Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Thanks to Rua de Judiaria for turning me on to Aaron Tapper’s terrific Tikkun article about relative non-violence within the Israeli and Palestinian communities. By “relative” he means the interesting phenomenon of Jewish rabbis and Palestinian imams who embrace various versions of non-violence in their confrontation with “the other.” I knew very little about Menachem Froman before I read this article. I find it astonishing and hopeful that a rabbi living in a settlement would embrace his Palestinian neighbors and the need for peace based on non-violent principles.

I also found it refreshing that imams who once served key roles in Hamas and broke with the group over its increasingly indiscriminate terror attacks against Israeli civilians within the Green Line would also embrace varying degrees of non-violence (some total and others qualified) in attacking the Occupation.

There is much to hope for here.

It took some serious googling but I finally discovered Tapper’s website, Abraham’s Vision. He is the group’s co-executive director:

The ancient figure Abraham is universally recognized for embodying the values of hope and hospitality, committed not only to opening his home to the ‘other’ but transforming him or her into a friend. At Abraham’s Vision we stand for these principles and strive to instill them in our participants, through our unique conflict transformation and leadership training programs. Working with students from different ethnic and religious communities, we create safe spaces in which individuals can develop and re-develop their notions of themselves, the ‘other’, and the world at large.