Pearls of Ash & Awe – Readings from AschePerlen

Pearls of Ash & Awe—AschePerlen is a book that documents 20 Years of Bearing Witness in Auschwitz with Bernie Glassman & Zen Peacemakers. During this event, several of the authors will read their – or other – testimonies from the book. After reading, we will take time to share in a mindful way. You will […]

Q&A Session for Native American Bearing Witness Retreat 2023

In preparation for this in-person retreat, ZPI Executive Director Geoff O’Keeffe will hold a Question and Answer session. This retreat which will take place July 9-15, 2023 is part of a seven-year program during which we have visited several sites sacred to our Native American elders, and have been invited to share their history and culture. Our […]

GERMAN PRIEST AT THE THRESHOLD OF AUSCHWITZ

This is the story of a boy who was born in post-war Germany, when the Holocaust was not talked about in schools and families. Going as a young pacifist to volunteer in Israel preceded by a visit to Auschwitz, he did not know what shock awaited him. Years later, already as a priest, he returned […]

Healing the Scars of History

Healing the Scars of History BY LINDSAY KYTE| FEBRUARY 9, 2023   Retreats are being held at Auschwitz, a former plantation, and a site where Indigenous people were massacred. Lindsay Kyte reports on how retreatants are finding freedom from their ancestral pain. Approximately a million people died at the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau. It was the […]

Poem from Ukraine

Bitburg – September 2022   Grandma Ida sent letters and money to her family in Poland ― or was it Ukraine? Until the letters came back stamped, Undelivered. The addressees had been delivered, and the entire town disappeared.   In Bitburg, last fall, her grandson paid a visit to the well festooned section of cemetery […]

Shuttlesworth

Screening and Discussion with T.Marie King, Willie Mukei Smith and Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe. Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was raised in the crucible of segregated Birmingham but he was forged by its attempt to kill him. When the KKK planted a bomb underneath his bed and he emerged unharmed, he was sure he was saved by God […]

Native American Lakhota Bearing Witness At Auschwitz

Lakhota elders Manny & Renee Ironhawk joined Zen Peacemakers International’s Auschwitz-Birkenau Bearing Witness Retreat in the Autumn of 2022. During this presentation, Manny & Renee will share their experiences of bearing witness to these concentration camps.

Bernie Glassman Dharma Talk: Holy Week in the Streets

NEW YORK, USA. I go on the streets at other times of the year, too, and each occasion is special in its own way, but the streets feel different during Holy Week. The re-memberance and caring that spring to life during that time are unmistakable and unforgettable.

Eve Marko Reports on Trip to Israel: Africa in Tel Aviv; West Bank

Originally published on June 29, 2013 BALADY I’m in a taxi going to Checkpoint 300 in order to enter Bethlehem and visit with Sami Awad, head of Holy Land Trust. The checkpoint is gone, replaced by the big Separation Wall, which is yellow-gray on the Israeli side and awash with graffiti demanding an end to […]

Healing the Wounds of History

Intercultural conflict transformation and healing historical trauma through drama therapy Healing the Wounds of History is a therapeutic and creative process in which experiential techniques are used to work with people who share a common legacy of generational, historical, and/or collective trauma. This approach was developed by psychotherapist, drama therapist, and theatre director Armand Volkas, […]