Mission: Abraham’s Vision is a conflict transformation organization that explores group and individual identities through experiential and political education. Examining social relations within and between the Jewish, Muslim, Israeli, and Palestinian communities, we empower participants to practice just alternatives to the status quo.
Results: Each year Abraham’s Vision continues to advance its mission of empowering young people to practice and explore just alternatives to the status quo. Through our Vision and Unity programs we have seen a real change for the better. In particular, the Unity Program has enjoyed great success in the past year. In three school years we have graduated 79 Muslim and Jewish students! We also recently expanded our reach through four new educational institutions in the San Francisco Bay Area, reaching an additional forty students and their families. In addition, we successfully launched our third annual Vision Program in June 2008, taking 22 Jewish and Palestinian university students to the Balkans on our groundbreaking comparative conflict program, taking the number of Vision Program participants to 58.
Direct beneficiaries per year: 60 Unity Program Participants and 22 Vision Program Participants
Geographic areas served: SF Bay Area, New York Region and nationwide
Programs: Workshops and consulting for individuals in high school, university campuses and post university settings on a variety of topics
They do an unbelievable job at making programs available for youth, through assisting in funding each students' experience with the types of programs they provide.
AV is a great organization that is committed to bringing together Jews and Palestinians to meet each other, to learn about each other's narratives, and to understand the role we can have in encouraging peace in Israel/Palestine. We learned in the Balkans about the conflicts that occurred there in the 1990's and about the rifts that exist in their society that in many ways mirror those that exist in Israel/Palestine. Abraham's Vision hires competent facilitators and does everything it can to promote learning and exploring of each participant's beliefs. The Vision Program that I was part of is excellent because it doesn't solely consist of a 4-week summer program-- it is a year-long fellowship with two retreats during the year that allows fellows to continue to reach out to each other. My views have changed about Israel, Palestinians, and about what change is possible when you have an open mind.