HEEDING THE CALL
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Youth
WORKSHOP 6: THE CALL FOR COOPERATION
2010
BY NICOLE BOWMER AND JODI THARAN
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 7:29:59 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Though force can protect in an emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration, and cooperation can finally lead men (people) to the dawn of eternal peace. — President Dwight Eisenhower
This workshop helps youth explore the complexity of working with others to create justice. "Cooperation" is a term often used lightly to describe how people work together to achieve a desired result, but on closer inspection cooperation is often challenging and requires specific skills. This workshop uses the cooperative village of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, also called Oasis of Peace, as a model of cooperation to introduce youth to this complexity. This workshop also explores using the arts to increase communication skills while discovering what it takes to cooperate.
Given the intensity of feeling generated about the situation in the Middle East, it is important for workshop leaders to be willing to listen to a range of views on the topic.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Time and Memory | 15 |
Activity 2: Story — The Village That Could | 10 |
Activity 3: Build It Together | 25 |
Faith In Action: Learning From The Past | |
Faith in Action: Allies, Phase 2 | |
Closing: | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Religious Intolerance | 30 |
Alternate Activity 2: Rubber Chicken Toss | 20 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
You have been working with a co-leader in this program. How has this cooperative relationship worked for you? How has it been influenced by other cooperative relationships in your life? Cooperation can be very challenging and requires honesty and trust. Have you been a reliable partner in this endeavor? Has your co-leader? If your co-leader has modeled good cooperation skills, thank them for this and have some example in mind that you could share with the group during the workshop. If something in your relationship with your co-leader is hindering your work, now would be a good time to discuss it. Conversely, ask your co-leader is there anything they wish you would do (or not do) to better support them in your work together?
WORKSHOP PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather youth in a circle. Welcome first-time participants. If there are new people present, invite youth to go around the circle and say their names. Ask if anyone would like to share anything noted in their Justicemakers Guide since the last meeting. Light the chalice, or invite a participant to do so, and recruit a volunteer to read the chalice lighting words:
Let the light of this chalice shine on our willingness to work with and learn from, one another.
Ask the group to be silent for a moment as they reflect on the words. End the silence with "So be it," or other appropriate words. Tell the group that today's theme is cooperation. Ask for volunteers to share what they think cooperation has to do with justice.
ACTIVITY 1: TIME AND MEMORY (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Youth explore the meaning of memories while giving a brief overview of the conflict between Israel and Palestine in order to set the stage for the story, "The Village That Could."
Ask participants to share what they know about the Middle East conflict between Israel and Palestine. Affirm their level of knowledge. Invite everyone to view the timeline on the wall. Seek volunteers to read the points.
After reading all the points on the timeline, read Leader Resource 2, For Every, aloud. Mention that the timeline has several facts and dates, but does not include everything that plays into this conflict. The piece just added about memories is also not exhaustive. This is a complex issue and only the surface is being explored. Remind participants that they can look to Taking It Home for more information.
Share the following remarks and questions:
Introduce an activity called "The Memory Game" in which participants examine the layers that make up memories of even the smallest of things. This is based on an activity from Teaching Economics as if People Mattered: A High School Curriculum Guide to The New Economy by Tamara Sober Giecek (Boston: United for a Fair Economy (at www.faireconomy.org/), 2000). Used by permission.
Everyone receives a pencil and a square piece of paper (about 4 inches x 4 inches). Invite the youth to draw the front of a penny on one side of the paper and the back of a penny on the other side. Encourage them not to focus on the drawing as a piece of art. This is about their memories and what details they remember about something they have seen and touched many times throughout their lives. Allow a few minutes to complete the drawings. Ask youth to write their names on the paper and then collect them.
Give everyone a second piece of paper and a penny. Give them a few minutes to repeat the drawing using the penny as a resource for details. Ask them to again write their names on the paper before collecting them. Let youth keep the penny.
Finally, give them a third piece of paper and a magnifying glass. Give them a few minutes to repeat the drawing using the magnifying glass to discover even more details on the penny.
