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Community Corner

Kids4Peace Spreads Message of Tolerance at Emory

Program promotes peace and tolerance among Muslims, Christians and Jews

In the city that strives to be too busy to hate, a dozen Palestinian and Israeli children gathered before a small area audience Thursday night and sang the anthem of the American civil rights movement, “We Shall Overcome.”

Twelve American children joined the group for the “Abraham’s Tent” service at the Marcus Hillel Center and also performed sketches tied to the Bible and the Koran Thursday night.

The children are members of Kids4Peace, an interfaith “education-for-peace initiative” founded a decade ago at St. George’s College in Jerusalem. The organization is closely tied to the Episcopal Church in the U.S.

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The non-profit program brings middle-school-aged Israeli Jews, Palestinian Muslim and Christian children as well as American kids to camps in Georgia, North Carolina, Vermont and Boston every summer.

Each of the American children serves a “peace pal” for one of the visiting children.

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In these settings, removed from the conflict, children learn about the faith and traditions of people some have told them to despise. The aim of Kids4Peace is to help cultivate a new generation of people, born on opposite sides of an ancient conflict, dedicated to non-violence.

Within the past two weeks, Kids4Peace participants have spent time in the north Georgia woods, climbed Stone Mountain, visited the former home of the late Martin Luther King Jr. as well as Ebenezer Baptist Church, the congregation the civil rights leader led before he was assassinated.

They’ve organized their own religious services and drafted a mission statement that was included in a video presentation played for the Hillel audience.

The statement, which was read in Arabic, Hebrew and English, is “we are committed to treating one another the way we wish to be treated and to spreading peace everywhere we go.”

Yakir Englander, the organization’s Jerusalem director, told the audience that those who scoff at the idea that a short-term mountain-top experience for children could help lead to that goal, “have lost the power to dream.”

“It’s not all black and white. It’s not that everyone hates each other,” Englander said. “It’s that people are afraid.”

Participants and group leaders say Kids4Peace has spawned lasting friendships among children who might otherwise have grown up to be enemies. The same, they say, is true for the American kids, many of whom consider their experiences life-changing.

It might be too soon for Lauren Plummer to reach that conclusion. But the 12-year-old from Cartersville said she has definitely enjoyed the experience as well as getting to know her Palestinian peace pal, Siba.

For security reasons, Kids4Peace does not divulge the last names of the Palestinian and Israeli children taking part in the program.

Plummer said that, prior to camp, she had expected that the visiting children would be more formal and reserved.

“I found they like to hang out like we do. They swim. They bike,” Lauren said. “They’re not all that different.”

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