Peacebuilding Must Become the Norm
This opinion piece was originally published in CT Mirror on Oct. 6, 2024.
As we reach the anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel and mark a year of living with the unimaginable, one thing is clear: The kind of peacebuilding and interreligious dialogue work we do at Hartford International University must become the norm rather than the exception.
To a large extent, many in the U.S. and abroad have retreated into their respective corners. They view “the other side” with suspicion, contempt, even hate. But in spaces like ours, painstaking work is being done to listen, to empathize, and to find solutions.
Intentionally, as an institution, we have not stated a position. Our policy here, one that’s been in place since 2022, is not to make statements or proclamations about current events. In part, our policy says:
Through vigorous curriculum and community engagement, grounded in a deep tradition of interreligious education and collaboration, HIU contributes to healing the world person by person and group by group. We are a listening institution that nurtures relationships, scholarship, dialogue, and reconciliation on the road toward a more peaceful and just world. HIU’s statements are embodied in our work.
Have some in our own community struggled with that stance? Of course. It’s hard work to listen, to dialogue, and to stay in relationship in the midst of wrenching conflict. As an institution, we work to bring diverse views to the table, even when disagreements are vehement. If HIU took a position, we would inevitably turn some people away, and no one benefits as the table empties.
It’s also been interesting to see where making statements has led peer universities and colleges. Many of them, including the Ivies, have developed policies like ours over the past year, learning the hard lesson that taking positions on complex matters shrinks the table, rather than expands it.
We do our best to invite everyone to the table, and we work to maintain relationships among those of different faiths and viewpoints, as hard as that might be. Some of our work takes place in the classroom as our students, who are mostly Muslim, Christian, and Jewish, interact with each other. Other work we do involves a peacebuilding cohort of students from around the world who spend a year intensively studying conflict transformation, mediation, project management, and the like. They live together in interfaith housing, which requires a high level of compassion and collaboration. If the world worked the way these students do, we’d be in a much better place.
HIU is also working to inform and educate the broader community. We are currently partnering with the University of Hartford on a four-part series this fall called Pathways to Peace? Palestine and Israel. This series offers opportunities to learn about the conflict from scholars of history and those who are involved in peacebuilding efforts today. One of our sessions will examine how the media feeds us the narrative we are most comfortable hearing, often further hardening divisions. During this session, two of our faculty members, one Jewish and one Muslim, have offered to share their social media feeds side-by-side to demonstrate how drastically they differ. In today’s world, this feels like an act of bravery.
If you don’t identify with a position in the conflict, we challenge you to learn more about its history. Too many throw up their hands and say they want to stay out of it because it’s too complicated, or it involves religion, or politics. This kind of retreat doesn’t benefit anyone, and can lead to isolation, or false narratives about our neighbors.
If you do hold strong opinions about the conflict, we encourage you to pause and imagine how you would feel if you had grown up within the narrative of a different community. Is there empathy we can gain? Can we listen and acknowledge the other’s trauma? Are we willing to seek out news and other information sources that don’t tell us what we want to hear, or confirm what we think we already know?
Recognizing each other’s humanity is the first step and a critical one. So is assuming good intentions on the part of our neighbors, even when we disagree. These things allow us to begin the work of building relationships that dismantle hatred and rebuild a different kind of society. Otherwise, we will be in for another year of unimaginable conflict, and future generations will wonder why we didn’t do more to stop it.
HIU President Joel N. Lohr often reminds us, whether students, faculty, staff, or community members: “If we can’t learn to get along, thousands of miles away from the conflict, how can we expect those directly involved to get along?”
Peace begins when people come to see themselves not as opponents but as partners with a shared problem. When we can act as partners with a shared problem, we can continue to expand the table until it includes those with power to influence the conflict. Though we don’t always succeed, we’re committed to keeping the table open for discussion and learning. It’s a glimmer of hope in a dark moment.
Susan Schoenberger is Director of Communications at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace.