In a hostile world capable of obliterating itself with nuclear weapons, what can concerned Jews do to wage peace? Two Jews renowned for their own such efforts offered different approaches here Thursday.
Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel, an author and lecturer, suggested words as a limited, but the only, tool for peace. “…I am much more pessimistic than many of you. I used to believe that words can work wonders. I no longer believe that,” he said.
“I do believe that the best language available to human beings is still words. When words fail, what replaces them as a from of communication? There’s only one available form — violence — so we must use words, and in this area, we Jews have been masters.”
Speaking to 375 people at the presentation of the Jewish Peace Fellowship’s second Abraham Joshua Heschel Peace Award at the Lindenbaum Jewish Community Center, Wiesel pondered why the issue of peace “hasn’t penetrated the Jewish community to a sufficient degree … Somehow the Jewish community turns off. It’s not ready to listen, let alone act.”
A TRUE MEASURE OF A JEWISH HUMANITY
The reason, he postulated, may be a feeling of helplessness. “I agree there is something to that,” he said, considering the god-like powers of the leaders of the U.S. and USSR to begin the destruction of the world with the push of a button. “We must stop that international death wish that exists occasionally in society,” Wiesel stated.
Even with words well used, he doesn’t foresee imminent and complete change. “I don’t believe that we can change the course of human destiny now,” he said. “But I do believe that if we continue together, we shall have more people like us.”
In Israel, this compassion could catch fire with Jews and Arabs, he predicted, causing “an awakening of their own humanity toward each other.” Wiesel stated that the true measure of a Jew’s humanity is his or her attitude toward Palestinians.
THE ROLE OF ACTION-ORIENTED ACTIVITIES
Rabbi Bruce Cohen, the recipient of the Heschel peace award, embodies that attitude in his work, Inters for Peace. The 10-year-old program has placed 73 Arabs and Jews from Israel, the U.S. and other countries in more than 25 Jewish and Arab villages in Israel.
During their one or two-year placements, the interns first learn how to act as catalysts for peace. Then they attempt to develop educational, social, recreational or community development projects that Cohen said involve their Arab and Jewish participants on equal footing. The program has directly affected 8,000 people, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and indirectly thousands more.
Rather than utilizing words for peace, as Wiesel suggested, Cohen advocates “direct and concrete experience” manifested in cooperative activity. However, his intended result jibes with Wiesel’s: a geometrically increasing cadre of people imbued with compassion and empathy, willing to seek peaceful solutions to conflict.
“By focussing on action-oriented activities, not words, we believe we’re influencing the future,” he said. “You really cannot appeal to groups to come together out of simple, pure altruism, morals or ethics. Rather, you can bring together different groups … to join in projects that benefit both parties equally.”
The most successful Interns projects become integrated into the daily lives of the villages, he explained. Cohen hopes to reorganize the program to maintain 30 interns in the field and thus expand its programs and add participants from throughout the Middle East.
The peace award is named for late rabbi and educator known for his integration of theology and efforts for peace. He was involved with the fellowship, in opposing the Vietnam war and in the civil rights movement.
His daughter Susannah Heschel, an author, recalled at the ceremony her father’s participation with Dr. Martin Luther King at the crucial civil rights march in Selma, Ala. The family feared for the rabbi’s safety, but he returned home unscathed and undaunted. She recalled that he told his family, “I felt like my legs were praying.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