Once they finish the third drawing, return the first two and invite them to discuss the differences they see among the three. Ask, "How does this relate to the power of memories? Is there more to our memories than even what we remember?" Acknowledge that memory can go back many generations. This is one roadblock to peace in the Middle East. Ask if there have been times in their life when conflicting memories caused a problem or when memories of a wrong done to them made it hard to work or live with someone else. Tell them that in a future workshop, they will explore forgiveness, a capacity which can help us get past hurtful memories.
ACTIVITY 2: STORY — THE VILLAGE THAT COULD (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Youth hear a story about a cooperative village in Israel.
Tell the group that you want to share a story about people in a village in Israel called Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, or Oasis of Peace.
Tell or read the story. Here are questions to spark a discussion after the story:
Including All Participants
Have enough copies of the story so visual learners can follow along.
ACTIVITY 3: BUILD IT TOGETHER (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants cooperate to create an art project.
Divide participants into two teams. Tell them that each team is responsible for creating a model village. Oasis of Peace used education as the focus of their village. Each team should choose a different focus for their village. Every team member should help decide on the theme and should create at least one piece of the village. Try to make the villages as functioning as possible. After choosing a theme, teams might brainstorm what their village needs most. For Oasis of peace, it was schools and learning centers. Yet, their village also needed markets, houses, and government centers. Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam also has a large municipal pool. Was that something they needed or something they wanted? Tell teams that they have 15 minutes to work on the project and two minutes to present it to the larger group.
While the teams work, give time updates. Be available to answer questions, but let the teams make all the decisions. Reconvene the larger group and hear presentations. Process the activity with the following questions:
Including All Participants
Be sure the tables are accessible to anyone with mobility needs.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite youth to stand in a circle and name someone they think has acted with courage. Thank first-time participants for their contributions to the group. Pass out copies of Taking It Home. End the workshop with these words:
President Eisenhower said, "Though force can protect in an emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration, and cooperation can finally lead (people)] to the dawn of eternal peace."
May our lives bring more cooperation into a world sorely in need of justice.
FAITH IN ACTION: LEARNING FROM THE PAST
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Youth interview elders about religious diversity.
Ask participants if they think there is greater religious diversity now than there was twenty-five years ago? What about fifty years ago?
Invite youth to pick a family member, friend, or congregant to interview about religious diversity. The person should be at least twenty-five years older than the youth. Encourage youth to interview diverse people. Brainstorm a list of questions, which might include:
Distribute clipboards, pens and paper for note taking. Tell participants they will be reporting back to the group.
After all the interviews, gather the group to report findings. Did any patterns emerge? Was there agreement about how accepting the country is now compared to the past? Did most interviewees feel the country is more diverse now than then? What was the interviewing experience like?
The group might decide to write a short article for the congregational newsletter about their findings. If so, either keep all quotes anonymous or obtain permission from interviewees to use their words.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Discuss with your co-leader what went well in today's workshop. Discuss what you would do differently in the future. What did you learn from the youth? How is the group doing on cooperating? Does everyone make room for less aggressive, more introverted members to share and participate? If not, how will you address this? If you are doing Faith in Action, Allies, did youth remember to bring back their handouts? If not, what else can you do to help them remember to bring them back every week? What other support does this project need? Discuss the next workshop and any preparation that may be needed.
TAKING IT HOME
Though force can protect in an emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration, and cooperation can finally lead (people) to the dawn of eternal peace. — President Dwight Eisenhower
In Today's Workshop...
We talked about cooperation as a way to create more justice in the world. We heard a story about Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam/Oasis of Peace, a village in Israel where Jews and Palestinians live and learn together. We worked cooperatively on an art project and thought about the memory process.
Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam/Oasis of Peace
Religious Tolerance
Cooperation
Justicemakers Guide
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Youth discuss religious intolerance as a justice issue.
Pointing to the newsprint, tell youth that some people have bumper stickers on their cars with these words. The bumper sticker shows a clenched fist on the left side and a cross on the right.
