IEA Reut-Sadaqa Meeting on 14th July 2008:

This meeting was held at the Swedish Theological Institute as usual.
The coordinators welcomed all present.

The 1st item of discussion: Should we start the meetings with a prayer or not ?

Some thoughts…points…that were brought up for discussion: Hadassah—a form of meditation would be nice, something spiritual, like what Natanael did for the last meeting.. to create the atmosphere for fruitful discussions—this was originally seconded by Adina P. who later brought up some other thoughts, such as: the place of prayer in the different faiths—as a source of study and insight, as well as solace, etc. and the possibility of studying various prayers as we do the holier texts. Karmela: prefers 2 minutes of silence followed by greetings to one another. Rafiqa –perhaps using blessings. Since some members were on summer vacation it was decided to continue the discussion in a larger forum.

The next item was to share some personal experiences with the group in an attempt to get to know one another better. People talked mostly of things they’ve been doing recently:

Karmela: talked of the 7 day retreat she had participated in at Kiryat Yearim; the ICCJ conference in Jlem; the day she had spent with some youth from Neve Shalom, showing them around Christian Old City Jlem.

Hadassah talked of her writings. Bennet Chesler—a student of linguistics from London and a volunteer in the IEA office for the month of July, told us of his activities helping in the office.

Rafiqa Othman, who is the director for all the Arab primary schools in East Jerusalem in the education department of the Municipality of Jerusalem, works for the advancement of Arab children's education. During the first year, she succeeded in achieving several educational projects such as improving the schools' external look with planting tulips donated by a Dutch organization and which she distributed to all the schools. This project gave lots of joy to the children who got to know different plants they did not know before, learned how to look after them correctly and finally a new experience. A second project was to have all the children in grade one have their eyes tested. Thirdly, grades 5-8 were given the opportunity of visiting Jerusalem twice a year within the project 'Jerusalem mosaics'. These projects are part of many others that will be realized during next year's scholastic year. The successes of these projects give great joy in their realization and advance the development of education in the Arab sector. Rafiqa believes that these children growing up in the right educational conditions will be the next generation who will contribute to a successful future and a better life to be in.

Father Louis referred to the German reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who resisted to the Nazis and who wrote impressive letters about faith in our time with statements like: for and with God, we live without God. Live as if there is no God. This put prayers in another light. He also spoke of how concrete deeds make more sense than only praying.

Adina Podolsky told of her English teaching at the Mandel Leadership Institute – a program that encourages people who have worked in education for 10-15 years to spend 2 years on a project dear to their hearts, while learning all kinds of new things and meeting key people in the field…in an environment that encourages open-mindedness and creativity…

Then we broke up for some refreshments and continued informal discussion.

It was decided not to have a meeting in August but we will have one on September 15th during the Ramadan fast.

This report was prepared by Ms Adina Podolsky and the Coordinators Ms Rafiqa Othman and Sr. Karmela Farrugia

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