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9th May 2004
At the 19th April meeting of the Reut/Tzdaqa Unconditional Friendship Group in Jerusalem, we celebrated the first anniversary of the group's founding through members' original contributions in the form of poetry, music and personal narratives.
The meeting fell towards the end of Holocaust Remembrance Day. We noted that Esther Golan, a regular participant in the group, is a Holocaust survivor who was sent on the Kindertransport from Germany to England as a child. Esther also subsequently lost a grandson in the Israeli army on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and for both these reasons was unable to attend the meeting.
Rachel spoke about the Holocaust, mentioning that historians now estimate the number of Jews murdered at seven million rather than six. Since we have difficulty grasping the magnitude of the loss, she chose to focus on the life of one person, Janusz Korczak, a visionary, educator and prolific author who remains a Polish cultural hero to this day. Korczak established an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto, providing a home and foraging food for hundreds of children who had lost their parents.
In the most desperate circumstances he managed to build a haven for these youngsters that not only protected their bodies but elevated their spirits. Believing as he did in the dignity and autonomy of children, Korczak was well ahead of his time. He developed and disseminated an entire educational philosophy, which he implemented in his institution. The children drew up their own constitution for governing the orphanage, running it as a functioning democracy that included an active judiciary.
When the Nazis decided to deport the children to the death camps Korczak was offered a personal reprieve due to his cultural standing among non-Jewish Poles. He angrily declined, refusing to abandon his children. A photograph has survived showing Korczak leading the children on their last march; the children are striding proudly in their finest clothes, bearing a Jewish flag aloft.
Each person in turn chose one word that expressed the essence of the group for him or her over the past year. Mufida spoke of optimism, Hadassah of hope, and Rafiqa of good will. Hadassah and Mufida recited moving poems that they authored themselves. Both poems, coincidentally, reflect a longing for peace and reconciliation. One of Rafiqa's students, Muwaffaq Abdl Fattah made a guest appearance to perform the music of Muslim composers Muhammad Abdl Wahab and Marcel Khalifeh on an ud. And Jeremi sang songs he wrote in Esperanto about the garden of Eden, accompanying himself on his balalaika.
Leah shared the story of her personal odyssey from Kach to interfaith activism. She and her husband moved to Israel from Toronto out of a realization that God had given the Jews a land, and that they wanted to be here. Her own family had been displaced in the Shoah, and when she met Palestinians she understood that some of them had been displaced too. The fact that the Arabs are also children of Abraham touched a cord in her, and through speaking to them she came to realize that they love this land as much as she does. God may have given the Jews a gift, but not in order to tread on other people. Leah noted that certain people have banned her from their homes since she took up interfaith activities, but she has made more and better friends through the interfaith endeavors themselves. their homes since she took up interfaith activities, but she has made more and better friends through the interfaith endeavors themselves.
Rafiqa spoke about the book she wrote during the first intifada together with an American Jew, Michael Gorkin. Called Three Mothers, Three Daughters, it is an oral history of the lives of three mother-daughter pairs living in Bethlehem, Abu Ghosh and a refugee camp. The work explores the conflicts that Palestinian women face in their lives and the tensions prevailing between the generations. Group members were moved by Rafiqa's account and by the risks she undertook in traveling the West Bank with an American Jew in order to write the book.
The assembled friends continued their sharing while enjoying homemade delicious pitta, hummos, vegetables etc. from Abu Gosh so nicely prepared by Rafiqa and Mufida. Drinks, pitta and cookies were contributed by several members of the group.
Co-ordinators:
Rachel Yarden
Rafiqa Othman
Karmela Farrugia
The Interfaith Encounter Association
www.interfaith-encounter.org
Dr. Yehuda Stolov, Director E-mail:
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