From From: Libby & Len Traubman Libby & Len Traubman

Bethlehem's "Hope Flowers School" is doing all they can to bring Palestinian and Israeli children and faculty together in cooperation. This is a beautiful message about this season of Light and its meaning for real relationships. -- L&L

From Gene Sandretto

Thanks for the continuing input on the brighter side.

Here is another example of hope for change toward cooperation. I would like for you and if you see fit, your readers to know about this extraordinary event that we engaged in tonight.

As you know, we are a Palestinian school of mostly Muslim and some Christian students in grades K - 12, featuring programs for building relationships and cultural understanding and reducing fears and reliance on stereotypes between the peoples of this land. One program is of exchange visits and projects with Israeli schools, and another is of volunteer tutoring & teaching by Israelis for the enrichment of our students' curriculum.

To honor our staff AND our Israeli volunteers, Hope Flowers School hosted tonight a Ramadan breakfast for them and their families, along with parents & staff from the Jerusalem Waldorf School, and our American volunteers also. Especially to honor our way of working from diversity with a common purpose - for the peace - we invited three men of their faiths to speak about the holy days in their, and our, traditions, which intersected so closely in this season: Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom on Hannukah, Father Peter Madros on Christmas, and a heartful, openminded sheikh who prefers to be unnamed in communications he cannot respond to, on Ramadan.

Some of the messages to the group of almost 50 of us: From Sheikh A., that Islam sees the other as the completion of the self; that the simplest translation of Islam is peace; that the basic message of all three religions is the same, from the single source; that Ramadan is for foregoing any unkind words or actions toward others, and without this, Allah gets nothing from a person's fasting from food & drink. From Father Peter, that the Palestinians are very proud that Jesus, as a Jew, was one of them; that such Jewish Israelis as were present this evening are the conscience of the Jewish people, because they see that the one people does not need to be ruled by the other; that Bethlehem is wanted to be a city dedicated to peace, remembering peace as a basic message of Christianity, based on Jesus' teaching to love our enemies. From Rabbi Jeremy, that Jews and Muslims will be having a fast day in common within the next week, the one for Jews commemorating the beginning of the destruction of the temple(s); and that his dream for his fasting would be that by practicing to see the temple of the divine in the face of the other, one could achieve the purpose of the temple's symbolic value as the place of connection of the people with God, without having to move any earth or risk any disrespect toward another's way of worship.

We are hoping that this may be but one of many such events that are bringing together so many to celebrate their common work for peace out of their differing traditions, and we are eager to know about others. Thank you.

All the best for your own continued work toward sharing well the world and her tending,

Gene Sandretto