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The Beyond Words Newsletter
December 2007
Beyond Words is a non profit organization coordinating programs for over 12 years to inspire, empower and train Jewish and Arab women, teachers, and community leaders to advance tolerance, women’s and children’s human rights, pluralism, social justice and Peace in Israel.
Gather the Leaders
The only work that will ultimately bring any good to any of us is the work of contributing to the healing of the world. --- Marianne Williamson
“I would like to be able to listen to you in such a way that your pain feels like it is emerging from somewhere deep inside me…” --- Tamar Carmeli, a Jewish group leader, to her Arab counterpart, Silvia Margia
While the leaders of many countries in the Middle East and the West gathered this week in Annapolis, we held a somewhat different gathering. Jewish, Muslim, Druze and Christian women leaders of organizations and institutions met in Nazareth to learn how their personal experience of balance, equality, empowerment and Peace can be related to the transformation they are trying to create in the world.
This gathering was born in a “yurt” (a round gathering place) at the Esalen Institute in January while we were there with a group of Jewish and Arab facilitators. Towards the end of our time in this unique sanctuary devoted to personal and social transformation we realized what a powerful experience the women were having and a question arose… What next? How can we reach more women and increase the benefit of this cooperation tenfold? The answer that seemed to rise out of the morning mist on the blue ocean, the cool mountain streams and the towering trees was and continues to be: “Gather the Leaders”…Because in helping the leaders transform their way of being in the world we will be affecting thousands more women, men and children.
They came from towns and villages from different parts of the country -from Nazareth to Beer Sheva, Abirim to Mgrar. One woman endured checkpoints to join us from Nabulus in the Occupied Territories. They came for a course that would be taught over an entire year concluding with a two week trip to the Esalen Institute in January 2009.
In the beginning our biggest challenge was to turn off the cell phones. The pull from the outside world to constantly listen and deal with pressing issues is almost irresistible. With its intruding ring the cell phone seems to be saying that there is always something more important and urgent then what we are presently doing.
Yet the circle gathered strength and soon the pull of the outside world relaxed as we focused our attention on our bodies. With Silvia’s assured “lets have fun” leadership we moved from uncomfortable, to tentative to daring and finally to a joyful togetherness as we pretended to soap each other’s back in a circle.
Later, while sitting comfortably around a candle we began exploring the uncomfortable way our past experiences still negatively affect our lives today – our decisions and the way we react to one another - especially in stressful situations. Trust began to make its presence felt as we sat in pairs listening to one another, not trying to fix or make suggestions based on our experience, just listening to that ancient pain that gradually emerged.
After breaking bread - or rather pita - together we experienced that quiet space where touch can be healing and the connection is quite literally beyond words.
In the closing circle two women, who are sisters - one who is a leader in a Beduin community and the other the director of a major organization in the Negev started laughing remembering days long gone when one who is ten years older mothered her younger sister. The laughter soon became tears and in a moment they were in each others arms. Looking at them I thought: “Perhaps some day such moments will take place in groups of world leaders. Surly then Peace would soon follow.”
Nitsan
More Good News
1. We have opened a group for leaders of ten different organizations working to promote women’s and children’s human rights, equality and Peace in Israel. Our goals are twofold. First we believe that the changes the leaders make in their lives and the skills we teach them will help them regain their balance and become much more engaged, energized and effective in their work. Second, each of the women leaders we have chosen is in the position to touch the lives and affect hundreds and perhaps thousands of people. After going through our course they will be moved to utilize the techniques in their programs and with the support of the Beyond Words staff, run training seminars for all those they work with, thus spreading the work further.
2. We will be starting a Beyond Words course accredited by the Ministry of Education in January for 25 teachers in the Mgrar Regional College
3. Also in January we will be leading a group for Arab and Jewish women in Nazareth called: Cooking Dialogue .
4. We have started a group for parents in an Arab/ Jewish kindergarten in Kiryat Tivon.
5. “Avnei Derech”, an organization that helps non- profits become stronger and more influential, has chosen Beyond Words for its program this year. We have begun working with them.
6. A “Friends of Beyond Words” steering committee is being formed in the Unites States. Our first meeting with this group will be held this coming May.
7. Silvia and Nitsan are planning to visit the US again in May to lead three more in-depth workshops lasting two to four days. For more information contact: Noshene Ranjbar at: noshene_ranjbar@yahoo.com
Special Thanks To:
Jon Parsons, Noshene Ranjbar and Ailish Meisner for organizing our workshops and supporting us in so many ways. Blessings to all those who hosted us so graciously in Boston, New Haven and Baltimore, the many individual donors (you know who you are) who were moved to support our work in Israel and the Slifka Fund, Myra and Harold Shapiro, and the Krieger Fund for their continued support.
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