When Sarah Davidson and Shana Kirsch tried to organize dialogue sessions on their college campuses, they pitched the idea to the Jewish and Muslim student organizations on campus. And because neither group wanted to be associated with the other, they both declined.
So the two students circumvented the organizations and sponsored the sessions themselves.
The two college seniors, who met at San Francisco’s Lick-Wilmerding High School, were the only Americans to win an International Youth Foundation YouthActionNet grant. Last month, they traveled to Thailand to meet fellow activists from around the world and participate in a weeklong workshop.
Davidson and Kirsch were tapped for the prize because of their efforts to talk out a situation that often devolves into a shouting match. Davidson, who hails from San Francisco, is at U.C. Santa Cruz, while Kirsch, from Oakland, is at New York University.
“We want to be able to create a place where students who are trying to do this type of organizing, this type of work on campuses, can share the problems they came across and how they overcame them…in creating a safe place on campus,” said Kirsch.
She hopes her work will help “someone looking for an alternative to the antagonistic marginalizing tactics that often take place on campus. That’s usually what I’ve found; it’s very polarized. Right-wing pro-Israel groups and right-wing pro-Palestinian groups basically protest and counter-protest and don’t talk to one another.”
The pair created an organization cleverly titled Conversation Peace and created a Web site at http://people.ucsc.edu/ ~searose
They have also initiated dialogue sessions at their own universities and others, including University of the Pacific and Georgetown. At a 2001 event at U.C. Santa Cruz, students from a number of Jewish and Muslim groups came together to share ideas and view the film “Peace of Mind,” produced by Palestinian and Israeli youth and screened in the 2000 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. The film was subsequently shown at Conversation Peace groups at other universities.
One of Conversation Peace’s main goals is creating a resource guide for like-minded students across the country.
“It could include anything from fact sheets on hot issues within the conflict, like water rights or Jerusalem or settlements,” said Davidson.
“It could also have information for students on how to work within their schools, the school bureaucracy, have events on campus, how to approach speakers, reserve a room, get a microphone, that sort of thing. We’re hoping this will make it easier for students to have events and pursue dialogue on campuses.”
At $500, the YouthActionNet grant isn’t large. But Davidson and Kirsch — who participated in the Kohn Internship Program in 2000 and spent the summer working with San Francisco Reform Congregation Sha’ar Zahav and the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, respectively — hope to use it to hire someone who can make their Web site more effective and professional.
“Eventually, we want to do a national program,” Kirsch said.
The two would like the Web site to unite regional chapters of Conversation Peace that are pursuing coexistence and dialogue.
And while a strengthened Web site and online dialogue are all right, nothing can replace sitting down with someone else, face to face, and having a discussion.
“Sitting in a room with people and talking things out face to face changes relationships, brings new understanding. I don’t want to underestimate the value of that,” said Kirsch.
“I think it’s important that people realize dialogue isn’t necessarily a goal but a process.”