Shaul Gabbay Letter to the Community

April 30, 2007

Letter to the Community
by Dr. Shaul Gabbay, Executive Director
ISIME Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East
Graduate School of International Studies
University of Denver

 

Dear  IJN Friends,

As I prayed at the Wall in Jerusalem during my last visit to Israel, I was thinking of my family.  First, I thought of my young children and asked myself, “What kind of world will they inherit?”

I thought of my family in Israel.  My mom deserves to witness peace in her lifetime. I prayed for my sister and her family, hoping her little sons will not have to fight in yet another war, as my generation and the generations before mine did.

I remembered my father and the stories he told me each Shabbat about Jewish life in Baghdad.  My father escaped to Israel in 1951, like almost all of his community who had lived in Iraq for more than 2500 years in exile.  

I thought of the millions of Jews, like my parents, who have found safe haven in Israel.  I stood there with so many others at the Wall, and thanked g-d for Israel,– the homeland of my people.  I stood there and I promised once again to leave no stone unturned in my work to bring peace to Israel.

As Jews, during springtime, we experience  conflicting emotions.  Passover brings us a time for rejoicing. Yom Hashoah and Yom Hazikaron, stirs our grief as we remember the victims of the Holocaust and those who have died defending our homeland. Then, we observe Israel’s Independence Day, a time to celebrate the miracle of 59-year- old, modern day Israel.

 

My work at the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East  also requires that I deal with disparate emotions.  For anyone studying current issues in the Middle East  knows that it is a region burdened with hostility and potential devastation.  However, despite the discouraging news we all read about Iraq, Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas,  I’m  bringing to you a message of hope.  This rejuvenated optimism comes from my colleagues in Israel, who I was fortunate to meet with last month.  What I found is that despite the turmoil within the Israeli government, and the dangers facing Israel from enemies who fundamentally won’t even recognize Israel’s right to exist, there is still hope for peace.   

I want to share this optimism with you by telling you about these wonderful colleagues because they work tirelessly and steadfastly, believing that peace is possible- not just for some, but for everyone:  Jews, Muslims, and Christians––Arabs, Israelis, and Palestinians.

Their  accomplishments are not just apparent in the ivory towers of academia.  Each person I met with represents a network of people and organizations that are conducting tangible peace projects, thereby building bridges that pave the way for solutions to the conflicts in the Middle East.  These true humanitarians include Gadi Baltiansky of the Geneva Initiative, Yossie Ginat of the Strategic Dialogue Center at Netanya College and Boaz Karni of the Economic Cooperation Foundation. I visited the Technion where scholars like Joseph Hagin are successfully finding waste-water treatments that can be used across borders to bring the desert better irrigation.  I met with Shimon Peres, Daniel Ayalon and Shmulik Rifman in the Negev.  I also was inspired by Hanna Siniora, a Palestinian Peace Activist who greeted me as a colleague in pursuing a better, safer life for everyone in the Middle East.  Archbishop Chacour not only dreams of peace, but actively teaches mutual respect and understanding on his campus in the Galilee.

Perhaps the most dramatic inspiration came from visiting
an extraordinary school called Neva Shalom. Neva Shalom, which means “Oasis of Peace” is a beautiful school situated in the hills of Jerusalem.  There, preschoolers through sixth graders learn in classrooms that are fully integrated: Arabs, Jews and Christians. There I witnessed peace between children and their acceptance of each other as human beings brought a song to my heart.  These children don’t hate.  They are at peace – the kind of peace we all yearn for among nations.

I visited Archbishop Elias Chacour at the Mar Elias School and University in the Galilee. His campus reaches students from kindergarten through college where this inspiring Arab Christian Israeli embraces children of all faiths. 
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These colleagues have rejuvenated me.  They all are eager to come to Denver and to join ISIME  on cooperative projects that promote peace. They like knowing that they are not alone, that people in the United States are also striving to bring peace to the Middle East. 

We can and we are making a difference through our work at the University of Denver.   I hope you’ll join me and become a Partner for Peace.

Professor Shaul Gabbay is the Executive Director of ISIME the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East in the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver.  For more information visit www.isime.org.   To contact Dr. Gabbay email sgabbay@du.edu or call
303.871.2560