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Next goal for Seeds of Peace: Putting campers to work
Christian Science Monitor

Mar 10, 2015 / 3 Comments

Seeds of Peace, a US-based organization with over two decades of experience in the Middle East, is expanding to include a wider spectrum of actors.

DEAD SEA, JORDAN | This may not seem like a propitious time for peace in the Middle East.

But Seeds of Peace, which has become one of the region’s most recognized peace-building initiatives since hosting its first summer camp for Israeli and Palestinian teens in 1993, is seeking to expand its reach.

While the organization has yet to witness the spread of peaceful relations and treaties across the Middle East, it sees the maturing graduates of its camp program – more than 5,000 individuals – as an important resource to be tapped as it refines its goals. More than half of these graduates are moving into leadership roles in their respective fields.

The organization now hopes to empower them to transform a wide variety of sectors in conflict areas – from women’s rights to technological innovation. Such progress, say Seeds of Peace officials, is a crucial prerequisite to any comprehensive, sustainable peace.

“It’s not about signing a piece of paper,” says Eva Armour, head of programming for the New York-based organization. “The question is, do we have leaders who are working to advance political, economic, and social change in ways that contribute to peace-building? What’s brilliant is there’s actually lots of them.”

Attendees at a first-of-its-kind conference in Jordan last month, dubbed GATHER, ranged from Afghan deputy parliamentary speaker Fawzia Koofi to Palestinian computer engineer Hani El-Ser to Israeli activist Lior Finkel-Perl. The primary sponsors were two US-based foundations, Pershing Square and Ashoka.

The event launched a new stage in the work of Seeds of Peace, bringing together for the first time adult alumni from both the Israeli-Arab conflict and from India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. In addition, it reached out to like-minded folks working for social change; 48 percent of GATHER participants had no prior connection to the organization.

“We were more like a club before,” says Daniel Noah Moses, director of Seeds of Peace educator programs in the Middle East, South Asia, and the US. “The organization sees that … if we really want to make the change we say we want to make, we have to widen our reach.”

Cynicism after second intifada

The inaugural Seeds of Peace summer camp took place in the state of Maine in 1993. Participants were invited to the White House to witness the signing of the Oslo peace accords that September between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Seeds of Peace rode that momentum of hope for years. But like myriad other peace-building initiatives that sprung up post-Oslo, they faced a backlash of cynicism when the second intifada broke out in 2000.

One of the first victims of the intifada was 17-year-old Asel Asleh, an Arab citizen of Israel and one of the organization’s most enthusiastic alumni, who was killed by an Israeli policeman on the sidelines of a protest. He died wearing his Seeds of Peace t-shirt.

“Some people say, ‘Look at all he was trying to do, and he was still killed, so this is worthless,’ ” says Ned Lazarus, Middle East program director from 1996-2004. “Others look at what he said and did, what he stood for in his life. He wrote some amazing things for 16-17 years old.”

Among them was a letter in which Asel intoned a Persian poet’s words: “Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”

This past fall, one of Asel’s Jewish Israeli bunkmates, Tomer Perry, brought his wife – pregnant with their first child – to see camp for the first time. Under the brilliant red foliage, they found the cabin where Asel’s name was still inscribed over his bed. They chose it as the middle name for their son, who was born last month.

“Seeds of Peace has had a profound influence on my life in a variety of ways, and Asel was part of it,” says Mr. Perry, a PhD candidate in political science at Stanford.

To be sure, for many Seeds the initial enthusiasm of camp fades as they go back to work or their studies. But a University of Chicago study published in the fall found that Seeds who made just one lasting friend at camp retained a more positive view of the “other.”

Arguing with your society

Dr. Lazarus, who researched the long-term impact of Seeds of Peace for his PhD, found that more than 140 graduates – or about 1 in 5 – were working in various peace-building initiatives as adults, eight to 10 years after their summers at camp and despite living through the intifada, which killed more than 4,300 Israelis and Palestinians.

“Do you want to call that success or not? It’s up to you,” he says. “To take on this identity of someone working for peace is to decide to have arguments with your society every day of your life. It takes tremendous energy and commitment.”

Indeed, such individuals are in a minority. In Israel, for example, support for a two-state solution hit a record low this fall after the Gaza war, and leftists and peace activists have been marginalized – but not deterred.

