Last May a demonstration took place on the UCLA campus. The Muslim Students Association set up a mock checkpoint on the main campus drag. To counterpoint, I appeared with a sign declaring “Peace for Israel. Peace for Palestine. Share the Hope.” As I stood holding the sign aloft with students’ eyes curiously fixed on the “old” man with the unconventional proclamation whose arms were heavy and tired, a student approached and asked if he could help me by holding up one side of the sign. Only too pleased to receive his assistance, I turned to the young man and asked him his name.“George,” he replied.
“And where are you from?”
“Gaza,” he said, continuing, “In fact, this is the only statement with which I agree. I reject my fellow Arab students’ tactics, and I disagree with the Jewish students who are in their faces. Our goal should be to build understanding and cooperation.”
He taught me that if one party sincerely opens his or her heart to the other, acknowledging the other’s narrative while maintaining the integrity of one’s own position, then the foreskin of the opponent’s heart will begin to peel away.
This is the legacy of the Jewish tradition. This is the path of the rodef shalom, the pursuer of peace. It is the way of renewal.
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller is the director of UCLA Hillel. www.uclahillel.org
