Our next guest lives in Groton, MA. She is a Hebrew School teacher specializing in Holocaust education and has been trained by Facing History and Ourselves both in Brookline and in Israel. She brought the movie and its producers Paper Clips to her small town and built a Holocaust memorial there. She is one of the most optimistic people I know and she works tirelessly for peace.

So I have been avoiding writing about this because what do I know about World Peace and how to achieve it? But today something happened that made me realize why it wasn’t the time to write until tonight.

I believe that “tolerance” doesn’t go far enough. I want ACCEPTANCE. Accept that someone is different than you are and just move on. Don’t judge, don’t be condescending, don’t think “your way is the only way.” To really walk the talk I have become involved in interfaith work.

I truly believe interfaith work is the answer to understanding, learning and accepting others’ religions I am on the board of the Groton Interfaith Council and together we have provide education to the community about Islam, Judaism and Christianity and what we have in common. We are attending each other’s worship services. Today I attended the Universalist Unitarian Sunday service. The service was about Yom Kippur and they included two Hebrew songs in their service. I was particularly struck by their choir singing in a round “Eli Eli”. How powerful to hear the words sung around the room (the choir sings by standing around at the end of the pews) and feeling embraced by the words. To me this is how we will achieve World Peace.

What else can I do in a little New England town in Massachusetts? Ten years ago, a middle school teacher started an after school club called “The Bookmakers and Dreamers Club” . After much discussion with the kids, they decided to make the World’s Largest Book. After the teacher attended a Jimmy Cliff concert where he said at the end of the concert “what are you doing to teach your kids about peace?” the teacher suggested to the kids they make a book about Peace. For the past 10 yrs., this club as it evolves each year with new students, have tackled obstacles concerning the printing, layout, obtaining letters and financing this project. I volunteered for a few years to help in any way I could by fundraising, obtaining letters and promoting the book. In October 2014 the book will make its first Museum visit to the Kennedy Library in South Boston, MA where pages will be displayed. For more info, you can go to their website at www.pagesforpeace.org

This Peace book just happened to be in my town’s middle school. What else could I be involved in to help promote World Peace? I recently joined the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom which is starting chapters around the Country for Muslim and Jewish women to get together and become friends. I look forward to not only understanding each other’s customs but eventually be able to see what it is like to step into each other’s’ shoes. I am attending a retreat in Philadelphia on November 1st where Muslim and Jewish Women will be getting together to discuss conflict resolution.

I recently heard a NPR interview with a Muslim man who was taught to hate the “other”. When he left home he became close friends with Jews and some homosexual men who he was taught to hate. He returned home and told his mom and her reaction was relief because she was exhausted from hating. She was proud of him and felt released from the chains of hate.

World Peace is an overwhelming task. Sometimes working person to person, community by community is a way we can make a difference. As the Ethics of Our Fathers’ says “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it (2:21).”