Israel-Palestine peace forum and United Religions Initiative (URI) Cooperation Circle Unity is Strength is holding a free, online public event for World Interfaith Harmony Week, “Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Personal Stories.” Start time is 10 AM Pacific time, 1 PM Eastern time, 8 PM Jerusalem time. Unity is Strength is a 2021 World Interfaith Harmony Week (WIHW) award winner. Event details and registration follow.

Details

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all deeply rooted in the land known as Israel and Palestine. But too often, walls and barriers separate members of these religions, despite their many similarities. The website Quora.com is a place for all people to share their personal struggles and tell their stories. Through these stories, people of other groups are humanized and writers and readers come to an understanding across religions, ethnicities, and cultures. Unity is Strength’s open online forum is hosted on Quora and has received more than a million views since its founding in 2019.

At our event, three frequent contributors to Unity is Strength–one Jewish, one Christian, and one Muslim–will be holding a 90-minute panel discussion of their religions’ basics and their life experiences as members of their respective religions who are connected to this land. The panel will be followed by an open discussion.

Nadia Ramahi, discussing her experience as a Muslim, lives in the Chicago area. She is an Arab-American of Palestinian descent and was raised in a traditional Muslim household. Nadia enjoys writing and learning about other cultures and has an Associate’s degree in early childhood education. She has one son in elementary school, whom she is homeschooling.

Joseph Saad, discussing his experience as a Christian, lives in the Edmonton, Alberta area. Joseph was born in Jerusalem before the 1967 war, raised Catholic, is Palestinian, and came as a refugee to Canada after the 1967 Six-Day War. He studied Library Science and was a library technician and library tech instructional assistant, as well as a journeyman parts technician with Red Seal Certification for all of Canada. Joseph enjoys history, reading, writing, thinking, music, camping, hiking, swimming, nature especially the Rocky Mountains, cars, mechanics, car racing, and motorcycles. He would like to live again in Jerusalem.

Rebecca Sealfon, discussing her experience as a Jew, lives in the New York City area. She is Eastern European Jewish (Ashkenazi) and was raised Conservative Jewish, with Orthodox and Reform branches of her family. Rebecca studied biology and computer science and worked for several years as a software engineer. She enjoys nature, reading, and writing. Rebecca is married and does not yet have children.

Registration

Sign up at this link. The event will also be live-streamed on our new Facebook group, and will be available on YouTube.