Common Grounds
Building Bridges
Contributed by Libby and Len Traubman
The Traubman family resides in San Mateo, California. Len, is a retired pediatric dentist, retired after 35 years in San Francisco, CA. Libby, a retired clinical social worker, was a trustee of the Foundation for Global Community - formerly Beyond War - which Libby and Len helped launch in 1982. Libby and Len shepherd the Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue, established in July 1992, whose principles of living together apply universally to relationships between diverse citizens and with Earth herself. Their children, Eleanor and Adam, in their early 40s, have left the nest and married, and now there are three dear grandchildren.
"When you don't live in the community you don't think of them as human."
‘Made in America’
ESPN-TV documentary (June 2016)
Building Many Bridges in Jerusalem
Four days in April 2016, over 300 Muslim, Jewish, and Christian citizen bridge-builders gathered at the Jerusalem YMCA to learn from one another and grow closer together. They were part of 90 Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian relationship-building groups of the international umbrella Alliance for Middle East Peace -- http://www.allmep.org
Duha Alma, 20, said that the wave of violence has led some of her Palestinian friends to slam her for meeting her Jewish friends.
“They say we are betraying and forgetting our people. But violence is not getting us anywhere except for more violence and more deaths”.
“Violence”, Alma added, “is the easy way. We are taking the long and hard way to making things better for everyone”.
Alma believes their time together permanently alters attitudes and future decisions affecting one another.
“This stuff really matters to people’s lives," says Joel Braunold, the executive director of ALLMEP.
Palestinian Huda Abuarquob, ALLMEP regional director, champions "dialogue that takes us from talking to walking; dialogue that works toward building real trusting relationships”.
Peace alliance seeks to move beyond sharing a plate of hummus
With aid of umbrella network, eclectic group of Palestinian and Israeli NGOs meets to form a stronger union that’s serious about peace-building
Times of Israel -- April 11, 2016
http://www.timesofisrael.com/peace-alliance-seeks-to-move-beyond-sharing-a-plate-of-hummus/
ALLMEP 2016 Community Fair (2-min video)
Two One-minute Videos
Face-to-face, people can begin opening up in less than 4 minutes -- with a look, hand, smile, thoughtful question, and listening.
Look Beyond Borders (1-min video)
https://www.facebook.com/NowThisNews/videos/1069006616522795/
One Human Family, Food for All … Together, We’re Better (1-min video)
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