“It’s not that I’m naïve.… I encounter the challenges and the risks of working together every day,” says Ms. Finkel-Perl, executive director at the Peace NGO Forum, who attended the Seeds camp in 1996 shortly after Prime Minister Rabin’s assassination by a right-wing Israeli.

Like the politician she hopes to become, she answers cynics of peace-building with a question of her own. “What is the alternative?”

Read Christa Case Bryant’s article at The Christian Science Monitor ››

Summer Camp Cuts Away the Barbed Wire
USA Today

Aug 4, 1998 / No Comments

BY LEE MICHAEL KATZ | OTISFIELD, MAINE Teams of teenagers in blue and green T-shirts have been battling each other for days in everything from basketball to canoeing.

Color wars are an American Camp tradition, but you’ll never hear that term used here. At the Seeds of Peace International Camp, the staff makes a point of calling the fierce intercamp battles between teams “color games.”

That’s because the kids here are unlike others in the many camps that dot the Maine woods. They are the children of war: Arabs, Israelis and teens from a divided Cyprus. The prospect of bloodshed is part of their life.

But 5,000 miles from home, these campers are living the peaceful existence their parents can only dream about.

“Adults haven’t felt what it is like to live in peace, and that is what we’re doing here,” says Noa Epstein, a 15-year-old Israeli.

Teenagers whose leaders can’t make peace stroll hand in hand between towering Maine pine trees. Checkpoints divide many of them at home, yet, here, Arab, Israeli, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot youths sleep in the same cabins, eat at the same tables and play on the same fields.

“We basically put a face on the enemy,” says Linda Carole Pierce, director of the camp’s facilitation program.

The camp is part of a private program launched in 1993 by former journalist John Wallach to bring together children from troubled lands. Wallach says he was tired of “being a fly on the wall of history” and wanted to “inspire hope.”

Private donations cover the $2,000 cost per camper. The camp is located 45 minutes from Portland. The campers all speak English. Counselors and a handful of campers come from the United States. Applicants must write an essay on “Why I want to make peace with the enemy.”

The hope is that by living together, the youths can overcome stereotypes and form friendships that were once impossible. That has happened with Noa Epstein and Palestinian Bushra Jawabri, who have become inseparable girlfriends. Bushra lives in a refugee camp, and Noa is from a comfortable Israeli family.

The girls met in camp last year. At first, their views of each other were shaped by the bloodshed that affects their people.

“I used to think that the Israelis were just soldiers with guns and weapons,” Bushra says. “Their purpose was to kill Palestinians. I used to hate them because of that reason.”

For Noa, “All I knew about Palestinians is that the are terrorists coming to bomb our buses and kill our soldiers. I could never really picture a Palestinian friend.”

Now, the Israeli and Palestinian teens walk around camp with their arms around each other. When one of the girls has to set the table in the dining hall, the other comes along to help.

“I love her, and nothing will change her friendship,” Noa says.

Back in the Mideast, they have visited each other’s homes, shared religious celebrations and taught each other Arabic and Hebrew. Bushra never thought she could be “so close” to an Israeli.

Color Games

The purpose of Seeds of Peace is to bring the teens together, but for three days they are intentionally divided. For the color games competition, the camp splits into teams of youths with green and blue T-shirts.

“It’s a way to forget about nationality for a few days. Here you have a new nationality: green or blue,” says Yaron Avni, a 15-year-old Israeli boy.

Hand-painted signs hang from trees. “Go Green, the Mean Fighting Machine.” Another proclaims, “Go Big Blue, the Lake Awaits.” That is a reference to the prize for winning the color games: first rights to swim in the camp’s Pleasant Lake.

When they are announced as the winner, the blue team erupts. For a full two minutes, Arab and Israeli, Greek and Turkish Cypriot kids pound and hug each other. The blue team goes into the water fully clothed. A few minutes later the Green team joins them. Splash fights break out. They soon give way to hugs.

In a white shack on the edge of the camp is the computer lab. Seeds of Peace wants every camper to have an e-mail account before going home. That’s because no government or soldier can stop the kids from meeting in cyberspace.

“If you’re using e-mail, you dont have to worry about checkpoints,” says Aaron Naparstek, a former Microsoft employee who runs the lab.

What makes the Seeds of Peace camp different from other summer camps is the almost daily “Coexistence” session. Campers from feuding areas talk about how to make peace.