Ask participants how they might counter the "Truth, Not Tolerance" bumper sticker. Invite everyone to create their own bumper sticker that celebrates religious diversity. Bumper stickers can be put on the family car, stuck on notebooks or book bags or sold in the congregation, with proceeds going to the Interfaith Youth Core (at www.ifyc.org/) (which trains young people in interfaith work) or First Freedom (at www.firstfreedom.org/) (an organization that seeks to increase understanding and respect for religious freedom). In 2009, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations entered into a one-year initiative with the Interfaith Youth Core to nurture youth leadership in the field of interfaith service work.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: RUBBER CHICKEN TOSS (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Youth play a cooperative game.
Fold one sheet in half. Space participants evenly around the sheet and have them toss the rubber chicken up and down on the sheet. Then divide the group into two teams. Give the second team another folded sheet and ask the teams to pass the chicken back and forth. Participants can call out "faster" or "slower" or create any variation they chose.
Process the activity by asking how well the teams cooperated and what made cooperation easier or harder. Ask what real life implications they discovered about cooperating.
HEEDING THE CALL: WORKSHOP 6:
STORY: THE VILLAGE THAT COULD
The quotes in this story come from the website Oasis of Peace.
Imagine a village that is home to 55 families with a waiting list of more than 300 families hoping to become part of the community. Parents choose to raise their children here because they want to break down barriers of fear and mistrust while building bridges of respect and cooperation. Imagine that this village has hosted more than 45,000 visitors over the last 30 years. These visitors have traveled from all over the world to take part in seminars and projects that examine how our world came to be so fractured through miscommunication and preconceived ideas, and how we might heal and find new directions for living together. Fortunately for all of us, this community is real.
This cooperative village is called Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, also known as Oasis of Peace. The name itself is an act of cooperation because the residents of this village are 50 percent Jewish and 50 percent Palestinian, all with Israeli citizenship. Oasis of Peace, which in Hebrew is Neve Shalom and in Arabic is Wahat al-Salam, is located in Israel and despite the continued conflicts between Israel and Palestine, the residents remain committed to choosing respect over fear and cooperation over isolation and opposition.
The village began in 1978 when the first family joined Father Bruno Hussar who had been living on the land for six years. Father Hussar was born a Jew in Egypt and later converted to Catholicism. He has dedicated much of his life to establishing peace between Arabs and Jews. His vision included a community where the primary focus is the education of children. "For years there have been academies in the various countries where the art of war has been taught," Father Hussar wrote. "(W)e wanted to found a school for peace, for peace, too, is an art..."
The Primary School located in Oasis of Peace offers bilingual and bicultural classes for students from Kindergarten through 7th grade. The environment is one of mutual respect in which the students learn about each other's heritage, beliefs, language, and cultural narrative in a way that offers legitimacy to that narrative without needing to agree with it. Most of the school's more than 200 students come from surrounding towns, and the first graduates of the school are now in their 20's. "I think it's an achievement," says Ranin Boulos, a graduate who creates summer camps for Palestinian refugee children. "When you see people from outside the Village sending their kids to a school that is not in their area, it means the message of the school is really working."
Another educational center, the School for Peace, extends the learning far beyond the boundaries of the village. Over 45,000 youth and adults have taken part in workshops that provide communication tools as well as opportunities for dialogue in an effort to understand personal roles and responsibilities in conflicts. In memory of Father Hussar, who died in 1996, the Pluralistic Spiritual Centre was also established to provide a space for study and reflection while drawing inspiration from spiritual traditions from around the world.
Noam Shuster, another graduate of the Primary School, eventually attended an all-Jewish high school. "I would get questions like, 'What! You're living with Arabs? Aren't you afraid they'll throw stones at you?' And I was like, 'WHAT! You're talking about my best friends!' Then I realized that (my classmates) didn't meet people from the other side."
In this village, learning the art of peace requires more than just meeting people from the other side. Day after day, the residents of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam prove that Arabs and Jews can live side by side.
HEEDING THE CALL: WORKSHOP 6:
HANDOUT 1: ALLY ACTION 2
I want to be an ally to _____________________________________________.
Phase 3: Date
What action do you want to take?
What resources or materials do you need and how will you get them?
What hazards or risks are involved?
What obstacles might you encounter and how will you overcome them?
What supports do you have or could you obtain?
