Dear Sisters,
The Sisterhood is dedicated to building trusting Muslim-Jewish relationships between women, to standing up for each other, engaging in social justice action, and working to end acts of hate against any human being. For the first few years, with so much work we needed to do domestically, members were advised to avoid difficult discussions of Israel/Palestine. However, in recent years, the Sisterhood leadership recognized that Palestine and Israel evoke powerful feelings in Muslim and Jewish women alike, and that these unaddressed feelings were like an elephant in the room, affecting the deepening of our relationships.
Many interfaith organizations have been torn apart by simply trying to engage in dialogue around Israel/Palestine, let alone trying to stand together against hate and supporting human rights and nonviolent peace building work in the region. So, as a Sisterhood, we need to be mindful of how we navigate tackling Israel/Palestine together. Peace building organizations in the region who stand up for and support each other even during challenging times of escalating violence are a great model for us.
One of our inspirational partners is Parents Circle Families Forum’s (PCFF), a group of 600 bereaved Israelis and Palestinians who, in spite of personally paying the greatest price of all in the loss of loved ones, are committed to peace building, reconciliation work, and nonviolence. We recently held a joint program with them and learned that the newly elected Israeli government has announced its intention to restrict their public educational activities, based on false allegations. Unfortunately, PCFF is just one of dozens, if not hundreds, of Israeli and Palestinian organizations involved in positive activities to promote the principles of shared Israeli/Palestinian society being targeted by the current government.
What you can do to make a difference:
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Watch the most recent video of our joint program with PCFF.
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Join our upcoming programs, which will highlight the values we hold dear at the Sisterhood.
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Educate yourself about the full range of opportunities to take action with organizations in Israel and Palestine: ALLMEP is a coalition of over 170 organizations- and tens of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis- building people-to-people cooperation, coexistence, equality, shared society, mutual understanding, and peace among their communities.
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Meet with other Sisterhood members, chapter sisters, friends, family members and write letters to your congressional Representatives, Senators, President Biden, Vice President Harris, Secretary of State…. . Yes, letters. You can send emails, sign petitions, and make calls, but letters remain one of the most powerful ways to bring attention to your concerns. Here is some guidance on how to write an effective letter to your legislators and newspapers.
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Write to your local newspapers. Tell them your story, your distress, your worry and most of all your Jewish and Muslim values.
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Reach out to the Central Office at [email protected] or to your regional coordinators to bring the resources and facilitation skills from their recent dialogue facilitation training with New Ground: A Muslim Jewish Partnership for Change to your chapter meetings.
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Please share other ideas with each other and with us.
