Servas Israel celebrated the international Peace day in the Peace forest of Jerusalem, bringing together about 40 Servas friends and guests from the Galil area, Haifa, the Tel Aviv area, Jerusalem and its surroundings.

After all the participants arrived we enjoyed a Peace trail, guided by Servas member Yaffa Kfir, including magnificent views of both East and West Jerusalem, and a visit to St. Claire’s Convent where one of the nun’s shared with us the story of the convent and invited us to read St. Francis’s peace prayer in their modest chapel.
Returning to our picnic site overlooking the Peace Forest we shared a tasty common table for a delicious lunch followed by short presentations all given by Servas members:
– Yossi Harel encouraged us to search for inner peace in the coming year.
– Dan Sheffer spoke of his childhood memories in divided Jerusalem and Ruth shared a poem Wildpeace by Yehuda Amichai.
– Roni Dunitz spoke of his exciting project: monthly group meetings with Jews and Arabs from the Sharon area, inspiring us with hope.
– Meir Hayoun shared several Peace poems read by the participants.
– Gabriel Cordell and his friends Derek and Chrys, our Servas guests from California spoke about Gabriel’s incredible roll across America in 99 days and its profound effect on people they met on the way. They are planning to roll from Haifa to Tel Aviv from the 25th to 29th September, look at this link for more info: www.rollwithme.org
After the talks we shared the traditional apple in honey for a good and sweet New Year.
Finally, we visited the nearby Park of Tolerance with its skyscraping statue of a bronze tree among whose branches are seeds of hope.

In Peace and friendship, Meir & Lesley Hayoun
Servas Israel