Statement of Vision
The Wilderness Leadership Academy will be based on the Green School in Bali founded by John Hardy and Outward Bound founded by Kurt Matthias Robert Martin Hahn, CBE. Watch the video about the Green School here: http://www.ted.com/talks/john_hardy_my_green_school_dream
Statement of Intent
Below is the detailing of my personal and professional commitment to conflict transformation as a scholar-practitioner. Specifically, I seek to learn more about conflicts over collective identity—including issues of religion, narratives, and culture—and share a vision for Peacebuilding. My academic foundations in educational methods as well as my experiences as an interfaith peace and conflict trainer, and religious educator and leader illustrate my lifelong commitment to bring conflict transformation and interfaith studies into the classroom.
As a practitioner, my experiences include religious education curriculum development, implementation, and evaluation; Peacebuilding facilitator; and religious training towards rabbinical ordination. One achievement in particular demonstrates how all of these skills have come together: Praying Together for Constructive Conflict in Jerusalem. In my role at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, I supported the efforts of clergy, who founded Praying Together in Jerusalem—a monthly gathering of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim participants. Stemming from PTIJ, I organized the Praying Together for Constructive Conflict in Jerusalem conference, consisting of eleven interreligious organizations with over two hundred Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals. The participants studied texts together from all three Abrahamic faith traditions that support seeing religion as a method for conflict transformation. Out of this rare Holy Land gathering, new partnerships, such as the Dialogue in Mixed Cities: Innovative Encounters, have emerged.
From 2016-2018, I was a dialogue facilitator with Hands of Peace, an American-based organization which brings together Palestinian, Israeli, and American youth to learn conflict transformation skills through dialogue. I functioned as an advisor to the Executive Director for development in the region and did extensive research during the facilitation sessions into the interaction between religion, nationalism, and Peacebuilding. As a senior facilitator, I was confronted by challenges such as what can be done when Israeli participants must go into the Israel Defense Forces. I brought the idea of the 'hermeneutics of citizenship' as a method to understand the challenges to building peace and this resulted in high-level dialogues with the senior alumni of the program, so that they in turn honed their feelings and expressed themselves in productive ways.
Being a scholar-practitioner of theology and Peacebuilding is at the core of who I am, and I know that I must continue to cultivate these skills in service to others. Ultimately, my goal is to incorporate my academic interests in conflict transformation with my practical skill sets as educator and peacebuilder to found the Wilderness Leadership Academy.
The Wilderness Leadership Academy will provide programming for youth to learn leadership skills through internationally recognized outdoor programming. Alumni will be the founding cohort of an institute that certifies experts in conflict transformation, whose aim it is to bring about the upbuilding of a shared society to benefit all residents of our Land.
The certification program will be a recognition of environmental education and leadership training in nature that took place throughout the Galilee, and provides a way of action for participants who are dedicated to activism that builds a Shared Society. The model is based on learning principles about leadership in the environment, implementation of a sustainable lifestyle, and student activity that promotes change in social consciousness and behavior. Teacher training and mentors are an integral part of the Institute.
Statement of Intent
Below is the detailing of my personal and professional commitment to conflict transformation as a scholar-practitioner. Specifically, I seek to learn more about conflicts over collective identity—including issues of religion, narratives, and culture—and share a vision for Peacebuilding. My academic foundations in educational methods as well as my experiences as an interfaith peace and conflict trainer, and religious educator and leader illustrate my lifelong commitment to bring conflict transformation and interfaith studies into the classroom.
As a practitioner, my experiences include religious education curriculum development, implementation, and evaluation; Peacebuilding facilitator; and religious training towards rabbinical ordination. One achievement in particular demonstrates how all of these skills have come together: Praying Together for Constructive Conflict in Jerusalem. In my role at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, I supported the efforts of clergy, who founded Praying Together in Jerusalem—a monthly gathering of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim participants. Stemming from PTIJ, I organized the Praying Together for Constructive Conflict in Jerusalem conference, consisting of eleven interreligious organizations with over two hundred Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals. The participants studied texts together from all three Abrahamic faith traditions that support seeing religion as a method for conflict transformation. Out of this rare Holy Land gathering, new partnerships, such as the Dialogue in Mixed Cities: Innovative Encounters, have emerged.
From 2016-2018, I was a dialogue facilitator with Hands of Peace, an American-based organization which brings together Palestinian, Israeli, and American youth to learn conflict transformation skills through dialogue. I functioned as an advisor to the Executive Director for development in the region and did extensive research during the facilitation sessions into the interaction between religion, nationalism, and Peacebuilding. As a senior facilitator, I was confronted by challenges such as what can be done when Israeli participants must go into the Israel Defense Forces. I brought the idea of the 'hermeneutics of citizenship' as a method to understand the challenges to building peace and this resulted in high-level dialogues with the senior alumni of the program, so that they in turn honed their feelings and expressed themselves in productive ways.
Being a scholar-practitioner of theology and Peacebuilding is at the core of who I am, and I know that I must continue to cultivate these skills in service to others. Ultimately, my goal is to incorporate my academic interests in conflict transformation with my practical skill sets as educator and peacebuilder to found the Wilderness Leadership Academy.
The Wilderness Leadership Academy will provide programming for youth to learn leadership skills through internationally recognized outdoor programming. Alumni will be the founding cohort of an institute that certifies experts in conflict transformation, whose aim it is to bring about the upbuilding of a shared society to benefit all residents of our Land.
The certification program will be a recognition of environmental education and leadership training in nature that took place throughout the Galilee, and provides a way of action for participants who are dedicated to activism that builds a Shared Society. The model is based on learning principles about leadership in the environment, implementation of a sustainable lifestyle, and student activity that promotes change in social consciousness and behavior. Teacher training and mentors are an integral part of the Institute.