In Bunk 12, Palestinian, Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian teens sit in a circle and talk about what they have accomplished. Negotiators back home have not even begun to address the future of the Palestinian state and the fate of Israeli settlements. Yet these campers have already resolved thorny issues.

But when the fate of Jerusalem comes up, the unanimity fades. The city is under Israeli rule, but Palestinians also claim Jerusalem as their capital. It is an emotional issue, even at Seeds of Peace.

“Don’t say both sides want it,” says Omer Kurland, a 17-year old Israeli boy. “We already got it. They want it.”

“In my opinion, it’s mine,” responds Abdassalam Khayatt, 17, an equally passionate Palestinian. “You don’t have control of me.”

Omer jokingly asks Abdassalam if “you want to get it on outside?”

But he also makes a serious point about violence. “We can have what our parents didn’t. We need to argue with our minds.”

Wallach says the campers “learn to disagree without resorting to force.”

Just Being Kids

Despite the clear mission of Seeds of Peace, the campers also enjoy just being kids. They play ping pong while listening to salsa music. Like all teenagers, the campers can be downright silly. They spontaneously march around the dining room, singing “Yum, Yum, Yum.” The kids put shaving cream on one another’s pillows.

One evening, the campers were treated to a dance with a local oldies band. It is like any teen dance in the USA. Inside a cavernous gym, the campers dance in groups, alone and together. An Israeli boy and a Palestinian girl do the jitterbug.

Dancing particularly close are a couple of 16-year-olds from different sides of a divided Cyprus. Alp Eminsel, a Turkish Cypriot boy with glasses, clutches Andri Constantinou, a Greek Cypriot girl with braces and a shy smile. They dance to the balladWonderful Tonight.

On Cyprus, they are separated by barbed wire. But “we can meet each other in the USA,” Andri says. Back home, “they won’t let us live in peace.”

The next day, she autographs his T-shirt, “From Juliet to Romeo … Your Andri.”

Still campers say they are beginning to change the mindset of hatred in the Middle East through their experiences in Maine.

Omar Abaza, 14, of Egypt, notes if “someone at home says, Those damn Jews, theyre bad, theyre the enemy, I fight back. I tell them, no, its not like that.”

Seeds of Peace graduates sent a letter to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this spring.

“We are writing this letter as people who have experienced peace temporarily,” the campers declared. “We enjoyed the taste but we want the whole pie.”

Program’s focus expands to many areas of conflict
Congressional Quarterly

Jun 11, 2003 / No Comments

BY JOHNATHAN RIEHL | The Seeds of Peace youth leadership program first rose to prominence in 1993 because of its success in working with Israeli and Palestinian teenagers. But with the success of its camp in Otisfield, Maine, and its strong support in Congress, Seeds of Peace also has broadened its focus to others areas of conflict around the globe.

Reflecting this expanded mandate, language in the committee report on the fiscal 2003 House Appropriations foreign operations spending bill praises Seeds of Peace not only for its work with Middle Eastern teens, but also for its efforts with youngsters from rival communities in Cyprus and the Balkans. The program also now includes teenagers from Afghanistan.

Seeds of Peace President Aaron D. Miller notes the Afghan program is focused on conflicts within that country, setting it apart from “the traditional Seeds of Peace model,” which deals more with issues of coexistence and mutual understanding between children from clashing nations and cultures. As an example he points to the program for teenagers from India and Pakistan—whose governments and people have clashed fiercely over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

“India and Pakistan came about in large part because of State Department interest in Seeds of Peace,” said Miller, a former diplomat and peace negotiator. “They saw it work in the Arab-Israeli issue.”

The program also has hosted teens from Cyprus, home to an enduring conflict between its Greek and Turkish communities.

Miller said the program’s reach may also soon extend to include young Iraqis—and, possibly, young Americans. He envisions a component program in which American teens would interact with Arabs and Muslims, learning to work together and understand each other.

“I think there is a huge gap that continues to separate [American and Middle Eastern] attitudes and perceptions,” Miller said.

Considering the Bush administration’s renewed interest in the peace process and the American role in reshaping Iraq, Miller said that Seeds of Peace’s expansion could follow in the short term.

“I think we’re better positioned than many organizations to take advantage of whatever opportunities come our way,” he said. “I’m trying even this summer to explore the possibility of getting young people from Iraq,” he said. “With the renewed focus [on the Middle East], if the situation on the ground improves, it will allow us to operate more effectively.”

