We are a grassroots organization that formed in Philadelphia in 2001 to foster constructive dialogue within Jewish communities about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other controversial issues.
We offer the following services:
- dialogue sessions and workshops to help people talk across political differences in useful ways
- facilitation trainings
- publications to help people conduct dialogue programs of their own
- consultation with people who are engaged in dialogue work
Why dialogue?
Many Jews are looking for more useful ways to discuss the situation in the Middle East. Discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be extremely difficult. People with strong convictions about the situation often find themselves in bitter conflict with others who hold different views. At the same time, people who feel ambivalent or confused often have trouble finding a supportive environment in which they can discuss their feelings, ideas, and questions, without being attacked from one side or the other. Many people avoid discussing the conflict because they feel they don't know enough, or because the issues seem overwhelmingly painful or confusing.
The Jewish Dialogue Group came together to provide resources to help our community to grapple with these problems.
We have found that carefully structured and facilitated "dialogue sessions"—conversations that are set up to foster respectful listening and collective exploration, rather than argument and debate—can enable people to talk with each other in ways that would otherwise not be possible. Dialogue can strengthen Jewish communities; foster personal clarity and healing; and we believe that indirectly, it can contribute to a resolution to the conflict. Many participants in our programs have written testimonials that describe how they have benefited from dialogue.
In 2006, we began offering dialogue sessions that focus on other difficult issues as well, including the war in Iraq, ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis in the Conservative Movement, and the role of synagogues in promoting social justice.
