Rabbi Sandy Roth — the power of people feeling heard
February 05, 2008
A rabbi from New Hope, Pa., is planning to participate in an interfaith pilgrimage to the Palestinian territories and Israel.
Rabbi Sandy Roth of Kehilat HaNahar, the Little Shul by the River, is one of two rabbis among some 20 clergy members and human rights activists scheduled to go on the mission this spring.
Its goal is to train clergy and lay leaders in “compassionate listening” as they hear the stories of people on all sides of the Middle East conflict.
Dubbed the Delaware Valley Interfaith Compassionate Listening Delegation to the Middle East, the mission is slated to run from March 24 through April 1, according to Roth. A Reconstructionist rabbi, she was recently elected vice president of the Delaware Valley Interfaith Council.
“This is part of my interest in moving out into the interfaith community,” said Roth. “What we are hoping is that we’ll come back with the discipline known as compassionate listening to enhance and expand how we dialogue among ourselves about the Middle East.
“I’m very excited about it,” she said. “I think it’s cutting edge, and I think it’s the only thing that’s going to lead us to peace — people listening to one another with open hearts.”
Roth’s colleagues on the mission will include several Christian ministers, two Catholic nuns, two Muslim imams, and Rabbi George Stern, executive director of the Neighborhood Interfaith Movement in Philadelphia. Their pilgrimage will take them to the West Bank, Hebron, and Israel, where they will interview Palestinians and Israelis about their perspectives on the conflict.
“The trip relates directly to listening — to sh’ma, to listening and feeling heard, to the power of people feeling heard and what that might do,” Roth said. “Hopefully, that piece will bring us closer to peace.”
As the rabbi told her congregants in a recent newsletter, “As I grow spiritually and contemplatively, I continue to notice the truth of the Sh’ma, the truth of the unity with others and the Earth. The question always is: How do we live this interconnectedness? My trip to the Middle East at the end of March is part of this exploration.… But the real gift of this trip will be the work that we do upon returning and the stories that we will tell, which will then be our own.”
Leading the delegation will be Leah Green, founder and director of the Compassionate Listening Project, a nonprofit agency based in Indianola, Wash., that offers trainings in peacemaking and reconciliation.
Larry Snider of Bensalem, a member of Kehilat HaNahar who has participated in missions led by Green in the past, is coordinating the Delaware Valley delegation. His goal, he said, is to help the participants see that even as individuals, they have the power to engage in the peace process.
“I think people make peace as well as nations, and we have a role we can play, Jews and non-Jews, to encourage peace,” said Snider, who is the founder of New Hope for Peace, a Jewish/Muslim/Christian dialogue group, and a member of the Greater Bucks County Peace Circle. “Part of it is about understanding and listening, whether to a settler in Hebron or a Palestinian in Bethlehem.”
Snider said he sees the trip as an opportunity for local representatives of the three monotheistic faiths to come together and work together.
“I thought that would be incredibly powerful and would make a difference,” he said. “We could go together, learn together, and come back together to provide a message to people that really talks about peacemaking in the Middle East.”
For information about the trip, contact Snider or call 215-752-2484.