Miller believes Iraq youngsters could benefit from the experience of attending the program’s summer camp.

“I see it as a chance to expose Iraqi kids to a variety of experiences,” he said. “They can learn from watching Israelis and Arabs interact, Indians and Pakistanis … It empowers these kids.”

US Senate recognizes 15th anniversary of Seeds of Peace
Sen. Susan Collins

Apr 29, 2008 / No Comments

WASHINGTON, D.C. | The office of Sen. Susan M. Collins, R-Maine, has issued the following news release:

The United States Senate has passed a bipartisan resolution, authored by Senator Susan Collins, officially recognizing the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Seeds of Peace Camp in Otisfield. Senator Collins introduced the resolution with Senator Carl Levin (D-MI).

The Seeds of Peace Camp brings children from conflict areas of the world together for two weeks of camping and social activities to promote understanding, reconciliation, acceptance, and peace. The students, from differing factions, spend time taking part in activities with the hope that they will dispel the fear, mistrust, and prejudice that are learned during conflict.

“Seeds of Peace is able to bridge borders and foster peace in the midst of longstanding global conflicts,” noted Senator Collins. “Perhaps a decade from now, one of the thousands of Seeds of Peace alumni will be in a decision-making position in his or her home country and they will remember their time at a special summer camp in Maine, where the “seeds of peace” blossom every year.”

The resolution is as follows:

Resolution

Recognizing the 15th anniversary of the founding of Seeds of Peace, an organization promoting understanding, reconciliation, acceptance, coexistence, and peace in the Middle East, South Asia, and other regions of conflict.

Whereas Seeds of Peace, founded by John Wallach, organizes and operates a program that brings together young people and educators from regions of conflict to study and learn about coexistence and conflict resolution;

Whereas Seeds of Peace operates a summer camp in Otisfield, Maine, as well as regional programs around the world, such as the Facilitation Training Course in the Middle East, the Homestay Programs in South Asia, or the Inter-national Regional Conferences;

Whereas the first International Conflict Resolution Camp welcomed Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian, and Egyptian youth the summer of 1993, and the camp has since expanded to involve youths from other regions of conflict, including Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, the Balkans, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan;

Whereas Seeds of Peace utilizes the summer camp to initiate dialogue between the youth of the United States and youth from various conflict regions to dispel hatred and create religious and cultural understanding;

Whereas hundreds of educators receive training through the regional operations of Seeds of Peace to support and teach peaceful conflict resolution techniques in their classrooms, ensuring that thousands of students around the world are exposed to those techniques;

Whereas Seeds of Peace works to dispel fear, mistrust, and prejudice, which are root causes of violence and con-flict, and to build a new generation of leaders who are committed to achieving peace;

Whereas Seeds of Peace reveals the human face of youth who are too often exposed to hatred, by engaging camp-ers in both guided coexistence sessions and ordinary summer camp activities, such as sharing meals, canoeing, swim-ming, playing sports, and exploring creativity through the arts and computers;

Whereas the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as India-Pakistan and Afghanistan-Pakistan tensions, are currently at critical junctures, and progress toward peace will be enhanced by the emergence of a new generation of leaders who will choose dialogue, friendship, and openness over violence and hatred;

Whereas Seeds of Peace provides year-round opportunities, through regional programming and the innovative use of technology, to enable former participants to build on the relationships forged at camp, so that the learning processes begun at camp may continue in the participants’ home countries, where they are most needed;

Whereas youth graduates of the camp, known as ”Seeds”, currently number more than 4,000, with an additional 567 adult delegation leaders also having completed the camp programming;

Whereas this graduate network receives continued support in promoting professional cooperation;

Whereas Seeds of Peace is strongly supported by participating governments and many world leaders;

Whereas Federal funding for Seeds of Peace demonstrates the recognized importance of Seeds of Peace in pro-moting the foreign policy goals of the United States; and

Whereas it is especially important to reaffirm that youth must be involved in long-term, visionary solutions to con-flicts perpetuated by cycles of violence: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate:

(1) recognizes the 15th anniversary of the founding of Seeds of Peace;
(2) honors the accomplishments of Seeds of Peace in promoting understanding, reconciliation, acceptance, coexis-tence, and peace among youth from the Middle East and other regions of conflict around the world; and
(3) recognizes Seeds of Peace as a model of hope for living together in peace and security.

