Seeds of Peace

PORTLAND | JP Morgan Chase's Facebook Community Challenge recently awarded $125,000 to Seeds of Peace, which runs a camp for teenagers from global conflict regions in Otisfield. Seeds of Peace competed against hundreds of thousands of other nonprofit organizations seeking Facebook user votes. It was the only Maine nonprofit to advance to the final round of the challenge and competed with 99 other organizations. The challenge's advisory board consisted of Eva Longoria, the Emmy-nominated actress, and David Robinson, NBA Hall of Famer.

Two Seeds—an Israel and a Palestinian—sat down with the BBC World Service's Ritula Shah in London. To listen to the interview (which starts at the 16:50 mark), click here. 

Last year, when MJ Rosenberg '72 attended a conference for the pro-peace, pro-Israel lobby group J Street in Washington, he expected to mingle among upper-middle-class politicians and peacemakers from the United States and diplomatic officials from the Middle East. Instead, Rosenberg spent time with someone who was neither an American nor a diplomatic official.

This past summer I had the opportunity to attend Seeds of Peace International Camp, a camp in Maine promoting reconciliation and coexistence among teenagers from the Middle East and South Asia, creating a sense of hope for peace in the future. I, along with 21 other teenagers, was a member of the organization’s American Delegation.