Julie Gutowski, Junior
Communications Major - University of Pennsylvania
The opportunity to travel to the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Israel as a participant on the Ibrahim Leadership and Dialogue Project taught me more about the Middle East and the relationship between followers of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism in those countries than perhaps any U.S.-based University course could have. By being in those countries, especially Israel, and seeing first-hand the way in which a person’s religion likely determined the way in which he or she interacted with a person of another faith, I began to see the role that religion could play in resolving long-standing conflict. It wasn’t until our meeting with Search for Common Ground’s Sharon Rosen, Keren Hendin, and Fadi Rabieh that I really began to understand how interfaith dialogue could be used to promote understanding and mutual respect among Jews, Christians, and Muslims, especially those connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In discussing the mission of Search for Common Ground, Sharon Rosen explained interfaith dialogue in a way that really resonated with me. She said that her organization does not try to get one side to agree with the other’s point of view and vice versa. Instead Search for Common Ground aims to get each side to create a space for the other point of view to exist in peace with an opposing viewpoint. This approach to interfaith dialogue really appealed to my pragmatic sensibilities and made me take interfaith dialogue more seriously as an approach to conflict resolution in the Middle East.
The other meeting that was most important to my learning experience in the Middle East was having the opportunity to get to know the Face to Face/ Faith to Faith students. Not only was it amazing to see the level of maturity that is brought about by growing up in a conflict zone, but this was the only time we were able to see Israeli Jews and Palestinians discussing the conflict (while Fadi Rabieh was a Palestinian and Keren Hendin was an Israeli Jew, they did not directly discuss their views on the conflict). These students gave me an idea of what it’s actually like to live as a Palestinian or Israeli Jew in Israel. The organic, unstructured discussion that took place between the Ibrahim and Face to Face/ Faith to Faith students was so important to my experience in the Middle East because it allowed me to better empathize with both the Palestinian and Israeli viewpoints.
Indeed, what I took away from this program was not an expertise in the cultures or religions of the countries we visited. To do that would have taken more than twelve days. What I did take away was an ability to empathize with Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the Middle East and at home who are all fighting hurtful misconceptions and suspicions. I also found that after meeting with both Palestinians and Israeli Jews it is difficult not to empathize with people on both sides of the conflict. And after seeing the efforts to promote interfaith dialogue in pursuit of peace, it is difficult to be content sitting on the sidelines.
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