; Reverent Jim Wallis, Sojourners Magazine; Ruth Turner, Tony Blair Faith Foundation; Adria Goodson, Hunt Alternatives Fund; Keith Ellison, US House of Representatives.
Just last week, Inter-Faith Youth Core's Executive Director Eboo Patel was recently named one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report.
-- Aziza Hasan (aziza@mpac.org) Co-Director of NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change
