New group aims to build peace

The Halal/Kosher Cook-off hosted by The Peacebuilders that took place in UC 107 last Friday was the first of many events to come from the group. The Peacebuilders is a new student group sponsored by Drew University’s Center on Religion, Culture and Conflict. It is the brainchild of Associate Director of Caspersen Centers and Assistant Professor of Religion Jonathan Golden. The group aims to gradually create peace around the world.
According to Golden, the students involved in the organization are very active members of the Drew community. “This was a hand-picked group to begin with just because I wanted to get this off the ground and I figured the way to do it was just to grab some real go-getters, the kind of students that I know are really capable of getting things done and being committed to the idea and it all fell into place perfectly. It’s a real group of all-stars,” he said.
When addressing why he began the Peacebuilders, Golden said, “To be quite honest it’s something I have wanted to do my whole life, it’s been always near and dear to my heart. It hits home, this particular issue.”
When asked if Israel/Palestine would remain the focus of the group, Golden said, “No, right now that is the primary focus because that’s where we’ve got these connections.” He went on to say, “We don’t want it to be superficial, we really want to be able to make an impact, so we felt the place to start was Israel/Palestine.”
Fatou Diallo (’13), a member of the Peacebuilders, talked about how everyone in the group is equally involved in the organization. Diallo also talked about one of the goals the group is working towards. “Because we have such diverse members from all different countries eventually we just want to connect with other organizations around the world that also do the same thing as us which is reaching peace,” she said.
Sharif Elzein (’10), another member, addressed some of the ways they are trying to connect with organizations around the world. He talked about how he has been having conversations online with people involved in similar organizations in Lebanon about setting up talks online with students from the high school there and students from the American University of Beirut with students here.
Elzein also described an event the Peacebuilders are hosting on Tuesday, March 1 which is essentially going to be a talk on democracy.
Students from The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies will be coming to Drew to talk about the institute and getting involved in this dialogue on democracy. Elzein talked about putting a recording of the dialogue online in hopes it would reach the international community.
He said, “Our goal is to get all of our things online so we can get recognition for what we are doing in the international community because the international community operates online.”
The Arava Institute aims to get involved with Drew students and Drew University in general during their time here.
Rabbi Michael M. Cohen, director of development at the Friends of Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, said, “We’re hoping to get students from Drew coming on a regular basis ideally and then even developing an even more solid institutional relationship between Drew and The Arava Institute.”
Cohen talked about the focus of The Arava Institute, which is a place where students go to study about the environment and peace and the Middle-East. The homepage of The Arava Institute website, arava.org, states, “By encouraging environmental cooperation between peoples, the Arava Institute is working towards peace and sustainable development on a regional and global scale.”
When talking about the Peacebuilders looking forward, Golden said, “There’s always going to be things that need to be resolved on a political level but the idea here is that irrespective of a political solution, if you had a perfect solution tomorrow or if you never have a solution we still need to teach people how to work together, and live together.”