Father Bruno Hussar; Peace Activist

Father Bruno Hussar, 84, founder of Israel’s Oasis of Peace community, which works to bring Jews and Palestinians together. The Egyptian-born son of Jewish parents was an ordained Dominican priest, but considered himself both a Jew and a Christian and spent his life working to improve understanding among Israelis and Palestinians. He also founded the Center for the Study of Judeo-Christian Relations in Jerusalem. Hussar became an Israeli citizen in 1966 and served as an advisor to the Israeli delegation to the United Nations after the 1967 Egypt-Israeli war. He set up his ongoing Oasis of Peace, formally known as Neve Shalom/Wahad al-Salam, as a rural community outside Jerusalem where Jewish and Arab high school students could go for weekends and summer camp to try to work out mutual hatreds, suspicion and fear. Hussar was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. On Thursday in Jerusalem of cancer.