Seeds of Peace

JERUSALEM | "Now, more than ever, I believe that it is important to dialogue with the other side," said one of the Israeli and Palestinian teenagers who participated in an overnight seminar on February 5-6.The binational event took place outside Jerusalem, at Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, the only intentional Arab-Jewish community in Israel.

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.

NEW YORK | Inspired by Seeds of Peace's proposal, the Advisory Board of the Chase Community Giving Challenge has awarded Seeds of Peace one of six additional $100,000 grants.

MUMBAI | In early January, eleven Pakistani Seeds and one adult educator traveled to Mumbai, India, to participate in the 2010 Indo-Pak Homestays program. The Pakistanis were hosted by the families of their Indian Seed friends for a week of speakers, workshops, and event planning.

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.

To launch its first series of events, Seeds of Peace UK, headed by Michelle Mercer and her active steering committee, invited two graduate Seeds and Seeds of Peace new Executive Director Leslie Lewin for a weekend packed full of events to promote the mission of Seeds of Peace in London.

JERUSALEM | Three Israeli-Palestinian groups began a series of intense dialogue sessions this week. Two of the groups are gathering in Jerusalem, while the other will meet in Haifa. Each group consists of about 16 younger Israeli and Palestinian Seeds.

When Vaibhav Tulsyan (16) visited Lahore as part of the Seeds of Peace (SOP) programme last year, he rid himself of all his prejudices against Pakistanis. But like many other Seeds before him, he discovered that Pakistani history textbooks do not match Indian ones, even when they talk about the same event.