The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world’s major sources of instability. Americans are directly connected to this conflict, and increasingly imperiled by its devastation. If you are interested in exploring this topic further, join us in the Koinonia dining hall for this interfaith forum. Schedule below.

1:30 pm: Rabbi Arnold Belzer – Presentation

3:15 pm: Mazin Qumsiyeh – Presentation

5 pm: Supper (in the Koinonia Dining Hall)

6:30 pm: Interfaith Panel:

Rev. James Nelson (United Methodist) Fereydoun Jalali (Bahai) Rabbi Arnold Belzer (Jewish) Iman Salahuddin (Muslim) Mazin Qumsiyeh (Orthodox Christian)

8 pm: Closing Devotion

SPEAKER BIOS:

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

Mazin is a Palestinian Christian from Beit Sahor, just outside of Bethlehem. He is an Associate Professor of Genetics at Yale University School of Medicine. He is author of the widely acclaimed book “Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle.” He is founder and president of the Holy Land Conservation Foundation. He is a cofounder of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition. He won the Jallow activism award from the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee in 1998. He was co-founder of Triangle Middle East Dialogue and the Carolina Middle East Association.

Dr. Qumsiyeh's specialty is media activism. He has published over 120 letters to the editor and 50 op-ed pieces and interviewed in TV and radio extensively (local, national and international). Appearances in national media included the Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, CNBC, Al Jazeera, C-Span, and ABC, among others. He is a member of a number of human rights groups (Amnesty, Peace action, Human Rights Watch, ACLU etc.).

In CT, he is Vice President of the Middle East Crisis Committee and volunteers and participates with several other local groups including We Refuse to be Enemies (Jews, Christians, Muslims and others in dialogue and constructive work).

Rabbi Arnold Mark Belzer

Rabbi Belzer is the rabbi of Congregation Mickve Israel in Savannah, Georgia, founded in 1733, the third oldest Jewish congregation in America. Raised in Westchester County, New York, he is a graduate of Iona College in New Rochelle, N. Y., where he majored in history. He was ordained rabbi and received B.H.L., M.A.H.L. and D.D. (hon.) degrees from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, in New York. Rabbi Belzer has extensive experience with interfaith dialog. He is also the Vice-President of the Mastery Foundation, an international ecumenical organization, which conducts training workshops for clergy and lay people in the technology of transformation and centering prayer.

Since his early teens Rabbi Belzer has been involved in the study of the Jews of China. A founder and East Coast director of the Sino-Judaic Institute, he has traveled extensively in China. In 1984 he conducted the first Jewish worship service in Kai-Feng, China, since 1860. Rabbi Belzer has lectured widely on the subject of Jews in China, and comparative studies of other exotic Jewish communities.

Rabbi Belzer now serves on the board of the Equal Opportunity Authority of Savannah. He was a founding commissioner and former member of the Mayor's Human Relations Commission of the City of Savannah and is a past President of the Coastal Museum Association. Rabbi Belzer served as a member of the advisory Board of American Hospice Care, and as a member of the board of the Memorial University Health Trust.

"The present administration in Washington has been invariably supportive of Israel, and the well-being of the Palestinian people has been ignored or relegated to secondary importance." - Jimmy Carter

"I believe that the Israeli people will never be safe until the Occupation ends and a new spirit of repentance and generosity spreads through the Jewish people, and we are able to atone for the pain we have inflicted on the Palestinian people in thirty five years of brutal occupation, and in forcing so many Palestinians out of their home and not allowing them to return in 1948-49." - Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun Magazine

"I was brought up believing that violence only breeds violence and that it is impossible to achieve peace by hurting your neighbor. In my own village, I had to decide whether to despair or go beyond despair…Over the years, I developed a consciousness that my real community can only be Jews, Christians, and Muslims, living together in love.” - Father Elias Chacour, Palestinian Christian, author of “Blood Brothers”

For further information, please contact Sanders Thornburgh at 229-924-0391, ext# 14, or email him at ksetyes@yahoo.com