3-24_schneller EN.indd 3/2024 Interreligious Dialogue Personal experiences by Jews, Christians and Muslims C O N T E N T S Cover: Team photo taken after winning a football match at the Theodor Schneller School in Amman. Photo: EMS/Buck Back cover: English lesson at the Theodor Schneller School in Amman. Photo: EMS/Buck I N T E R R E L I G I O U S D I A L O G U E 2 Holding on to hope together Biblical refl ection 4 It’s like trying to climb Mount Everest without any training Dialogue during war 6 Protecting the dignity of people of other faiths The duty to engage in dialogue and protect religious freedom 9 Against prejudice and in favor of mutual respect Refl ections on Jewish-Muslim relations in the Middle East 12 Our “Amen” to the same psalms Feeling grounded in Jewish-Christian encounters 14 I am grateful for Islam Personal experiences from encounters with Muslims 16 How I found my ummah When dialogue becomes a beacon of hope 18 With heart, mind and interreligious expertise The Wasatia Graduate School in Flensburg focuses on dialogue S C H N E L L E R N E W S 21 “In Schneller God’s love is passed on to everyone” Interview with the new director of the Johann Ludwig Schneller School 24 The end of an era George Haddad hands over a house in good order 26 ‘It‘s an honour to help people in need’ University visit with a Schneller alumnus 28 Holding a university on course whatever the crisis Staff changes at NEST 30 Invitation to the members’ meeting 31 Reader’s letters | Obituary 1 E D I T O R I A LE D I T O R I A L Dear Reader, “No peace among nations without peace between religions.” How often has this phrase by the Catholic theologian and founder of the Weltethos Project, Hans Küng, been quoted? No- one would disagree with him. But how does peace between re- ligions really work in practice? Against the backdrop of the seemingly endless confl icts in the Middle East, we put this question to Jewish, Muslim and Christian people who are involved in interfaith dialogue and asked them to give us their most personal answers. We received remarkable responses that clearly show how much interfaith dialogue depends on the people who want to engage in it, who allow themselves to be challenged and who, despite all the disappointments, hold on to the idea that all people are equal before God. Sarah Bernstein from Jerusalem reports on the work of the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims. Yisca Harani explains why, as a Jew, she is campaigning for religious freedom for Christians in the Holy Land. Rabbi David Rosen reports on astonishing developments in dialogue between Jews and Muslims. Nihal Missaoui shares her enthusiasm for interfaith dialogue with us. And Zeina Barakat presents a study programme at the University of Flensburg where Jews, Christians and Muslims are conducting research jointly. My colleague Uwe Gräbe and I also write about our personal experiences in our encounters with Judaism and Islam. A Schneller magazine would be incomplete without news from the Schneller schools. Lisa Schnotz introduces a former Schneller student who is now studying at a well-known university in Jordan. We also welcome Odette Haddad Makhoul as the new director of the Johann Ludwig Schneller School and bid farewell to Georges Haddad on his retirement which is more than well-deserved. There has also been a change in management at the Near-East School of Theology in Beirut. President Martin Accad succeeds Georges Sabra who worked at the NEST for decades. On behalf of the entire editorial team, I hope you fi nd this issue a stimulating read. Best regards, Katja Dorothea Buck R E F L E C T I O N 2 Surveys repeatedly ask the question “What do people believe in?” and – not surprisingly – they fi nd that peo- ple’s faith in the German context is no longer expressed in the dogmas of con- fessional writings. But what if we asked: “What do people hope for?” What are the images that express hope? And what is al- ready making a diff erence to our hope? The watchword for November paints a picture of hope: heaven, earth, justice – but in a new light. In the light of God’s promise. When I look back, this is one of the bib- lical images of hope that has accompanied me since my time as a confi rmand: An image for faith that opens up a new ho- rizon. For the hope that endures through grief and tears. For the love that changes everything. An image that made me discover the promises of the prophets in the Hebrew Bi- ble during my studies, especially in Isaiah. “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” (Isaiah 65:17). An image that gives strength when helplessness threatens to overwhelm a person. Admittedly, hope cannot simply be fi xed in words. And it is certainly not something that can be decreed. It remains intangible. There are moments and desti- nies when it simply vanishes. It simply has no eff ect on people any more. And I can’t “preach” it into them either. Of course, I wonder who can hold on to hope in the face of the constant escala- tion of violence and war. I can’t speak for others and especially not for our brothers and sisters in the Middle East. But perhaps we can all work at it together – holding on to hope. Just as it was when the 2nd Epistle of Peter was written. The “founding gener- ation” of the fi rst communities had died and opponents were challenging them, asking when the