The ongoing struggle between Israel and the Palestinian people is one of the world’s most intractable conflicts, in part because of the salience of religious claims to place. As such, people are seldom neutral in their opinions about the Holy Land and bring with them the baggage of their own ideologies and agendas. Challenging individual taken-for-granted assumptions through experiencing the realities of the religious and nationalist frames of the conflict, fellows saw that the challenge of coexistence was not of building upon sameness but rather in acknowledging, and living with, difference. This was achieved through such means as a visit to the abandoned Palestinian village of Liftah in the Jerusalem corridor which provided a very strong start to the program. It was not a touristy site and served to present the complicated nature of the Israeli reality. From a pedagogic point of view the visit to the refugee camp of Anata with the reality of violence there was also very significant. A last-minute cancelled meeting with the deputy minister for security of the Palestinian Authority who was seriously wounded (by fighting among Palestinian factions) and brought to the hospital in Nablus provides good insights into the process of learning which characterized this school. The Israeli Jews reacted as if the empty house was a symbol of Palestinians not wanting to talk to them. On the other hand, Israeli Palestinians thought that this empty house signified the lack of real interest of the Jewish organizers who did not try enough, and should have found another Palestinian on the spot. These misconceptions appeared in front of all the “others” and by unpacking the situation with their taken-for-granted assumptions regarding the other, all became aware of  how assumptions clouded their understanding of reality. Eventually, the group came together and sent flowers to the injured man and his family.

This year’s class included 24 fellows from the Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, United States and Uzbekistan. Roughly divided, each religious group, Moslem, Christian (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant) and Jewish, comprised roughly one third of the total. Some non-believers in any monotheistic religion participated as well. Fellows included ophthalmologists, merchants, rabbis, NGO leaders, activists, university professors, protestant ministers, public prosecutors, teachers, and legal practitioners. The fellows were joined by about half a dozen lecturers and a similar number of guides, practitioners, and processing leaders including local experts as well as academics and political figures from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany and the United States. In total there were approximately 30 members in this year’s Summer School interacting, learning, experiencing and challenging their own and one another’s suppositions, presuppositions, understandings and misunderstandings.

Our hosts in Jerusalem were Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Yesodot Center for Torah and Democracy.

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3-15 July 2005

3 July (Sunday): ARRIVE Jerusalem

• Arrival
• 18:00   Opening reception and orientation: The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
  Greetings:
  Shimshon Zelniker, Head of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute (VLJI)
  Adam B. Seligman,  ISSRPL Director
  Shlomo Fischer, ISSRPL Local Coordinating Director
  

4 July (Monday): The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

• 09:00–10:30    Course I: Religion and Public Life –
  Adam B. Seligman: Defining the Problem: Religion, Civil Society and Tolerance
• 10:30–11:00    Coffee Break
• 11:00–13:00    Course II: Religion, Nationalism and Fundamentalism –
  Opening Panel: Religion, Ideology and Religious and Secular Totalism:
  Shlomo Fischer (moderator), Ivo Banac, Rusmir Mahmutćehajić
• 13:00–15:00    Lunch Break
• 15:00–16:30    Course III - Practicum: Israeli Citizenship Programs
  Haifa Sabbagh/VLJI, David Atzmon/Yesodot, Dafna Gruber/IDI
• 17:00–19:30    Walking Tour of Jerusalem – Jackie Feldman, guide
• 19:30    Dinner

5 July (Tuesday): Jerusalem

• 08:30–16:00    Tour (from the Dan Panorama Hotel):
  The Jerusalem Corridor – Nationalism and Memory – Chen Bram, guide
• 17:00–19:00    Processing (at VLJI): Nava Rosenwasser with Yossef Abed Elgafer
• 19:00–19:45    Dinner at VLJI
• 19:45–21:45    Movie: Hiding and Seeking and discussion

6 July (Wednesday): The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

• 09:00–10:30    Course I: Religion and Public Life –
  Adam B. Seligman: The Concept of Tolerance and the Problem of Society
• 10:30–10:45    Short Break
• 10:45–12:15    Course II: Religion Nationalism and Fundamentalism – Paul Ballanfat
• 12:15–13:15    Lunch Break
• 14:00–16:30    Visit to the New Museum of Yad Vashem
• 16:45–17:00    Refreshments at VLJI
• 17:00–19:00    Course III - Practicum: Women’s Voices
  Tamar Biala/Kolech, Aida Tuma/Arab Women Against Violence,
  Yudith Oppenheimer/Kol Ha-Isha – The Jerusalem Women's Center
• 19:00–19:45    Dinner at VLJI
• 19:45–21:15    Processing: Nava Rosenwasser with Yossef Abed Elgafer