Read the resolution at the US Government Printing Office ››

Second annual Seeds of Peace Michigan Gala “Courage in the Pursuit of Peace”

Nov 4, 2002 / No Comments

Bob Lutz (General Motors) honored with Peacemaking Award

DEARBORN, MICHIGAN | The Seeds of Peace Michigan Friends Chapter will host its second annual gala at the Ritz Carlton in Dearborn on Monday, November 18, 2002 at 6 p.m. This year’s award recipients include Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of Product Development, General Motors, and Member of Congress John Dingell. The keynote speaker will be Bernard Kalb of CNN’s Reliable Sources. Janet Wallach, current president of Seeds of Peace and wife of Seeds of Peace founder John Wallach, will host the event and present the awards alongside Israeli and Palestinian graduates of the Seeds of Peace program.

“We are thrilled that for the second year, the Detroit community has welcomed Seeds of Peace and organized such a wonderful event that not only helps support our critical international conflict resolution programs, but also recognizes Michigan’s courageous business and political leader,” stated Seeds of Peace President, Janet Wallach.

The Seeds of Peace Michigan Friends Gala celebrates those who have demonstrated “Courage in the Pursuit of Peace.” Last year’s inaugural gala, which honored Jacques Nasser, Former President and CEO of Ford Motor Company, Member of Congress Joe Knollenberg, and Martin Indyk, Former US Ambassador to Israel, attracted over 600 guests and became one of the area’s most prestigious and premiere charitable events.

This year, the Michigan Friends Chapter will present the Seeds of Peace Peacemaker Award to Bob Lutz, Vice-Chairman of Product Development, General Motors, for his innovative approaches to tackling the most difficult of problems and for his long-standing commitment to corporate responsibility.

“Bob Lutz’s role as an international business leader within a number of prominent international corporations, very much resembles the same challenges Seeds of Peace participants face,” said Ariela Shani, Co-President of the Seeds of Peace Michigan Friends Chapter. “Both must work with people of varying backgrounds, from regions that are often in conflict, for purposes of a mutual goal. Both must have the courage and vision to see opportunity and possibility where others see insurmountable obstacles. Mr. Lutz was an international business leader before there was such a term.”

Lutz and his wife Denise have been personal supporters of Seeds of Peace in large part because he is impressed with the approach Seeds takes and how it reflects his own personal philosophy. “In business, it is important that you recognize and appreciate the differences among people,” said Lutz. “That’s what enables organizations, and societies, to become stronger – individual strengths pooled together to achieve a common objective.”

The Michigan Friends Chapter will also recognize member of Congress, John Dingell with the Seeds of Peace Congressional Leadership award, an award that was inaugurated last year and presented to Member of congress Joe Knollenberg. Recognized as a powerful Member of Congress and the longest serving member of the house, Dingell also represents the largest Arab-American constituency in the nation.

Tickets for the Michigan Friends Gala start at $250. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Detroit Chapter at (248) 324-1567.

The Michigan Friends Chapter was officially formed in 2000 after several years of active involvement by a core group of local activists. The formation of the Michigan Friends Chapter has greatly expanded the number and diversity of individuals involved. The chapter has extensive programming including teen workshops and an active teen group, various speaker’s series, coexistence activities, and a comprehensive media outreach campaign. This year, several members of the Michigan Friends Chapter along with key members of the Detroit area media visited the Seeds of Peace International Camp. In addition there are four Detroit-area Arab-American and Jewish-American professionals who are part of the Seeds of Peace Israeli-Arab Peace Partners Program funded by the US State Department. These local Peace Partners attended the Seeds of Peace camp for a week in July of 2002 along with Israeli and Arab educators who accompanied Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian, and other youth to the camp. The Detroit Peace Partners will continue to work closely with Seeds of Peace on issues affecting peace in the Middle East.

Since 1993, Seeds of Peace has graduated over 2,000 teenagers representing 22 nations from its internationally recognized conflict-resolution program. The Seeds of Peace program brings hundreds of youth identified by their governments as among the best and brightest to live together at three consecutive summer sessions. Through the summer-long programs, participants develop empathy, respect, communication/negotiation skills, confidence, and hope—the building blocks for peaceful coexistence. Please visit www.seedsofpeace.org for more information.