hoped-for Second Com- ing of Christ would come? Peter’s letter is addressed ‘To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the right- eousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ”. (2 Peter 1:1). Holding on to hope together But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home 2. Peter 3,13 (Watchword for November 2024) 3 Taking it a step further, this could also mean: we hold onto hope together. Per- haps not always all at the same time and even sometimes on another’s behalf – I hold on for those who are unable to do so and vice versa. Even though St Peter’s letter does not skimp on threats of doom against false prophets, he nevertheless interprets the continued existence of the world as a sign of God’s patience. It is not a delay nor a denial of his promise: “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9). We are therefore called to “live towards” this promise of a new heaven and a new earth. This has implications for my view of the world, my faith horizon and my ac- tions. And so, for me, the hopeful image of a new heaven and a new earth is also deeply linked to my path in global ecu- menism. One thing I have experienced in ecumenism is that it defi nitely helps when we practice hope across all borders. From my encounters with people of other contexts, churches and faith tra- ditions, I have learnt that a sliver of this hope becomes visible, concrete and tan- gible. When people in the EMS Fellow- ship share their stories and struggles, and when lament and praise resound in many voices and languages during a church service. When we take an interest in each other, really listen and put up with dif- ferences. When a participant says after a partnership trip: I’ve realised that we in Germany are not the navel of the world. When people write: We can’t say often enough how important your prayers from the other side of the world are for us. So then we hope together and it becomes ap- parent what the new heaven and the new earth could be like, the place where jus- tice abides. Kurt Marti puts it like this and gets to the heart of what surveys cannot possibly reveal: The heaven that is, is not the heaven that’s coming when heaven and earth are no more. The heaven that is coming is when the Lord comes, when the rulers of the earth are gone. The heaven that is coming is the world free from suff ering, where violence and misery are defeated. The heaven that is coming is the city of joy and the God with the face of man. The heaven that is coming already greets the earth, which is when love transforms life. (Protestant Hymn Book 153) Reverend Anne Heitmann is a Church Councillor of the Protestant Church in Baden and heads the Department of Ecumenism and Church Worldwide. She also holds the position of Deputy Chair of the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity I N T E R R E L I G I O U S D I A L O G U E 4 We often say “Choose life” really glibly. But to choose life means choosing life when things get tough. It means choosing life even if that means we’re going to have to make con- cessions, even if it’s going to be painful and diffi cult. I used to think it was some- thing terribly easy. This war has made me understand what it really means. It means that the most fundamental command- ment is that we choose life – that we stop killing each other. There are 12 million people between the river and the sea. The reality is that no one’s going anywhere. We have to work out a way to live together. I believe that this diversity is an enriching and positive thing. We are blessed to have this incred- ible diversity of religions, cultures, and identities. Our job is to celebrate it, not kill each other over it. In order to do that, we need dialogue. It’s easier said than done. Trying to create dialogue during war is like trying to climb Mount Everest without any training. You can’t start without experience or prepara- tion. But if you develop your skills – your It’s like trying to climb Mount Everest without any training Dialogue During War muscles and endurance, or your ability to listen to things that are hard or painful to process – then when times get tough, you’re ready and you can do it. My fi rst real experience of dialogue was in a women’s dialogue group that I set up in 2000. Mixed groups weren’t giving me or other women what we were looking for. Men were looking to debate, and women were looking to connect with each oth- er, to build relationships. Women want- ed dialogue, and men kept getting in the way. So I set up a women’s dialogue pro- gramme. It lasted through the Second In- tifada, and, despite all the violence, we were still going in and out of each other’s neighborhoods to meet. One of the most moving and signifi cant meetings we had, was on Jerusalem and its future. I was surprised that everybody wanted to share Jerusalem. No one wanted to divide the city or have the whole thing for themselves. Everyone understood that Jerusalem needed to be shared. That remains a source of inspiration for me to this day. That’s what we should be doing: learning to share. I have put before you life and dea Choose life, so that you and you 5 There were also diffi cult moments. It’s always painful to be exposed to painful truths. People will get upset or off ended, but then they’ll have a chance to say why they’re hurt or what they fi nd diffi cult. We