The School for Peace

“People are really under stress. But we have a role that is slightly different; we give them an alternative. What we are doing now is really a dialogue in the dark.”
—Noor Abu Ras, Coordinator of University Courses, NSWAS School for Peace

Even as the violence rages around them, the School for Peace (SFP) is redoubling efforts to resource communities throughout the region and the globe. This spring, SFP will lead courses at Ben-Gurion University, Hadassah Academic College, Tel Aviv University, and Ruppin Academic College for students seeking to bring conflict resolution skills into their academic training. For many years, SPF has taught doctors, nurses, psychologists, human rights lawyers, and other professional cohorts to practice empathetic dialogue with each other and with clients.

The SPF is also providing special training for the staffs of health organizations in the region, including facilities in Beersheva, Haifa, and Rehovot. And, the school continues to lead dialogues on Zoom for Israelis and Palestinians living abroad and grappling with the grief, sadness, and anger of this moment. These virtual sessions have taken place in Germany, Norway, Netherlands, Great Britain, Turkey, Spain, and Switzerland. The school’s director, Dr. Roi Silberberg, says that he has never felt the need for the SFP more than now: “We will not succumb to the darkness of quietude, and the chilling distance of alienation. We will maintain the hard-won trust between the Palestinian and Jewish graduates of our many SFP programs, harness their collective power, and disseminate it outwardly into the world.”