For inquiries about attending this event please contact Amy Baroch, Senior Events Coordinator (212) 573-8040 ext. x14. For all media inquiries, please contact Rebecca Hankin, Director of Media Relations at ext. 31.

ADDRESS: 300 Town Center Dr, Dearborn, MI 48126
DATE: November 18, 2002
TIME: 6 p.m.
LOCATION: Ritz Carlton
CONTACT: Amy Baroch | (212) 573-8040 ext. x14

Seeds of Peace selected as youth beneficiary for 2003 Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K

Jan 7, 2003 / No Comments

World-class race set for Saturday, August 2, in Cape Elizabeth

PORTLAND, MAINE | Peoples Heritage Bank announced today that Seeds of Peace, an organization that promotes tolerance and understanding among youth around the world, has been chosen as the beneficiary for this year’s Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race.

Peoples will provide a cash donation of $30,000 from race proceeds. Additionally, Seeds of Peace will benefit from fundraising opportunities and publicity valued at more than $40,000.

Seeds of Peace brings together youth from troubled regions of the world to co-exist in an internationally-recognized conflict resolution program at a summer camp in western Maine, as a way to dispel the hatred and misconceptions that divide them. Through the summer-long programs, participants develop empathy, respect, communication/negotiation skills, confidence, and hope—the building blocks for peaceful coexistence. Participants include Israelis and Arabs, Turks and Greeks, Indians and Pakistanis, and more.

For the past three years, Seeds of Peace has included sessions for local and immigrant teens from Portland – the organization’s first effort to apply its methods of conflict resolution directly to an American contingent. The program is now open to teens all over Maine, including Lewiston, where an influx of Somali immigrants has sparked recent tensions.

There is no other such program available to and serving Maine youth.

“We’ve been aware of the work of Seeds of Peace for a long while, and can think of no better time to bring their mission to Maine’s forefront through the Peoples Beach to Beacon,” said Michael W. McNamara, president and CEO of Peoples Heritage Bank, the race’s major corporate sponsor. “Maine is becoming a much more diverse state and it’s vitally important to find a way to increase understanding, especially among our young people, who represent the state’s future.”

“Like the Peoples Beach to Beacon race, people from all over the world participate in our program,” said Timothy Wilson, Seeds of Peace Camp Director. “We appreciate the bank’s generosity and are honored to be the youth beneficiary for this great international event. It is organizations like Peoples that make Seeds of Peace possible.”

The date for the 2003 Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race, which attracts elite runners worldwide as well as top road racers locally and across New England, has been set for Saturday, Aug. 2 along the picturesque shores of Maine’s rocky coast in Cape Elizabeth.

The field size, increased last year to commemorate the fifth anniversary, will remain at 5,000 this year for the popular race, which is expected to fill up by early summer. Registration will begin in mid-March.

Now in its sixth year, the Peoples Beach to Beacon has grown to become a top international road race and much more. Each year, for example, families in Cape Elizabeth open their homes to athletes from such countries as Kenya, Ethiopia, Japan, Russia and South Africa. The cultural exchange is another special aspect of the event.

That effort to promote understanding will be further enhanced this year by the selection of Seeds of Peace as the youth beneficiary, according to Joan Benoit Samuelson, Maine’s most recognizable athlete who founded the race.

“Seeds of Peace’s formula for addressing ethnic and racial tensions is known the world over, and we look forward to assisting the organization with such a worthwhile and timely youth program,” said Samuelson, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist and two-time Boston Marathon champion.

Samuelson serves as a spokesperson for the bank during the year to promote the race and the bank’s “Peoples Promise” program, which benefits Maine youth with scholarships, sponsorship programs and charitable gifts. Last year’s race beneficiary was Opportunity Farm, a long-term, family-style, residential facility in New Gloucester for at-risk Maine youth.

Seeds of Peace, founded in 1993 by award-winning author and journalist John Wallach, is recognized as the leading international conflict resolution program for youth. Each summer, hundreds of teens identified as their nation’s best and brightest spend a month at Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield, Maine, living side-by-side with people they have been led to hate.

