Activities

Activities

Leadership Core Groups

Our leadership core groups bring together the most influential leaders of the most radically opposing factions inside Israeli society.

We run one of these groups per year with an average of 14 participants. During the past 10 years over 100 highly influential leaders in Israel have taken part in this process. These workshops have yielded multiple results based on collaborations and partnerships formed between participants.

Facilitator Training

Facilitator training courses and further in-service training to develop for Israeli, Israeli Arab and Palestinian facilitators. The graduates of these programs go on to facilitate “Sia’h Shalom community groups” with leaders of their own communities with our support and supervision.

Some of Sia’h Shalom’s staff and participants take personal and professional risks to be involved in our work. We have intentionally obscured the faces and refrained from listing the names of participants and of some staff in order to protect them. 

Shared Society Community Groups

These groups build as inclusive a network as possible of influential men and women who are local community leaders from conflicting backgrounds (in terms of identity and ideology) building their commitment to work together toward achieving peace inside their shared society.

Cross-border Community Groups

These groups bring together Israeli and Palestinian community leaders. Participants in these workshops are graduates of internal shared society Sia’h Shalom processes which sets a new standard for the depth of cross-border peace dialogue.

Scholarships and publications

This aspect of Sia’h Shalom works to cultivate and develop new innovative thinking about peace drawing especially on ideas inspired by religious thought and Jewish spiritualism. We work with scholars and thinkers as well and give scholarships to students and religious leaders to publish fresh ideas. Through these publications we seek to introduce Sia’h Shalom’s ideas to the academic community and deepen the conversation about peace in Israeli society.

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Work with the International Community

Sia’h Shalom engages extensively with the international community. We maintain contact with Foreign Ambassadors and diplomats serving in Israel, many of whom have participated in Sia’h Shalom workshop processes. We have paid  a number of visits to foreign countries and have had the opportunity to present our work at the White House, the State Department, the Parliaments of the UK, Canada and the Netherlands as well as the Swiss and Norwegian Foreign Offices. We have also presented our work at International Conferences and Universities.     
Sia’h Shalom has also made the case to the international community for an inclusive approach to Middle East Peace that engages with people who have traditionally opposed peace efforts in the past. We argue that the voices, experiences and pain of religious leaders as well as the leaders of other dissenting populations has to be heard and that a vision for future peace must address not only the Israeli/Palestinian conflict but also the internal divisions in each society.

Bet Sia’h Shalom

This new program will run for one full day a week for four semesters. Each year we will introduce a new cohort of 12-14 participants and each cohort will be dedicated to a different theme. The program will be divided up into four parts:

a. Bet Midrash Limud Hashalom – This element of the program will be dedicated to in-depth text study, research, discussion, and group dynamics and will focus on the deep insights and ideas related to peace and peacemaking that are embedded in Jewish texts.

b. Facilitator Training – Participants will receive training in the group dynamic techniques of Sia’h Shalom’s facilitation method.

c. Bet Midrash Ruach Hashalom – This element of the program will be dedicated to exploring the teachings and practices embedded in the Jewish tradition that nurture spiritual growth, meditation, openness of heart and peacefulness.

d. Public events forum – in conjunction with Mishkenot Sha’ananim the Bet Sia’h Shalom will organize public events that share the experiences and insights of Sia’h Shalom with the public. These events will involve past participants in Sia’h Shalom groups (many of whom are extremely prominent public figures) and group dynamic experiences.

Newsletters

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What people say

Senior Israeli Diplomat

I have spent many meaningful hours with many people in Sia’h Shalom’s groups. I am convinced there is no third way, it is either Sia’h Shalom (the discourse of peace) or war.

Senior Israeli Diplomat

Professor at Ben Gurion University

I was so moved by your ability time and again to create a feeling of meaning that moves me toward action.

Professor at Ben Gurion University

Retired IDF General

Sia'h Shalom works miracles. Simple as that.

Retired IDF General

Religious Zionist Leader

Sia’h Shalom opens my heart and it opens the hearts of its participants to each other.

Religious Zionist Leader

Religious Zionist Rabbi

Thank you so much for the meeting. It is not easy to fill the cup of hope these days especially when so many around me are so fearful for Israel's future. It makes people aggressive. Just seeing the incredible range of people who gathered in Sia’h Shalom gave me so much strength.

Religious Zionist Rabbi

Secular Israeli Peace Activist

Sia’h Shalom feels like a miracle. I am so grateful and happy for the hope that these fascinating meetings give me. Looking at the incredible people you have gathered around you I feel that it is such a joy to have even a small part in this great experience.

Secular Israeli Peace Activist

Ultra Orthodox Social Activist

I was a little skeptical when I first heard about it. But now that I truly understand what its effect is on people, I am a true Hasid (believer) of Sia'h Shalom.

Ultra Orthodox Social Activist