Journey of Understanding alumnus Yishai Pulvermacher has joined the Encompass team as our new Israeli coordinator. Welcome to the team Yishai!

“My name is Yishai. I’m a 26 years old Israeli and a Jerusalemite, born and raised. I was never raised to hold a certain political agenda, to like or dislike some people more than others. I was simply raised to believe that all people are equal, we are all human beings and deserve to be treated as such.

As I grew up, learning about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and realizing that other people don’t hold the same point of view as me, I was fascinated in understanding why. This certain curiosity led me to pursue my B.A. in Psychology and Political Science and International Relations.

I wanted to understand what the psychological mechanisms are that facilitate our political ideologies. Finishing my Bachelor degree with excellency, I was still not satisfied and I continued to my M.A. in Social Psychology, focusing on intergroup conflict and reconciliation. In my thesis work I study how threat perception is affected by our political ideology, and how it is affecting our support for violence in the political sphere.

In 2018, during my B.A. studies, I participated in the Journey of Understanding in Izmir, Turkey. The encounter with Palestinians my age, hearing their stories and telling them mine, bonding and arguing, crying, and laughing, has had a great impact on me and I carry this with me every day. Getting the chance to work in Encompass, to be part of this amazing initiative is a privilege for me. I strongly believe that only through communicating and working together we will be able to build together a better future for all of us.”