Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue

Rossing center for education and dialogue

Formation	2004
Founder	Daniel Rossing
Headquarters	Jerusalem, Israel
Website	rossingcenter.org

For Hebrew version see מרכז רוסינג לחינוך ודיאלוג

Introduction

Rossing Center of Education and Dialogue (Hebrew: מרכז רוסינג לחינוך ולדיאלוג, Arabic: مركز روسينج للتربية وللحوار) is a Jerusalem based interreligious organization working with peacebuilding through education and dialogue. Since the start in 2004 they have worked to facilitate a meeting place for Israelis and Palestinians based on values of understanding, justice and equality. Stating that diversity is an asset rather than a threat, they envision a future that embraces religious, ethnic and national diversity. Their work underlines the need for education and encounters with the other. The staff of Rossing Center is of mixed religious, national and cultural background. The working languages are Hebrew, Arabic and English. A large extent of their work is related to the Israeli education system where they engage with students, teachers and principals. The Rossing Center's goal of holistically changing the education system and engaging in mixed spaces is part of their larger goal to promote a truly shared society.

Founder Daniel Rossing (1946-2010)

Daniel Rossing (1946-2010) was an authority on Christian communities in the Holy Land and devoted to work with interfaith relations in Israel. As founder and the first director of the Jerusalem center for Jewish-Christian Relations (JCJCR), which later became the Rossing center for education and dialogue, he worked to promote understanding and relations between Jews and Christians for over forty years. Rossing earned a BA in history from the University of Wisconsin and a MA in Theological Studies from the Lutheran school of Theology in Chicago. Rossing graduated from the Hebrew University with an additional MA in contemporary Jewish Thought. Daniel Rossing has held the position of Director both of the Department for Christian Communities in Israel’s Ministry for Religious Affairs and at the Meliz Center for Christian Encounters with Israel. Furthermore, he also worked as head of the Christian communes desk at the Jerusalem foundation. He also taught in multiple places such as the Ecumenical Institute at Tantur, St. George College in Jerusalem, Hamline Universitys program in Israel and was coveted as a residing scholar holding lectures for a number of study projects. His publications and research involved Christian minorities, Jerusalem and interfaith relations in the Holy Land.

His book Between Heaven and Earth was published posthumously in 2012 based on a manuscript from 2003. The book gives an account of churches and monasteries in the Holy Land with a thorough description of both the historical and contemporary context of the Church in the Holy Land. A chapter on Jerusalem by Rossing was also published in the 2015 book Coexistence & reconciliation in Israel: voices for interreligious dialogue. One year before his passing in 2010, Rossing received the Mount Zion Award for his contribution to the field and work with dialogue and understanding between Jews and Christians in the Holy Land.

Current director

The Director of the Rossing Center since 2011 is Dr Sarah Bernstein. Previously she was Program Director for ICCI (Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel). She has a long experience in the field and a background in law and mediation. She was awarded a PHD in Peace and Reconciliation studies from Coventry University in England for her thesis on Narrative and belonging. Dr Bernstein's article “Is 'interreligious’ synonymous with ‘interfaith’? The role of dialogue in peacebuilding” was published in the 2012 book Peacebuilding and Reconciliation: Contemporary Themes and Challenges. Bernstein also is a founding member of the international association of spiritual care (IASC).

Programs

The organization has three main directions of action: The education department, The dialogue department and The International engagement department. Rossing Center also works with stakeholders, and has partnerships with a number of organizations and institutions. For example a longstanding collaboration with both the Ministry of Education and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. They also have cooperated with other organizations from within civil society.

The Rossing Center has eight programs: Foundations for Partnership, Educating for Change, Open House, Meeting Place, JCJCR, Healing Hatred, ADAShA and Know Your Neighbor.