7 July (Thursday): The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

• 08:30    Check-Out hotel
• 09:30–11:00    Course I: Religion and Public Life –
  Adam B. Seligman: Liberal Ideas of Tolerance and their Origin
• 11:00–11:30    Coffee Break
• 11:30–13:00    Course II: Religion Nationalism and Fundamentalism – Paul Ballanfat
• 13:00–14:00    Lunch Break
• 14:00–16:00    Course III - Practicum: Ford Fellows
• 16:30    Travel to Nazareth
• 19:00    Check-In hotel
• 19:30–22:00    Visit and Dinner at the Caucasian Center

8 July (Friday): Nazareth

• 08:30    Check-out hotel
• 09:00–13:00    Walking Tour of Nazareth and Nazareth Illit – Chen Bram, guide
• 13:00–14:00    Lunch
• 14:00–16:00    The History and Phenomenology of Palestinian Nationalism – Ramzi Suleiman
  Respondent: Meir Litvak
• 16:15    Travel to Haifa

9 July (Saturday): Haifa

• 15:00–15:30    Gathering at seminar room at the hotel
• 15:30–18:30    Walking Tour of Haifa – Chen Bram, guide
• 18:30–20:30    Visit at Mada – Arab Center for Applied Social Research
  Discussion: Dilemmas in Jewish-Arab Co-existence in Haifa
• 20:30    Return to hotel and travel to Jerusalem

10 July (Sunday): The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

• 10:00–11:30    Course I: Religion and Public Life – Adam B. Seligman: Some Contemporary Liberal Dilemmas (theoretical and practical dimensions)
• 11:30–12:00    Coffee Break
• 12:00–13:30    Course II: Religion Nationalism and Fundamentalism –
  Ivo Banac: Ideology and Fundamentalism in some Muslim Communities
• 13:30–15:00    Lunch Break
• 15:00–16:30    Course III: Religious Zionism – Shlomo Fischer
  Respondent: Avishai Ehrlich
• Free Evening

11 July (Monday): Jerusalem

• 08:00–09:00    (at VLJI) Introductory lecture – Nimrod Luz
• 09:00–12:00    Visit to the Wall, Temple Mount and al-Aqsa – Nimrod Luz, guide
• 12:30–15:15    Lunch
  Two discussions on Border of East and West Jerusalem
  Discussion I: Islam and Judaism in the same Holy Place – Imam from al-Aqsa
  Discussion II: Women and Non-Orthodox Streams at the Wall – Anat Hoffman/The Israeli Religious Action Center
• 16:00–18:00    (VLJI) Course III - Practicum: Arab-Jewish Dialogue and Encounter Groups –
  Maya Kahanoff and Ahmad Higazi/Neve Shalom
• 18:00–19:00    Dinner at VLJI
• 19:00    Movie: Yellow Asphalt
  Processing: Maya Kahanoff with Yossef Abed Elgafer
  

12 July (Tuesday): Anata

• 08:30    Day Trip: Anata – Palestinian Village: meeting with Ibrahim Salamh
  Kefar Edumim Settlement: meeting with residents
• 17:00    (at VLJI) Movie: Trembling before God
  Processing: Maya Kahanoff with Yossef Abed Elgafer

13 July (Wednesday): The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

• 09:00–10:30    Course I: Religion and Public Life –
  Adam B. Seligman: Religious Perspectives on Tolerance and Civility in the Monotheistic Traditions
• 10:30–11:00    Coffee Break
• 11:00–12:30    Course II: Political Theology – Christoph Schmidt
  Respondent: Rusmir Mahmutćehajić
• 12:30–14:00    Lunch Break
• 14:00–16:30    Visit to Meah Shearim and Shas Schools – Shlomo Fischer, guide
• 17:00–17:30    Refreshments at VLJI
• 17:30–19:00    Course III - Practicum: Balkan Perspectives/ Albania/ Central Asia
• 19:15–20:15    Introductory lecture: Tel Aviv – Shlomo Fischer

14 July (Thursday): The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

• 09:00–10:30    Course I: Religion and Public Life – Adam B. Seligman: Conclusion – The Role of the Other
• 10:30–10:45    Short Break
• 10:45–12:15   Course II: Religion Nationalism and Fundamentalism –
  Rusmir Mahmutćehajić: Ideology and Fundamentalism in some Muslim Communities.
• 12:15–13:30    Lunch Break
• 13:30–15:30    Course III: Interface Dialogue in a Situation of Conflict –
  Ron Kronish/Kedem, Tirza Fraenkel and Rabbi Dov Maimon/Yesodot, Sheikh Manasra Abdul Salam/Ansar Al-Sunna, Rabbi David Rosen/American Jewish Committee
• 15:45–22:00    Tour of Tel Aviv (including dinner)

15 July (Friday): The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

• 09:00    Check-Out the Dan Panorama Hotel (Leave the luggage at the hotel)
• 09:30–10:30    Reflections and Evaluation – Rahel Wasserfall
• 10:30–10:45    Coffee Break
• 10:45–11:15    Award of Certificates

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