Last week we began our fall tour to promote the paperback edition of The Faith Club, which was published in June.  This tour will take us to 20 cities and into Canada.  (For the schedule, see our Appearances page.) Our first stop was in Chicago where we recorded a program for Milt Rosenberg’s radio show and met with the people who run the wonderful organization Hands of Peace.  Gretchen Grad, a Christian woman, began Hands of Peace with a Jewish woman and a Muslim woman after 9/11.  (Sound familiar?)  Hands of Peace brings together Israeli, Palestinian and American high school students for two weeks of dialogue and fun each summer.  The visitors stay with American families in the Lake Forest, Illinois area.  While the idea came out of Grad’s urge to foster Middle East peace, I am excited as much by what the American students and the American host families are learning from the Middle-Eastern guests.  “I can never go back to my old way of thinking,” one of the American students said.

The host families and the students have been given copies of The Faith Club to read. During the year Hands of Peace has also used The Faith Club in its interfaith meetings.   “It’s our Bible,” said a Hands of Peace spokesperson. And Ranya added, “Your Bible, your Torah and your Quran!”

Gretchen Grad told us, “I wish we had your book before we started Hands of Peace.  We faced the same issues you did when we were getting our organization off the ground.”

Thanks to Gretchen and all those at Hands of Peace for helping Israelies, Palestianians and Americans to get to know one another and to learn from each another.

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