In the immediate aftermath of October 7th, Debate for Peace partnered with Professor Bob Vogel to run a 9 week writing course to help students and teachers process the emotions that they were facing. The writing, which covered themes ranging from fear and pain caused by the war, identity, questions about the future, and more, turned out to be very powerful and moving.
Over the last week, with the help of Professor Vogel’s Writers Matter, and Jonathan Kessler’s Heart of A Nation, a delegation of six students and two teachers traveled to the US to read their work and speak about their experiences. These meetings highlighted the difficulties that Jewish Israeli and Palestinian teenagers have faced in the last six months, as well as their dedication to forge a new, peaceful future together.
The group met with public and private middle school and high school audiences, visited four college campuses, several synagogues and a church, met young professional groups, and spoke at the World Affairs Council in Philadelphia and the Israel Policy Forum in DC. In Philadelphia they also had a chance to interact with local participants of the Writers Matter program, and to lead a peer writing session.
In total, the delegation met with about 500 people during the course of the delegation. The reactions were overwhelmingly positive, with many audience members and participants mentioning how inspired they felt, encouraging the students to keep writing together, and even asking how they could get involved.
Debate for Peace is grateful to the US Embassy for its support, to Professor Bob Vogel for his selfless dedication to giving students a voice, to the generous donors who enabled the delegation, to Mr. Jonathan Kessler and Heart of a Nation for hosting and facilitating the delegation’s visit to DC, and to all of the groups who invited the delegation to present.
Debate for Peace 