Painting For Peace

On April 25th, PeaceMakers from area mosques, synagogues, and churches broke the myth that Muslim, Jew, Christian and others can not work together for peace."This myth, that we fight and always have been fighting, is historically false," says organizer Bruce Barrett. "We paint these signs before you today as a public demonstration of our commitment to peace, health, and justice for the Israeli and Palestinian people," declares the group. Popular media and bad preaching told us that our faith traditions have nothing in common; and yet here we are, painting and working together for peace and justice in Israel and Palestine.


To read the full story, please go to:
http://iwagepeace.org/PaintingOnTheGreen.html

Ag Against Hunger

Ag Against Hunger was founded to provide hungry people with nutritious, fresh, surplus produce from local fields. Ag Against Hunger's mission is to alleviate hunger by providing the necessary link between the agricultural community and food assistance organizations. In the 20 years since its inception Ag Against Hunger has provided over 160 million pounds of fresh produce to people in need throughout California and the West Coast.

To read more about AG Against Hunger, please visit their website @ www.agagainsthunger.org

Year of Giving

Reed Sandridge was laid off last year as a director of a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C. The 36-year-old came up with a pet project to keep him busy while he looked for work. He calls it the "Year of Giving". Every day, Sandridge walks up to a stranger and gives away $10. So far, he's handed out close to $1,200. He also interviews the recipients about their lives and posts their stories on his blog. Think of it as Studs Terkel meets Santa Claus.

Listen to the story on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125816181

And read more about Sandridge's project on his blog:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125816181

Millionaires who, rather than live rich, gave their money away

Here are a half-dozen individuals who have found that the highest and best use of their wealth is in helping others.

Please follow this link to read about them:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/RetirementandWills/EscapeTheRatRace/
millionaires-who-gave-it-away.aspx?GT1=33013

Inspiring Africans

In 2009, the Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue of San Mateo, Calif. -- a handful of U.S. residents -- air-mailed to Nigeria 60 gift sets of its how-to, inspirational documentary DVDs for attendees in Africa at the October INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON YOUTH AND INTERFAITH COMMUNICATION: Building Bridges through Interfaith Dialogue and Citizen-to-Citizen Collaboration -- http://interfaithdialogue.cfsites.org/
The grassroots videos were DIALOGUE AT WASHINGTON HIGH, and PEACEMAKERS: Palestinians & Jews Together at Camp -- http://traubman.igc.org/vids2007.htm .

On February 2010 -- across the ocean and many time zones -- a new era of interfaith Dialogue began across old lines -- bridging chasms, closing distances, dignifying Nigeria and all of us.
SEE PHOTOS at: Nigeria 2010: New Interfaith Dialogue February, 2010
http://traubman.igc.org/nigeriadialogue.pdf

Source: www.traubman.igc.org

News from Israel

On March 26th The Future Interfaith Encounter group of mothers and daughters had its encounter on the theme of El-Umra (visit to Mecca not during the Hajj time).
Since some of the Muslim mothers were planning to go to Saudi Arabia to fulfill the Umra – we decided to dedicate the encounter to that theme. The Muslim mothers began by explaining about this commandment while the Muslim daughters performed a play in which they presented the different stages of the Umra pilgrimage to Mecca and what is said in each stage.
The girls dressed with dresses and head coverings and prepared a model of the Kaaba. In this way the mothers together with the daughters managed to give a clear explanation of the theme. Then we had a conversation and also some questions of clarification.
Finally we divided the girls into groups who played different games together. As usual, the games included use of the two languages in order to improve communication between the girls. The encounter was accompanied by refreshments and was very interesting.

Source: Interfaith Encounter Association

It happened in LA

A paraplegic Egyptian man (who I believe was a teacher, just laid off of his job) had his van first break down and then burst into flames. Just in the nick of time, some fellow motorists who saw the fire, freed him from the van before he got hurt, saving his life. This happened on the 91 Freeway.


Source: Michael Tobocman