can talk about it. If we are not prepared to be off ended, if we’re not prepared to be hurt, then we’re not going to get any- where. Then we can’t have a real conver- sation, and I believe in real conversations. We all want to hear what we agree with. Well, tough. That’s not always possible. We have to hear things we profoundly disagree with. But listening isn’t going to kill us. I can hear someone say something I disagree with, and it doesn’t mean that I have to stop talking to them. Not everyone at the Rossing Center agrees on everything. That’s OK. Because at the end of the day we agree on our vi- sion: Everybody has to have equal rights, has to have citizenship of some country, and has to be treated as equal citizens in that country. As long as we agree on that, we can work together. As we do. The verse in the Bible that I use most to refl ect on my work is from Psalm 85. The rough translation is. “Hesed and truth meet, justice and peace have kissed.” Hes- ed can translate to loving kindness, grace, compassion, or empathy. Truth on its own can be harsh, so it needs to be paired and hesed. And justice and peace have to go together, because peace inherently in- cludes justice. The absence of violence is not peace, and violence won’t be absent for long without justice. Throughout this war, my life has been one of holding both the pain of Palestin- ians and Israelis, hesed and truth, justice and peace. What gives me hope is that if we can do it at the Rossing Center, it can be done everywhere. We’re the microcosm of what we’re trying to create for everyone else. In a way, I’m lucky – I get to live it where everybody else isn’t. Together, we are choosing life. Dr Sarah Bernstein is the Executive Director of the interreligious peacebuilding organization “The Rossing Center for Educa- tion and Dialogue” founded in Jerusalem in 2006. https://rossingcenter.org ath, blessing and curse. r descendants may live. (Deuteronomy 30,19) I N T E R R E L I G I O U S D I A L O G U E 6 The Jewish Israeli Yisca Harani has been involved in interfaith dialogue for 30 years and has organized countless encounters between Jews and Chris- tians. Now she is focusing her eff orts on the religious freedom of the Christian minority in Israel. . Growing up in an observant Jewish family, who had plenty of amica- ble relations with non-Jewish peo- ple in Israel and abroad, had an enormous impact on my perception of life. The mes- sage of unity of people regardless of their creed was a given, and so was the percep- tion of Jerusalem (where I grew up) and Is- rael, as multi religious habitats by nature. As a young woman, I decided to study religions and to concentrate on those with whom I had less familiarity – especially with Christianity. As a student, I was al- ready involved in activities where I passed on my knowledge of other religions to others: I was a guide, and thus exposed Jewish Israelis to non-Jewish sites and communities, without framing them as “inter religious”. It was exciting to try to understand and make others understand “the others”. Through the teaching expe- rience I realized the challenges and diffi - culties of Israeli Jews to be ‘academically Protecting the dignity of people of other faiths The duty to engage in dialogue and protect religious freedom objective’ or mere ‘observers’ to this mate- rial. I encountered fascination and amaze- ment with some, while with others – re- sentment and rejection. Disillusionment from my paradisi- cal childhood perception of “unity of all believers” was soon to come: alongside roundtables and interfaith activities I witnessed also antagonism, frictions and confl icts. The secular Jews and the pro- gressive believers were ignorant but ex- tremely curious about Christianity. The religious Jews in general bore negativity and anger while ‘hardcore orthodox’ re- fused to learn the subject. Despite this range of reactions, I was determined to create opportunities of in- teraction: inviting Christians to Jewish homes especially during feast days, in- itiating multi-year programs for Jewish, Christian and Muslim pupils, inviting Christian speakers to talk about their faith and traditions in diff erent study forums, visits to monasteries, holy sites and chari- ty Church institutions. I had an ardent de- sire to teach a religion with which I had much in common and yet a deep divide. In my own experience I felt that deep- ening the knowledge of another religion 7 Yi sc a H ar an i is shaping and “sharpening” my own reli- gious identity. Instructing Jewish people about Christianity made me more Jewish, although at times the additional chal- lenge was dispelling Jewish suspicions and Christian disappointments that I am a no convert. I have lived all my life in Israel, and as the years went by, I witnessed the rapid- ly growing diverse societies of Jewish Or- thodoxy. The circumstances leading to the change in nationalism and Jewish ex- clusivism, are not my concern here. The outcome does! In the last 20 years, reli- gious Israeli communities, who never en- countered Christians (except in historical memory) held the historical resentment which at times turned to animosity. A small number diverted the animosity into actions, but those were ignored or overlooked by Israeli society and by the authorities. Harassment such as abusive graffi ti, verbal off ence, spitting, vandal- ism