NORTHRIDGE : Jewish Students Hear Words of Hope for Israel

Wearing blue and white to celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, students at Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School on Friday heard the sounds of hope for Israel.

From two peace activists--one Jewish, one Arab--the students at the Jewish day school heard talk of compromise and of peace.

“The choice of peace is in your hands now. You are the future,” said Monir Deeb, who was born and raised in Gaza and is on the board of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Sitting beside Deeb, Carole Kracer, regional director of Americans for Peace Now, told students they were too used to hearing about the deeds of radicals.

“This is something we want to offset,” she said. “Jews and Palestinians can come together.”

The newly formed Arab-Jewish Speakers Bureau is trying to prove that point. Organizing the effort to promote the peace process are groups that include the American Jewish Congress, and the National Assn. of Arab Americans, as well as Kracer’s and Deeb’s organizations.

The Arab-Jewish Speakers Bureau was formed last December, but after the Feb. 25 massacre in Hebron, the group gained a increased sense of urgency. It plans to send volunteer speakers to community and religious groups and schools to discuss Middle East peace prospects.

“As a Jewish day school, we want to educate our youngsters (as to) what’s involved in the peace process, what the issues are, to show all perspectives in the process,” Luisa Latham, director of the school’s Judaic studies program, said before the speakers took the stage.

Next month, Americans for a Safe Israel, will speak to Heschel students. That organization has criticized the new speakers bureau because of the message it may send about the position of American Jews, some of whom oppose the surrender of any territory to Palestinian control.

The speakers’ appearance created a debate among ninth-graders who lingered after the event to talk to Deeb and Kracer.

“It’s as much their country as ours,” said Talia Matz.

“I’ve been in Jewish day school since kindergarten and I’ve learned it’s ours. It’s not theirs. It’s ours,” Marla Soled responded, saying that all her life she’d heard of the conflicts, of the warring. “It’s hard to change your opinion by one person speaking. I’m more narrow-minded than I should be.”

Soled is just the person Kracer is trying to reach.

“I think I opened her eyes,” she said after the discussion.

But one child’s question was harder to answer. With a question so simple that only a child could ask but so complex that few adults could answer, 11-year-old Matt Kramer waded into the group.

“If everybody wants peace,” he shyly asked, “why are the boys still throwing stones at the soldiers; and why are the soldiers still shooting people? Why is the killing still going on?”