HEEDING THE CALL: WORKSHOP 6:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: TIMELINE
165 BCE — The last Jewish state of biblical times is established following a revolt in Judea
63 BCE — Roman conquerors place Judea under the Roman province of Palestine
70 CE — Romans suppress a revolt and the following centuries include the dispersion, banishment and selling as slaves of the Jewish people
638 CE — Arab Muslims conquer the Byzantine Empire (which had replaced Roman rule)
1918 — Britain occupies the region after the fall of the Turkish Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. This ends more than 1,200 years of Muslim rule in the region. Escaping anti-Semitism in Europe and Russia, a massive movement of Jews to what is then known as British Mandated Palestine is already underway.
1922 — A British census shows that the Jewish people comprise nearly 11 percent of the mostly-Arab population of 750,000. Over the next 15 years, another 300,000 Jews arrive in the region.
1947 — Britain hands over control to the United Nations. Conflicts are widespread in which Arabs believe they are natives in the region while Jews believe they are returning to their native homeland. With political, financial and military support from Britain and the United States, Jewish forces conduct the first forced removals of Palestinians from homes and neighborhoods in December 1947.
May 14, 1948 — Israel is established as the first Jewish state in nearly 2,000 years.
May 15, 1948 — Palestinians mark this day of the declaration of a Jewish state as "The Catastrophe." Armies from Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Egypt invade the newly-formed Israel. Israeli forces repel the invasions.
1948 — Present — Attacks continue on both sides while news reports focus on the differences between the two groups. Yet it is essential for creating a region of mutual respect and dignity to remember the groups' common ground.
HEEDING THE CALL: WORKSHOP 6:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: FOR EVERY
For every Israeli great-grandfather with memories of escaping anti-Semitism in Europe and finding a beloved homeland in British Mandated Palestine, there is a Palestinian great-grandfather with memories of Palestine as the only beloved homeland he has ever known.
For every Israeli grandmother with memories of walking with her mother to the market in their neighborhood in 1949, there is a Palestinian grandmother who remembers doing the same when that neighborhood was her home in 1947.
For every Israeli mother with memories of her son who was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber, there is a Palestinian mother with memories of her daughter who was killed by an Israeli soldier.
For every Israeli child listening to loved ones share memories of family members and friends killed by Palestinians, there is a Palestinian child listening to loved ones share memories of family members and friends killed by Israelis. Those memories are powerful. And the choices those children will make as teenagers and adults based on those memories will also be powerful.
FIND OUT MORE
Oasis of Peace
The website of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam /Oasis of Peace (at www.oasisofpeace.org/) has information about the history, educational programs, and the village today.
Dolphin, Laurie. Neve Shalom Wahat al-Salam: Oasis of Peace. (Scholastic Trade, 1993).
MidEastWeb (at www.mideastweb.org/) has unbiased information about the Middle East conflict, including a short history.
Cooperative Games
There are dozens of resources with cooperative games. Try Ultimate Camp Resource (at www.ultimatecampresource.com/site/camp-activities/cooperative-games.page-1.html) or Everybody Wins!: Cooperative Games and Activities by Josette Luymour and Sambhava Luvmour (at www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_2?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=Sambhava%20Luvmour) (Gabriola Island, BC Canada: New Society Publishers, 2007). Order cooperative board games from Child and Nature (at www.childandnature.com/) and other companies.
Religious Tolerance
In addition to the organizations mentioned in the workshop, another noteworthy website is the Center for Religious Tolerance (at www.c-r-t.org/index.php).
CNN issued a report (at www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/01/religious.freedom/index.html) on the nations with the worst intolerance.
Here you can find figures on religious diversity in the United States: a 2007 survey from the Pew Forum (at religions.pewforum.org/reports).
Heart of the Beholder (a film directed by Ken Tipton, 2005) is based upon a true story of religious intolerance.
Movies For Inspiration
Pray the Devil Back to Hell (directed by Gini Reiticker, 2009), about cooperation between Christian and Muslim women in Liberia.
Diary of Anne Frank (latest version is directed by Jon James, 2009), about a Jewish family hiding from the Nazis, with cooperation by a Dutch non-Jewish family (also a book).
Remember the Titans, (directed by Boaz Yaken, 2000) about cooperation between black and white youth on a football team.