My last two Sunday columns focused on elderly men recounting how they survived the horrors of World War II and what they witnessed. Their testimony provided vivid evidence of the way war profoundly affects everybody caught up in it. Now a group of young people, students at the Yale School of Medicine, have stepped forward to propose a path toward peace.
Andrew Kobets contacted me to introduce himself and tell me about a group he recently founded, Peace by Peace: Salam/Shalom.
"Our goal is to organize an event on the New Haven Green April 25 for the purpose of bringing Muslim, Christian and Jewish intellectuals, artists and community members together to foster a stronger relationship between the inhabitants of our city," he said.
As if this weren't ambitious enough, Kobets added, "We are drafting a petition asking for a free flow of medical supplies and care beyond all borders of the Middle East conflict, as a step toward reaching peace in the region."
It's rare these days for college or graduate school students to take time for such idealistic organizing. But it makes good sense for medical students to try to improve medical care and distribution of supplies.
When I met Kobets at a coffee shop near the medical school, he was accompanied by Sumayya Ahmad, a medical school colleague. She's from Columbia, Md., and he's out of New York City. Both of them are 25.
Kobets got his big idea one day last November, when Replica Festina Watches he was sitting in the Operating Room, where he had been assisting with surgery.
"I was looking around at my friends, thinking about taking an active role in something we really believe in," he recalled. "We go into this profession because we want to make some impact. I'm Jewish but I've made good friends with Islamic students. At Yale you're encouraged to look past initial prejudices and stereotypes.
"I texted Omar, one of my close friends," Kobets said, and pitched his idea.
Kobets said the group so far has about 15 members, but many more have promised Mont Blanc Replica to come to the Green April 25.
"It's very much a New Haven event, not just international," Ahmad noted. "This is about community service too, donating to homeless shelters."
For the city gathering, they plan to offer diabetes screening, blood pressure tests, public speakers, singers, artists and even belly dancers.
Kobets said, "I'd love at this event to see a Jewish person meet a Muslim person and have a great conversation, so next time they won't jump to the conclusion that 'those people' are 'barbarians.' There needs to be a stop to killing one another."
Ahmad, whose background is Muslim and Pakistani, stressed the students' group is apolitical. She said her mother's reaction was: "Are you really going to make a difference?" But Ahmad thinks she'll come around when she reads the group's mission statement and sees the list of speakers. It includes Yale Jewish Chaplain Rabbi James Ponet, Yale Associate Chaplain Pastor Isabelle Callista and Rabbi Herbert Brockman of Congregation Mishkan Israel.
The mission statement says: "We believe in a non-violent resolution to the conflict in Israel and Palestine. We recognize that a tit-for-tat method of retribution is non-sustainable and will only end in the mutual destruction of our peoples. Representing the next generation of Yale-trained physicians, we be
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