At the start of this year, we said goodbye to our long-standing Israeli Coordinator, Amit Lavi. Stepping into his shoes is Yair Seri, who came on the programme in November ’13 and since then has impressed and inspired us all with his dedication to working towards peace – he has literally been all over the place!  Over to Yair to introduce himself:

“Joining on the Journey of Understanding began an actual journey for me that has never stopped, and made me realise how close the conflict actually is, what my own part in it is, how much responsibility I have to promote empathy and understanding and how much power I have, like any individual, to make a change.

The idea of recognising and humanising others – people of other faiths, nationalities, cultures – and reflecting on how I relate to them, directly or indirectly, personally or as a society, is an idea that now guides and leads me in my work.

Since returning from the Journey of Understanding, I have joined the Jerusalem Jewish-Muslim-Christian group Simply Sing, where I volunteer in facilitating intercultural learning and where I also have started a unique Palestinian-Israeli dialogue group. I also work and volunteer with youth in organisations such as Kids4Peace as a facilitator of workshops promoting understanding between youths of different nationalities, cultures, faiths and sects.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with Encompass as the Israeli coordinator. To me, Encompass is about humanising and understanding; about opening a window for people to look at the perceptions they have of others and themselves. I am very excited to join the wonderful staff and to recruit, prepare and support the Israeli participants of the Journey of Understanding.

From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank Amit, who was my coordinator here. Amit is an inspiration to me, and he has encouraged me and supported me in the long and complex road, in a way I hope to help others in their own roads.”