Good Thursday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we investigate claims about the efficacy of the psychological first aid offered by many nonprofits, and feature an opinion piece by Holly Cohen about the need for spirituality in Jewish education. Also in this newsletter: Jeremy Jones, Samuel Konig and Israeli President Isaac Herzog. We’ll start with a joint Israeli-Palestinian “Run for Reconciliation” this weekend.
Dozens of Israelis and Palestinians will come together on Sunday in the Gush Etzion area of the central West Bank to go for a jog as part of the seventh-annual “Run for Reconciliation,” an event organized by the Roots/Judur/Shorashim nonprofit, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
The organization was founded some nine years ago by Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger, who lives in the Alon Shvut settlement in the Etzion bloc, and Ali Abu Awwad, who once served time in Israeli prison for throwing rocks and firebombs before turning to nonviolence. The organization works with Israelis — particularly those living in West Bank settlements — as well as Palestinians and foreigners to promote dialogue and understanding through lectures, discussion groups, summer camps, photography clubs and other initiatives.
Schlesinger, who has been a runner since high school, told eJP that he came up with the idea for the “Run for Reconciliation,” which this year will feature a 5K and 10K race, as well as a 3K family walk. In addition to the enjoyment and sport, the event is also a demonstration of Roots’ mission of a shared society.
“A run like this is something that represents normal life. It’s people walking and running together, wearing the same clothes, going on the same path. Afterward, eating and drinking together. It symbolizes a shared society,” Khaled Abu Awwad, the Palestinian co-director of the organization, told eJP.
The run will take place at Roots’ Dignity Center near the Gush Etzion Intersection — an area that has often seen terror attacks — but people abroad can also participate in a virtual run, he said.
“It brings together Israelis and Palestinians, most of them from Bethlehem, Hebron and the Jordan Valley,” Schlesinger said.
Khaled Abu Awwad said the participants are generally “people who are curious to learn about the other side.”
Sunday’s run also serves as the organization’s main fundraising campaign of the year, according to Abu Awwad. Schlesinger said this year’s crowdfunding effort was expected to raise over $100,000 for the organization through a donation-matching program, which triples the amount of money donated. (As of this writing, the organization’s fundraising website reported that $43,702 had been raised.)
A large portion of the fund-matching comes from a $25,000 cash prize — the Paul Carus Award for Interfaith Engagement — that Roots received last month at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. Another $20,000 was donated by a local Israeli donor, who asked not to be named, and $8,000 was donated by the Nelson Family Foundation, Schlesinger said.
Read the full story here.
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