Encounter

We are pleased to share a collection for Passover of reflections on liberation and the narrow place from Jewish and Palestinian authors.

Link to download in the comments

Encounter Programs – Listen. Learn. Lead. We are a diverse community of Jewish leaders ready to encounter the complex stories, people, and places at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian reality.

As we prepare to celebrate Israel's historic 75 years, Encounter's Chief Education Officer Leah Solomon offers a textured perspective on this moment. We urge you to read her essay, Fear, Fury, and the Struggle for Equal Rights in Israel, in the Spring 2023 issue of the Hartman Institute’s Sources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas.

Read Leah's article and access Sources here: https://www.sourcesjournal.org/articles/fear-fury-and-the-struggle-for-equal-rights-in-israel

Register here: https://form.jotform.com/230605719460151

Get your cookbook today! Encounter relies on gifts like yours to create a more courageous Jewish leadership around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We are including a free copy of our beautiful cookbook, Encountering the Palestinian Kitchen: Listen. Learn. Eat. with all new gifts of $360+.

Receive a first edition copy and exclusive programmatic resources designed to explore not only Palestinian food and cooking, but also the challenges of sustaining a vibrant and robust Palestinian culture amidst the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Link to donate: http://www.encounterprograms.org/donate/

Ushpizin: Powered by Courage

Sam is known fondly as “the tallest man in Ramallah” - an attribution that captures both his physical stature and his larger-than-life presence. A Palestinian-American buisnessman born in Youngstown, Ohio, his warm, friendly and jovial character exists side by side with his unapologetic, piercing, and exacting assessment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is critical of both Palestinian and especially Israeli leadership. Jewish leaders who hear from Sam often find his ideas provocative, troubling, and frequently offensive, challenging their own long-held truths and attachments even as they may see aspects of themselves in his thoughtful sophistication and intellectual prowess.

If Sam were in your sukkah, what is an opinion he might share that you would find challenging? How might you encounter that opinion productively?

Download Encounter’s full Ushpizin resource at encounterprograms.org/ushpizin.

Ushpizin: Powered by Courage

Lama is a teacher of English literature in a religiously and politically conservative girls school in Dura, near Hebron. She comes from a family led by strong women: her sister is the MIddle East Director of the Alliance for Middle East Pace; her eldest daughter is a dynamic young peace activist shaped by her mother and aunt; and Lama herself manifests a gentle yet fierce leadership on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to working towards a better life for all Palestinian and Israeli children.

Lama tells a story about introducing her students to the poem “Jerusalem,” by Yehuda Amichai without initially sharing the poet’s name, and how her students assume it is written by a Palestinian. Lama relates the shock her students express at learning that there are indeed Jewish and Israeli poets, and that they too love Jerusalem.

What is a belief by the “other” that you were surprised to find you both held? What did it mean for you to find that shared belief?

Download Encounter's full Ushpizin resource at encounterprograms.org/ushpizin