The Maine Project is a pilot program designed to address ethnic and racial tensions between diverse communities in the U.S. Immigrant and refugee populations continue to swell in Portland, Lewiston, and in other Maine cities, and schools and neighborhoods now more closely mirror the profound diversity so valued in America. Unfortunately, as diversity has increased, so too have hate crimes and discrimination—particularly among youth. The Maine Project is a proactive measure to increase understanding, tolerance, and unity throughout the state. Past participants in the Maine program include teens from Cambodia, Rwanda, Somalia, Vietnam, Sudan and Uganda who have recently settled in Maine, as well as youth from European-American families whose Maine roots date back several generations.

For more information on the race, visit www.beach2beacon.org.

Statement by Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine)

Jul 17, 2012 / No Comments

Two decades of Seeds of Peace

This year, Mainers have tremendous cause to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of Seeds of Peace, an organization dedicated to the advancement of peace through understanding, reconciliation, acceptance and coexistence among people.

Indeed, it was established here in our great state on the principle that long-term peace within or between nations can only be achieved with the emergence of a new generation of leaders who choose dialogue over violence.

Seeds of Peace’s first camp session in 1993 was a labor of love for the late founder and esteemed journalist John Wallach. That summer, under the leadership of Wallach, Bobbie Gottschalk and Timothy Wilson, Seeds of Peace hosted 46 Arab and Israeli teenagers at its first summer camp in Maine.

Since that day, the organization has blossomed into a full-fledged leadership program, which spans 27 countries with full staff in Amman, Gaza, Jerusalem, Kabul, Lahore, Mumbai, Ramallah, Tel Aviv, New York and Otisfield.

For three weeks at a time during the months of June, July and August on the beautiful shores of Pleasant Lake in Otisfield, Seeds of Peace brings together young people and educators from areas immersed in civil conflict, war and other political and social unrest, to learn about coexistence and conflict resolution at their international summer camp. Camp participants engage with one another in both guided coexistence sessions and typical summer camp activities, which expose the human face that lie behind ethnic, religious and political differences.

Now under the acclaimed leadership of Leslie Lewin, Seeds of Peace has prepared over 5,000 alumni, known as “seeds,” primarily from the Middle East, South Asia, the Balkans and Cyprus, for roles of leadership. They are offered not only an unmatched summer camp experience, but also a robust and worthwhile slate of intensive, year-round programs encircling the globe, focused on further refining the skills learned and relationships built at camp.

Seeds of Peace is a testament to the importance of conflict resolution and reconciliation programs as a tool for creating peace. The program is indisputably making a difference in the lives of its seeds each and every day.

It is no surprise that Seeds of Peace is strongly supported by participating governments and many world leaders, and I am honored to join so many individuals across Maine in recognizing the organization’s contributions to the advancement of peace.

Seeds of Peace provides a promise for a better future, and I enthusiastically welcome its continued efforts for years to come.

Israeli, Palestinian Kids4Peace: ‘Stubborn Optimism’ in Violent Days | The Olive Branch (United States Institute of Peace

Oct 28, 2015 / No Comments

A Jerusalem Program for Understanding Feels Strain and Carries On

By Fred Strasser

To hear voices of peace challenged by a surge of violence, simply listen to a conference call held by Arab and Jewish parents in Jerusalem who are involved in the program Kids4Peace. The bonds formed over the years their children attended the group’s dialogues and camps are at once strained and sturdy, resolute and despairing and frayed by fear. For the program’s staff, one posted message reflects their defiance at this moment in the Arab-Israeli conflict: “We will not be defeated. Nothing is cancelled.”

Over 12 years, Kids4Peace, a U.S.-based nonprofit, has brought together more than 1,100 school-age youths—Jews, along with Muslim and Christian Arabs—in Jerusalem and at international summer camps to support them in “embodying a culture of peace and empowering a movement for change.”

The kids engage in dialogue, trust-building workshops, games and joint projects aimed at bridging the often-violent chasm that separates them in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Parents must also commit to the program when their children join, creating a sustained, family engagement that project leaders say is key to creating a sense of community; 80 percent stick with the program through all six years.

The work is never easy and the opposing narratives of the students’ backgrounds leave them without a firm base to even begin a dialogue, said Father Josh Thomas, an Episcopal priest who leads the organization. But as children from families that are at least motivated to reach out to the other side, they make friends, learn about each other’s religions and, by the end, are pushed to see themselves as something bigger than just an intercultural youth group: they are trained to become a community of peacebuilding leaders. A U.S. Institute of Peace grant is helping the group evaluate the potential of that process to have long-term impact.

