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Dina: The
most important thing I learned was listening to someone else who was equally
and perhaps opposite and passionate about an issue.
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Tanjila: I
think it comes very easy sometimes when you meet someone, if you know their
religious tradition or cultural background, to go in with assumptions about who
they are or what they believe in or what they should believe in and that should
not be the case. I think you need to always, with anyone you meet, come to them
with an open mind and be willing to listen to what they have to say and be
willing to engage them and engage in a conversation because no matter what, you
can learn from that person and I think it is important to keep an open ear.
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Brie: The
experience has affected my life. Now I am continuing in interfaith dialogue. I
am directing another conference at USC. I am doing a camp in New York that
brings kids from Northern Ireland, Israel, Palestine, South Africa as well as
America together to teach them how to dialogue and how to deal with regional
conflict and their personal stories and faith and how that weaves together to
be a major thread in their lives; in addition to this institute that is being
started at HUC and USC and the Omar Ibn Al Khattab Foundation. Yes, it has made
me more interested in interfaith activity but I feel like I was on the path and
it is just another boost in that direction.
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Joseph: I
think I learned a respect for the other faiths and they respected me. And I
respected them on a great level, we were also curious about each other's
upbringing and how it was. In some ways, all the other members of the group,
there was a reflection in the way our upbringings were and theirs were...and
even though we were raised in different faiths. I remember Aisha saying, I
thought this was interesting, there will be synagogues, all over the country
that are trying to raise money for Israel by selling goods or crafts and this
and that. I remember her saying that her mother and father said, make sure you
don't buy Israeli products, that is something that is said in their home. Look,
do I understand her position, yes, do I agree with hers, no but at least I
could see a window of what goes on in her house and she could see a window of
what goes on in mine. So I think that was definitely something that we learned,
that we learned from each other, the same thing. I felt that with Mohammad,
that in different homes that are sort of structured religiously, that are
there, it doesn't matter what faith it is, you are going to find similarities
there, almost more in some ways. I might have something in common with someone
who was raised in a Muslim home than a Jewish person who was raised in a Jewish
home that was totally secular.
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Daniel: I
think I have learned that peace is both a moral and strategic imperative and
that we have an obligation to do everything in our power to fight for it, to
promote opportunities where we can discuss our differences. And the fact is,
that it is challenging and we won't always agree and at some point we will need
to agree to disagree, but it takes a deep sensitivity to the complexities of
the conflict that go back thousands of years. It takes unique individuals to be
able to fight for it but they are there and we will find them.
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Zachariah:
I guess what was good to learn was the diversity of views within Israeli
society. I think a lot of the media coverage here you get a very sort of
simplistic understanding of the societies we were trying to examine. I was
definitely struck by the diversity of opinions that came out of our
interactions with different Israelis that range from pretty far right to pretty
far left. And I guess I just would have assumed that there would be so much
concern about the Palestinian side present amongst any segment of the Israeli
population because the image we have from this side is so stark.
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