A SEMBLANCE OF PEACE

How life in a co-living community changed after October 7th.

- MASHA GESSEN

Amir’s house, in Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom, an intentional community of Jewish Israeli and Palestinian Israeli families, is made of stone, chic but spare, not showy. A covered porch faces west, looking out at the green expanse of the Ayalon Valley. Amir, who is Palestinian, first moved to Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom thirty-five years ago, when he was four. His family had been living in East Jerusalem and wanted to escape the violence of the first intifada. The village school, which goes from nursery through sixth grade, is fully bilingual, with equal hours of instruction in Arabic and Hebrew. When Amir speaks Hebrew, Jewish Israelis have a hard time believing that he is Arab, and they often say so, thinking it’s a compliment.

Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom—which means Oasis of Peace, in Arabic and Hebrew—was founded by Bruno Hussar, an Egyptian-born Jew who fled the Nazi invasion of France and later became a Dominican priest. Around 1970, he secured a large parcel of land, on loan from a Trappist monastery, to attempt an experiment in nonmilitarism and religious pluralism in the middle of Israel, halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. This was the age of encounter groups, gatherings based on a belief in the total power of dialogue, and Hussar envisioned Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom as a permanent encounter. By the time Amir’s family arrived, the community had widened its efforts by establishing the School for Peace, a training center for activists, academics, and civil servants. Some eighty thousand people have completed the School for Peace’s courses, which aim to turn citizens of Israel, both Palestinian and Jewish, into agents of change.