Foundations for Partnership (Previously named: Dialogue and Identity)

The Foundations for Partnership (F4P) program helps school students deepen their knowledge of their own tradition as well as the traditions and cultures of others. The program uses the idea of mutual learning to combat prejudices and stereotypes against the ’other’ that is a result of ignorance. The program has operated since 2006, working with Jewish and Arab schools that involve all levels of staff and students. Within the project there is also training for educators on how to promote dialogue and create a climate that helps the students deepen their understanding of their own identities, histories and role. Through the course of a year the students meet four times getting to know one another, learning about the others traditions, scripture, rituals and daily life. The main goal of the project is to challenge norms of separation and segregation between the Arab and Jewish students. This is done by the school twinning, where the Jewish and Arab kids meet on several occasions over the school year.

Educating for Change

The educating for change program facilitates a course that gives teachers tools for conducting conflict-related dialogue. By education and dialogue about political, ethical and social issues the pupils get a chance to express their reality and their role in a multi-faces Israeli society. Educating for change was developed with help of the Ministry of Education, the Jerusalem Education Administration and the Jerusalem Foundation.

Open House

The Open House is located in the mixed city of Ramle. The house's initial owners, the Al Khayris, a Palestinian family, were forced to leave during Israel’s War of Independence and was later purchased by a Jewish family. After the six day war the first owners visited the house and a long-standing dialogue and friendship ensued. As a result of this dialogue and the special history of the house, the house is now dedicated to promoting peace and coexistence activities. The book The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan is based on the story of the house in Ramle.

The house opened up to organize encounters between Jews and Arabs in the city, mainly focusing on youths. The actives later outgrew the house and in 2019 Rossing Center overtook the management of the building looking to keep the house a place of friendship and dialogue in the city.

Meeting Place

The Meeting Place program grew out of a need to educate students at the university about the other’s tradition, faith and culture. The program is a collaboration with the Hebrew University's Diversity Unit that aims to create and deepen relations between Jewish and Arab students at the mixed campus. As part of the program there is a theme-based text study (Interreligious Bet Midrash), it facilitates honest interfaith conversations and intercultural dialogue.

JCJCR- Jerusalem Center for Jewish – Christian Relations

Established in 2004 this program is the first program in what came to be the Rossing Center. The program was created to battle the challenges that made interaction between a Jewish majority and a Christian Arab minority complicated. The aim of the program is to provide Jewish and Arab society in Israel with relevant and correct information about the local Christian communities and Jewish-Christian relations.

The JCJCR program holds a variety of courses, seminars, conferences and lectures on subjects of relevance to promote knowledge about the Christians in the Holy Land. It also worked with issues such as local relations, interfaith and intercultural relations. The audience for JCJCR can be anyone from educators, tour guides as well as people deployed in the public sphere, government or the military.

Healing Hatred – Spiritual Counseling in Situations of Conflict

The healing Hatred stems from a wish to heal the spiritual and emotional trauma that the conflict has brought many Palestinians and Israelis. A trauma that, often results in hatred as a response to lack of control of one's own life. By dealing with the root of these emotions the cycle of fear might be broken and people can find a way forward argues the organization. Starting in 2013, Healing Hatred developed a language and practice while partnering with the Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem and the Hebrew Union College. Based on ideas of pastoral care and taking the religious component of the conflict into account the program aims to heal the trauma that people of all backgrounds struggle with as result of the violent conflict that surrounds them.

ADAShA

ADAShA comes from the Hebrew and Arabic word for lens (Hebrew עֲדָשָׁה Arabic عدسة). In the program the participants are allowed to examine their understanding of religious, cultural, spiritual and educational issues in Israeli and Palestinian society by the lens of their own experiences. The ADAShA program hosts groups that are either in their composition or in their field of interest interreligious. The aim is to provide a serious and nuanced educational experience in Israel for an international audience. The program offers encounters with people who engage actively in politics and civil society on a ground level and also facilitates visits to places of political and religious tension. By facilitating a mix of experiences and dialogue, serious questions regarding faith and nationality can be discussed. The program engages with International groups and communities as well as individuals who are active in interfaith dialogue or who work with questions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Know Your Neighbor

Know your neighbor is a database with the goal of providing education about religious communities in the Holy land. The database provides information about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam accessible in peoples native language. The database covers local communities, holidays, key religious concepts, religious practices and Holy sites.

References

This article "Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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