Peace Journey in USA
Eliyahu McLean
The feedback I got about my journey to Iraq was tremendous. Israeli and Palestinian friends were amazed to hear of the journey in March to pray for peace in downtown Baghdad and many have given me the nickname "Baghdadi". The email message I wrote was forwarded all over the world. Here are some responses:
– My deepest respect for your trust and confidence in the help "from above", for your courage and for all the seeds you have left there. This is what to me religion is all about and nothing else.
– Thank you so much for sharing about this remarkable sojourn. It indeed sheds light where, lately, I could imagine only dread.
– This is an amazing report; you continue to amaze. God give you the strength to continue to represent Am Yisrael with loving strength.
I wanted to share reports about more of my peace journeys, the first of which was in the US from last December to February.
Last December 5-7, I was invited to the Sufi center the 'Abode of the Message' in New Lebanon, New York for a very special weekend called the "An Abrahamic Reunion". Hosted by Pir Zia Inayat Khan, 70 of us gathered as we were snowed in, in a weekend of shared prayer and dialogue. In a mystic encounter between the faiths of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, I was the Jewish teacher. With us on the Christian side were Brother Wayne Teasdale, Sister Joan Kerby from the Temple of Understanding and Rev. Arthur Lee. Teachers of Islam and Sufism included Imam Bilal Hyde and Sheyka Farriha of the NYC Jerahhi Sufi community. Everyone participated in the diversity prayer services offered over the weekend, and I led Kabbalat Shabbat and Shabbat day Jewish prayers.
My friend Moish Geller was co-hosting the national Marianne Williamson radio show, on Dec 8th and invited me to share with listeners about the largely unheard of grassroots bridge building work that is happening between Israelis and Palestinians. Later that evening I gave a talk at 'Sufi Books' bookstore in Tribeca, NYC.
Then I traveled to Charlottesville, VA Dec 11-13 and shared prayer and a talk at friend Ron Povich's. Then the Gesher Center sponsored my talk in the main synagogue there. Many were so inspired to learn about the Sulha gathering this coming August, that they are now planning a parallel gathering at the same time in Charlottesville.
Shahabuddin David Less and the Rising Tide Community in Sarasota, Florida hosted me from Dec 15-20 and he and I gave a talk together on religious peacemaking in the Holy Land. Reverend Arthur Lee invited me to speak to his community at St. David's Episcopal Church in nearby Englewood, Florida.
Back in New York, on Dec 21, the Tikkun Community welcomed me to share my experiences with them. At the invite of one of the group, the next day we went to visit Jewish prisoners at the jail on Ryker Island.
A special person who follows my work and supports people who engage in Mid East peace work from a grounding in a traditional religious practice is a Hasidic teacher Rabbi Mayer Schiller. On Dec 27th we shared a Shabbat meal in his Monsey home, and spoke about our struggles to honor our tradition while acknowledging its problematic treatment of "the other" in some sources.
It was an honor to co-lead a Shabbat Service at Pnai Or in Philadelphia on Jan 3rd with friend Ezra Weinberg. A well attended and engaging audience responded in an awesome way to my talk there on Jan 4th.
Next in DC on Jan 11th, I was the guest speaker at an Arab-Jewish dialogue group that meets monthly in a well known restaurant, Mimi's Bistro. It is owned by an Iraqi-American who hosts the dialogues and was excited to see the Sulha video and get copies sent to his friends.
That evening Rabbi David Shneyer of the Am Kolel Congregation hosted my talk in his home. In him I made a brother and a friend. Members of Congregation Adat Shalom in DC hosted me the next day.
I made a great connection with a peacemaker from Sudan, Abubaker Shingieti from the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy. On Jan 14th he invited me to address a room full of diplomats and policy makers at a prayer breakfast. I got a big applause to my call asking them to help heal the family of Abraham and make Jerusalem a true center of peace for the whole world. I was thanked by the ambassadors to Algeria and Rwanda and host Doug Coe invited me to the National Prayer breakfast a few weeks later.
At the Village Zendo in Manhattan I gave a talk on January 14th with a warm welcome by Sensei Enkyo O'hara. I had an inspirational encounter with Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf after the Khutba (talk after Friday prayer) at the Tribeca mosque on Jan 18.
Back in Philadelphia on Jan. 20th, I attended a special event called "Search for Common Ground" – a dialogue between Dr Akbar Ahmed, the Pakistani chair of Islamic studies at American University in DC and Dr. Judea Pearl, father of the Jewish journalist who was murdered in Pakistan. It was a powerful discussion about the obstacles to and the possibilities of reconciliation between Jews and Muslims and Islam and the West. Dr. Ahmad invited me to speak later to his students, as I will describe later.
At the Auburn Theological Seminary in NYC, their director of interfaith relations, Rabbi Daniel Silberman Brenner, organized a public talk for me on Jan 28th. Attending were some members of Neturei Karta hasidic group. The next day I attended a Sufi 'zikr' at the Tribeca mosque and Sheykha Fariha invited me to offer a prayer for unity which I did in Arabic and English. Another Sufi friend from the Ivory Coast invited me join to a small group of Noth African Sufis at his home where I spoke about the Jewish-Sufi meetings in Jerusalem and elsewhere.
I went back to DC on Feb 5th to attend the National Prayer breakfast. There I mingled with 2000 people from all over the world. People such as Rabbi Michael Melchior and Natan Sharansky from Israel and Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan spoke. President George Bush spoke of the need for the Children of Abraham to come together and why he supported the Iraq war. Ironically, he was followed by an African American Senator who fought against segregation in the South in the Sixties with Martin Luther King. I most enjoyed the "Middle East room", where I met Syrians, Lebanese, Saudis, Egyptians, Palestinians and Israelis.
At American University in DC, Dr. Akbar Ahmed invited me to give a talk to graduate students in his "Dialogue of Civilizations" class. The response was enthusiastic and he later said 'you have many many new students in my class'. My time in the US closed with me and my friend Netanya leading a Tu B'shvat (New Year for the trees) seder in Manhattan and my friends throwing a goodbye/birthday party for me at 'Caravan of Dreams' restaurant.
In addition to my sharing information about my work, I returned to Israel with new insights from the great work happening all over America of people crossing boundaries to meet and share perspectives, which I was privileged to get to participate in. I spoke in synagogues, mosques, churches, Sufi and Buddhist centers, bookstores and restaurants, universities and formal diplomatic gatherings.
Shalom, Salaam,
Radash Eliyahu McLean
Radash = Rodeph Shalom, Pursuer of Peace
Eliyahu McLean |
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