When Jesus gazed at the holy city of Jerusalem, he wept and lamented that its inhabitants lacked awareness of “the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:42). Two millennia later, the same ignorance underlies the scourges of warfare and terrorism afflicting humanity everywhere. How can Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others join forces to heal the wounds of conflict by transforming fear to trust, anger to forgiveness and grief to compassion for the suffering of others? This program will address these challenges and help participants develop insights and skills for interfaith peacebuilding. Conducted as an interactive workshop, use will be made of case studies including Israel/Palestine, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, South Africa, and the United States. 

Over the week’s program, we will use different tools and methods for transforming conflict, including: sacred music and other art forms; comparative text study of scriptures and commentaries; applying prayer, meditation, Sabbath observance, dream journaling and other spiritual practices to the task of peacebuilding; styles of peacemaking that draw on the capacities for repentance and forgiveness; viewing and discussing relevant films; and practical exercises, including simulation and role playing, that can be employed to diminish and heal animosity. 

Resource Person: Yehezkel Landau, D. Min, a dual Israeli-American citizen, is an interfaith educator, leadership trainer, author and consultant working to promote Jewish-Christian-Muslim engagement and Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding for more than 35 years. While in Israel he directed the OZ veSHALOM-NETIVOT SHALOM religious peace movement during the 1980's, and from 1991 to 2003 he co-founded and co-directed the OPEN HOUSE Center for Jewish-Arab Coexistence and Reconciliation in Ramle. (See http://www.friendsofopenhouse.co.il/ ).

From 2002 to 2016, Dr. Landau was a professor of Jewish tradition and interfaith relations at Hartford Seminary, CT, where he held the Chair in Abrahamic Partnerships and directed the BUILDING ABRAHAMIC PARTNERSHIPS training program for Jews, Christians and Muslims.  He lectures internationally on interfaith relations and Middle East peace issues, has authored numerous journal articles, co-edited the book Voices from Jerusalem: Jews and Christians Reflect on the Holy Land (Paulist Press, 1992), wrote a Jewish appraisal of Pope John Paul II’s trip to Israel and Palestine in 2000 for the book John Paul II in the Holy Land: In His Own Words (Paulist Press, 2005) and authored a U. S. Institute of Peace research report entitled “Healing the Holy Land: Interreligious Peace building in Israel/Palestine”(See https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/resources/pwks51.pdf  ). Dr. Landau earned an A.B. from Harvard University, an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and a D.Min. from Hartford Seminary, CT. 

Recommended Readings: 

Dubensky, Joyce ed., Peacemakers in Action: Profiles in Religious Peacebuilding—Volume II, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016 

Hayward, Susan and Marshall, Katherine eds., Women, Religion, and Peacebuilding: Illuminating the Unseen. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2015   

Luther King, Martin Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963, in Dr. King’s Why We Can’t Wait and reprinted in I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches that Changed the World. James Melvin Washington, ed., New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992, pp. 83-100 

Landau, Yehezkel. “The Land of Israel in Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations,” Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations. Vol. 3, Issue 1, article 17, CP1-12, 2008, accessible at http://escholarship.bc.edu/scjr/vol3

 Healing the Holy Land: Interreligious Peacebuilding in Israel/Palestine. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, Peaceworks monographs No. 51, September 2003, accessible at www.usip.org/files/resources/pwks51.pdf