Honoring Women

“Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31:8-9 Honoring Women This month of March is a time when women are often celebrated and honoured. The month started off with International Women’s Day on March […]

The Aim of Meditation, to Listen Everywhere: Palestinian and Israeli Peacebuilders Reflect on the Wisdom of Holocaust writer Etty Hillesum, Captured in Cards.

An interview with Palestinian Dina Awwad-Srour and Israeli Emma Sham-ba Ayalon, two friends inspired by Etty Hillesum, an author and victim of the Jewish Holocaust. After Dina attended the Zen Peacemakers Auschwitz-Birkenau Bearing Witness Retreat, she and Emma partnered to create a series of cards carrying wisdom quotations, selected from Etty’s writings.

We Are Sumud, or If You Imagine It, It Will Be

ISRAEL. “Sumud, like so many other acts of heartful resistance, begins as an act of the imagination. Someone dares imagine that force, occupation, discrimination, poverty, and violence can end.” Eve Marko reflects on her recent trip to Israel, and acts of imagination and revolution.

بَحِبِّك This Says I Love You: U.S. Couple Addresses Islamophobia with Dialogue and Artivism

Married U.S. couple and co-founders of the Bahebak Project, Azzam, a Muslim Palestinian, and Anna, a Jewish American, speak about their work transforming fear to love. Through the Bahebak Project, they create grassroots community support networks to provide emergency assistance to Syrian refugees, respond to Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Prejudice with dialogue and artivism, and engage in peace-building across difference in the United States and Middle East.

Pursuing Peace: Israeli Zen Peacemaker Reflects on Bridging Divides in Israel-Palestine

ISRAEL. At the beginning of March, Zen Peacemaker Order member Iris Katz presented at a full day workshop in Washington, DC as part of Save Israel-Stop the Occupation (SISO). In this post, Iris gives personal testimony about her role as an Israeli Jew in social movements to alleviate the suffering caused by the Israeli occupation. She discusses the complexities of patriotism, activism, community, and justice in an Israel Palestine context, and highlights the way of responsible Judaism as the vital work of bridging the deeply entrenched divides created by “us and them” frameworks.

DON’T LET ANYONE TELL YOU IT DOESN’T MATTER!

Gen. Wesley Clark Jr., middle, and other veterans kneel in front of Leonard Crow Dog during a forgiveness ceremony at the Four Prairie Knights Casino & Resort on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. Photo by Josh Morgan, Huffington Post By Roshi Eve Myonen Marko, Zen Peacemaker Order   JERUSALEM.  I met […]

Many Steps to Home

BERN, SWITZERLAND. Roshi Barbara Wegmüller shares a story of connecting with Syrian refugees.