Neighbors – Happy Sunday from your friendly Continuing Education director! One of the recurring themes in conversations I have at work and among colleagues is this: how can we attend to the challenging work of honest and mindful relationship across difference – especially differences that seem incommensurable? We are hosting an event at the Seminary this week that will provide you with an astonishing example of this hard and crucial work. Roots / Shorashim / Judur is an Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative co-founded by an Israeli settler in the West Bank - orthodox Jewish rabbi Hanan Schlesinger - and Khaled Abu Awwad, a Muslim Palestinian. If there is anything close to irreconcilable difference in the world today, it is between the Israeli settler and the Muslim Palestinian. Yet these visionary men see it as their call to build peace from the ground up and knit the kinds of relationships necessary that might make peace and a two-state solution possible. https://www.friendsofroots.net/index/ I met them when in Israel/Palestine this summer and began the work to bring them here. I am delighted that we are able to. The two joining us Weds, Oct 25, will be Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger, one of the founders, and Antwan Saca, one of the Roots activists and a Christian Palestinian. https://www.pts.edu/root-of-peace-2017 You might find yourself strongly aligned with one side of the conflict over the other. You might find yourself “agnostic” or inquiring. Either way, what I promise you is not an answer to the problem that comes in the form of a proposition – but an encounter with a remarkable and paradigm-shifting conversation. The truth, these activists have found, is not in positions but in relationships. And that, dear neighbors, is reason for hope. Please note that per the Jewish Federation, one of our co-sponsors, we ask that you preregister for the event (see the web page). Hope to see you there! Shalom / Salaam, Helen Blier