The latest violence in Jerusalem is testing the resilience of the organization and its participating families in new ways, Thomas said. The one-on-one nature of knife attacks on soldiers, police and civilians, as well as the response from Israeli police and defense forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank, have deepened fear and suspicion on both sides beyond what the group faced—and overcame—during the last Gaza war in 2014.

On the conference call, set up in mid-October by Kids4Peace facilitators to discuss the personal effects of the current violence, parents talked about their feelings during the tense time and how to help their children through it. The conversation was transcribed on the group’s website.

  • “All of us are feeling unsafe,” the mother of a Muslim 7th grader said, concerned she’s infecting her son with the “panic” she feels walking in Jerusalem. “Someone with a gun might shoot you because you are an Arab and thus you are a suspect! Or someone stab you, thinking you are a Jew.”
  • “We are torn because we want to trust, but we are frightened,” said a Jewish 7th grader’s mother.
  • “Should we speak about being scared to our children?” posited a parent facilitator at Kids4Peace and father of a Muslim 8th grader. “Yes. This reality, they see it, they hear it in our voices.”
  • “We at Kids4Peace, what can we do?” asked a Jewish 8th grader’s father. “How can we move forward? I do not know how we can change the situation.”

‘Difficult Days’

As a group of Israelis and Palestinians, Kids4Peace participants “feel the pain of both sides like almost no one else,” Thomas wrote to the community on Oct. 14. He said staff and parents would “reconnect with our sisters and brothers across the lines of conflict,” in person or virtually; the fall programs for 120 students would begin as planned the following week, meeting together if it was safe; online or in homes, if not.

“We had difficult days last week,” Thomas said in an Oct. 22 interview. “I’m hearing new ways of mistrusting the motivations of the other side, even in our group.”

Publicly, he declared: “We feel called to take leadership in building a new future. Division, despair, hatred, fear, injustice—this cannot be our future.”

As comments posted on the organization’s website make clear, kids who participated in the program’s monthly meetings, quarterly overnights and summer camps in the U.S. over the years, say it opened them up in new ways. In one of the most poignant remarks—unattributed by religion or ethnicity—a student said: “Kids4Peace broke the wall of hate in my heart.”

In sixth grade, the students explore each other’s religions and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through dialogues, workshops, volunteering and a summer camp. In seventh grade, the focus shifts to fostering relationships and solidifying commitment to peace. In eighth grade, a year for coming of age, students tackle historical narrative and personal identity and how they relate to the broader community. The ninth grade program centers on leadership skills and issues of living in a conflict zone. Finally, participants are offered opportunities to become counselors in training with the Kids4Peace program in the 10th and 11th grades.

‘From Personal Transformation to Societal Change’

“The value of this project is the embrace of self-reflective practice,” said Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen, USIP’s director of programs on the Arab-Israeli conflict. “They are asking the tough questions of themselves and their work at a particularly trying time in the field—how do you move from personal transformation to societal change?”

An interim report on the research paints a complex picture of Kids4Peace outcomes. Participants value their relationships, the experience of respectful cooperation and the model they’ve created of peaceful interaction. They have found Kids4Peace a sane sanctuary amid war and violence.

But fear is high: almost everyone is more afraid for physical safety than at any point in their lives. Confidence in a peace process is low: emotion and frustration are taking a growing toll even on committed peacemakers.

Almost every Jewish Israeli said their time in the Army is a turning point in their lives and, for many, one that can sometimes force compromise with their values. For Palestinians, Jewish Israelis’ mandatory military service leaves them asking why friends would agree “to occupy us,” since their only association with the Israeli military is likely of soldiers serving at checkpoints and within the West Bank.

The general climate is such that “people are more drawn to extremes now,” Thomas said. “They have to be demonizing the other, totally pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli.”

Yet, on Oct. 22, with the violence unabated, Kids4Peace’s fall session began as scheduled. More than 100 grinning kids and 50 of their parents gathered in Jerusalem for an evening of music, dance, and tough dialogue, Thomas reported to his supporters, sending along photos. The meetings were moved to avoid locales perceived as most dangerous, and a conference line was set up for people too concerned about security to come.

“Everyone says similar things,” Thomas said. “Kids4Peace provides a place to be honest, to share, to disagree. In the end, they come and see again, yes, there is an alternative.”

Read Fred’s article at The Olive Branch ››