Teaneck High students Rawda Elbatrawish, 17, and Liora Pelavin, 15, have received attention, including from NorthJersey.com, The Washington Post and The Times of Israel, for their work in organizing community dialogues on the topic of Israel-Gaza.
Photo by Ron Schwartz
These dialogues, called “Through a Deeper Lens,” began shortly after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and the subsequent and ongoing attacks in Gaza. Their initial community dialogue was held in our Society’s meetinghouse on Oct. 23, 2023. That meeting, for high school students only, was attended by more than 60 youth from Teaneck and nearby communities.
Rawda and Liora were interviewed at our Sunday Gathering on Feb. 11 by longtime Society member and Social Action Chair Lisa Schwartz. See the full interview here.
‘Get comfortable with being uncomfortable’
The teens are friends who met at a high school speech and debate club. Rawda, the daughter of an imam, is Muslim, and Liora, the daughter of a rabbi active in human rights issues, is Jewish. They say they organized these dialogues to foster conversation and education about the long history of the Middle East conflict. They wanted attendees “to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, to really understand the other perspective, and why someone believes what they do. The whole point is to really understand the other perspective, to listen, to empathize, and to form deeper connection through in-person dialogue.”
The conversations continue
Our Society has scheduled three in-person dialogues on this topic. The Peace Affinity Circles are Feb. 22, March 28, and April 25, 6 pm at the meetinghouse.