(Editor’s note: Zoe Weiner is the winner of the 2013 Margolis Memorial Scholarship Essay Contest sponsored by Kansas City Lodge #184, B’nai B’rith. She won a $2,000 cash prize and will be a freshman at the University of Oregon this fall. A graduate of Blue Valley North High School, she is the daughter of Rabbi Alexandria Shuval-Weiner and Jay Weiner.)
The strongest most powerful coalition in the world is created when people act as a whole and come together as one. It takes partnership, commitment, cooperation and compromise in order to achieve a goal; yet, it also takes acceptance, education and understanding with the intention of attaining peace. God made every man and woman equal. Peaceful coexistence can only be achieved when all of God’s children are involved.
Since the dawn of man, there have been numerous examples of needless, devastating clashes between differing groups, whether it is race, gender, religion, social class or belief. In attempting to find paths toward peaceful resolution, too often power, pride and egotism get in the way of compromise and collaboration and, sadly, when groups disagree and get stuck in the middle of a power struggle, nothing gets accomplished.
Without the foundation of partnership, time seems to stand still, nothing progresses and nothing gets improved. In order for society to thrive and develop, compromise, collaboration and partnership are compulsory. An example of this can be seen in the ongoing Middle East conflict. There is fighting, disagreement and a major power struggle between the Arab and Israeli peoples, which has been going on for decades. Competing “truths” and mistrust impede civil discourse. Many doubt if peace will ever be possible.
Interfaith dialogue has long been seen as a key vehicle toward creating space for creative problem solving to take place, because it offers the opportunity for brothers and sisters to sit together, to learn from one another and to discover shared values and build trustful relationships. And yet, interfaith dialogue is only fully achieved when every religion, every minority and group is involved. Too often, many chairs have been left vacant at the collaborative table. In order to pave the way for peaceful coexistence it is imperative that we find ways to fill the empty seats.
There are those who maintain that world peace is an unachievable goal for humankind. I believe that although we may not see it in my lifetime, it is in fact possible. In order for the world to achieve complete peace and diplomatic coexistence, our present mindset of distrust and uncertainty of others must be broken down in order to rebuild to create a world of amity. “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one” (from a song by John Lennon). The first step toward creating this world construct is found in establishing deep personal relationships, people sitting together, sharing their hopes, dreams and fears. We know that peace and harmony are a top priority for many individuals; yet, when the world is seen as divided up into different “types,” whether it is by religion or nationality, it can be difficult to understand the individual human aspect that we all have in common.
“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” is a saying that could have some truth behind its words. Thus, in order to build toward world peace, it is important to start educating children at a young age that everybody is created equal and every human being has inherent value. People are different, but peace can only be achieved when humans understand that everybody else is human too, and we cannot be any more alike than that.
There are multiple truths in the world, and it is only through education and personal relationships, that fact will be understood, and accepted. There is an educational program called Abraham’s Vision in which Jewish, Muslim and Christian teens are brought together to study and learn as a group. “Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding,” Ralph Waldo Emerson taught.
Students work together to create personal and friendly relations while studying sacred texts such as the Torah and the Quran with the purpose of pinpointing commonalities. It is true that all religions are different and unique; although it is also true that all religions share many of the same core values and have many similarities. “Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts; differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge; and through humane ways,” the Dalai Lama XIV said. In order to begin construction on the road to peace, interconnections are important to find. Partnership and common understandings are the building blocks to peaceful coexistence in the world.
Personal relationships are essential in order for peaceful coexistence to be achieved. It is easier to target a whole group of people and go to war when there is no meaning in an individual. Interfaith dialogue and interaction provides the basis for breaking down barriers. When a person gets to know another person, they see the real human inside and the uniqueness of that single being. When people welcome others into their home, and have a meal while they share their personal stories, that person is no longer just a shell, they have a soul and discover that they share common hopes and dreams.
“All my life I’ve been waiting for
I’ve been praying for
For the people to say
That we don’t wanna fight no more
There’ll be no more wars and our children will play …”
“One Day,” Matisyahu
When a relationship is created, a personal connection is made, and it is much more difficult to target an entire group of people when there is an intimate knowledge of all the pieces that make up the whole. The “whole” is no longer a whole; it is a group of unique individuals who all have an individual story and a distinct path. He has children and a wife, she loves to help people or they enjoy playing football. There is much more to learn and understand about one single person than there is about a whole general group categorized into one set “type.”
If people want to identify others by a generalized group, the group should be human being, the only factor that makes us all the same. Once everybody sees the commonalities within all of mankind rather than the differences, only then can peaceful coexistence exist. “There will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions” (Hans Kung).
In my life I have lived among many different types of people, some that I agree with and some that I do not. As I take the next step forward starting college in the fall, I know that I will be exposed to many more people of varied viewpoints and experiences. But as Rabbi Tarfon taught, “It is not your duty to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it.” I go to university a proud Jew, but I will be open to sitting at the interfaith table and learning with and from others in order to do my part in building a world that one day can and will be one of peace.
