SCJR 11, no. 1 (2016): 1-2

Ronald Kronish, Ed.

Coexistence & Reconciliation in Israel:

Voices for Interreligious Dialogue
(Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2015), softcover, xvii + 268 pp.

EUGENE KORN
ebkorn@gmail.com

Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation,

Jerusalem 9104601

Peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians has been an (often futile) ob-

session for every American president and administration from Jimmy Carter thru

Barak Obama. It is the enterprise of presidents, prime ministers, kings, politi-

cians, and diplomats, and the goal has usually been to reach a negotiated treaty

largely imposed from above. This book is not about peacemaking, but peace-

building—the slow, arduous work of rabbis, imams, priests, teachers, and

psychologists. Peacebuilding is all about bringing people together in a dialogical

and educational process to help local community and religious leaders learn how

to live in peace with each other. It is about achieving psychological, educational,

and spiritual transformations, and nurturing trust over many years.

Long time American-born Israeli interfaith activist Rabbi Ron Kronish has

compiled a collection of essays penned by his Jewish, Christian, and Muslim col-

leagues in Israel that gives the reader a glimpse into the variegated peacebuilding

activities and organizations in Israel. Described from different religious perspec-

tives, these activities usually fly under the radar in the violence-prone and media-

frenzied theater of Israeli-Palestinian relations. This is not a scholarly book, but

an important and accessible read for anyone interested in understanding the reali-

ty of relations in Israel and what is required for Israeli Jews, Muslims, and

Christians to ultimately live in peace and understanding with each other.

Coexistence & Reconciliation in Israel is organized around five units: Jew-

ish-Christian Relations in Israel; Jewish-Muslim Relations in Israel; Trialogue

with Jews, Christians, and Muslims (although ‘trialogue’ is a linguistic faux pas

since the ‘dia’ of ‘dialogue’ means ‘through’ not ‘two’); Educating for Peaceful

Coexistence; and Reaching Out to the International Community. Each unit con-

tains numerous eminently readable essays averaging ten pages in length.

Many of the essays emphasize that interfaith dialogue in Israel differs in sig-

nificant ways from Jewish-Christian dialogue in America and Europe. In Israel,

Jews are the majority and their interlocutors are minorities, hence the power dy-

namics present in Western dialogue are reversed. And of course, Christians are a

Korn: Ronald Kronish’s Coexistence & Reconciliation in Israel 2

minority within the non-Jewish minority. Second, always in the not-so-distant

background of every Israeli interfaith encounter lurks the painful ongoing conflict

between Israelis and Palestinians. (Most Israeli Christians and Muslims identify

as Palestinians, which adds another layer of complexity to the encounters.) In this

context, there is little time or patience for nuanced theology or psychological the-

ory; practical issues always come early to dominate the encounter. Third, while

Israel is a pluralistic democracy, Israeli living patterns conform to those of other

Middle East countries. Most people live in monolithic blocs or communities that

are not conducive to serious self-critique or natural interaction with the religious

or ethnic other. Ignorance of the other’s faith is the norm, while awareness of the

other’s humanity is at a premium. As a result these separate living patterns allow

hostile stereotypes to run amok. For many, organized dialogue and peacebuilding

activities provide the first opportunity for direct interaction with and experience

of the other’s personhood. And finally, in the land of the Bible and the crossroads

of ancient empires, history and tradition always weigh heavily on the interfaith

participants.

The book supplies a fairly comprehensive picture of the breadth of interfaith

organizations and activities in Israel. (There are some important omissions, such

as the Rainbow Coalition, a 50-year old interfaith organization of academics in

Israel, and the relatively new Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Co-

operation.) Perhaps it is inevitable that in survey books of this type the essays do

not always cohere and lack a certain depth. Too often we do not learn about the

detailed workings of these organizations or what their activities really achieve.

One notable exception is the book’s delineation of the model elements of inter-

faith dialogue developed and successfully used by the Interreligious Coordinating

Council in Israel (ICCI): (1) personal interaction, i.e., getting to know the other as

an individual human being; (2) interreligious text-based learning; (3) discussing

core issues of the conflict; and (4) taking action, separately and together. Trust

here is the key, because only after the dialogue members come to know and trust

each other (the first step) can the subsequent steps have any hope of success.

In sum, Coexistence & Reconciliation in Israel provides a good overview of

and introduction to the activities of Jews, Christians, and Muslims who do more

than passively wait for peace to arrive in the region. These activists are commit-

ted to doing what they can to ensure that when the presidents, prime ministers,

and diplomats finally agree on a political solution, it has a decent chance of suc-

cess because people on the ground will have created a critical mass of Jews,

Muslims, and Christians who have learned to understand each other and who will

strive on individual and communal levels to help the solution take root in the

minds and hearts of this troubled region’s citizens.