etc., was seen as no more than “bad apples”. But this was not anymore a marginal matter. The rising numbers of Christian pilgrims and the ever-growing number of Orthodox Jews visiting Jerusalem (and other sites) brought up the statistics of unfortunate incidents. Some of these in- cidents were caught by cameras and raised world condemnations. It was at this point that I had shifted my energy from interfaith activism to what Impossible to overlook: Jewish volunteers in high-visibility waistcoats accompany Christian processions. I N T E R R E L I G I O U S D I A L O G U E 8 seemed like necessity: to fi ght against this phenomenon. Since 2013, I organ- ized multiple activities in relation to a desecrated protestant cemetery in Jerusa- lem. A volunteer’s human watch, to escort Christian processions operates weekly un- til to date. June 2023, together with three Israeli universities, I set up an academ- ic conference about the phenomenon of spitting. The conference was condemned and ignored by the authorities but hit the headlines and over a hundred Christian religious arrived. During this conference I launched the Religious Freedom Data Center (RFDC) for documenting anti-Christian actions. The center receives data through a telephone hotline and through volunteers who are assigned to each Christian institution in Israel. Weekly contact with the Christians supplies the data and the center publish- es monthly reports and fi les complaints to the police and other authorities. The Center is not affi liated with any govern- mental institution or political body and is fi nanced by private citizens only. On October 7th, our world turned up- side down and the war in Gaza began. For one month our RFDC froze. Tourism com- pletely stopped, Israelis hardly left their homes, Christians hesitated to contact us. We reached out, explaining that despite the grim times that the region is under- going, we remain committed to our goals. Our mission and determination remain to follow up on any disruption of religious dignity. Even under the dire circumstances of war, when voluntary work is needed in other fi elds and I have to divide my time between all, the duty of safeguarding re- ligious freedom and dignity is a not to be compromised. It is my Jewish duty, and in time – the interfaith dialogue and action will resume as well. Yisca Harani The Religious Freedom Data Center „The Religious Freedom Data Center“ (RFDC) has been collecting information on attacks on Christians and Christian symbolism in Israel since June 2023. Anyone who has witnessed or been the victim of such an attack can contact a hotline. By collecting this data, the RFDC aims to raise awareness among the Israeli authorities and the population about the situation and vi- olations of religious freedom among the Chris- tian minority, which makes up around two per cent of the population in Israel. The reports are published regularly on the center’s website. www.report-hotline-jlm.co.il Yisca Harani greets a nun in one of the lanes of Jersualem‘s old town. Yi sc a H ar an i 9 The Middle East confl ict may paint a diff erent picture, but in recent years, there have been astonishing develop- ments between Judaism and Islam at an international level, says Rabbi Da- vid Rosen, who has been personally involved in many of the milestones in this process. Modern times since the middle of the last century have seen a dra- matic transformation for the good in Jewish-Christian relations. Aside from the widespread Christian repudia- tion of Antisemitism, ideas that were prev- alent throughout most of Christian histo- ry – e.g. that Jews have been rejected by God, that they are in league with the dev- il, that they are a conspiracy of evil, that they poison the wells and murder inno- cent children – are not only vigorously repudiated, but are hardly even known to most young Christians today. However, in something of an historical paradox, these ideas have been commonly found over the last century in a religious culture in which they had largely been foreign beforehand – namely, the Mus- lim world. These ideas have been generat- ed overwhelmingly by the political con- fl ict in the Holy Land, which even though it is a territorial confl ict of nationalisms, nevertheless involves peoples with identi- ties deeply rooted in a religious ethos and history. In recent times, religious attachments have increasingly been used both to bol- Against prejudice and in favor of mutual respect Reflections on Jewish-Muslim relations in the Middle East ster the claims of each side, and all too often to denigrate those of the other. As a result, we may say that the Israeli-Pal- estinian confl ict has been increasingly “religionized”, and this has been terribly evident on the latest tragic war between Hamas and Israel. This trend is extremely dangerous and threatens to engulf us all in the region, and perhaps even beyond, in an ever-increasing cycle of bloodshed and suff ering. Yet despite it all, there have been some signifi cant positive developments in Muslim-Jewish relations in recent times, which hold out signifi cant hope. Some Arab countries had been engaged for many years in such endeavor – Morocco being arguably the most prominent in this re- gard. However, well before the Abraham Accords in 2020 a signifi cant change in orientation had taken place in the leader- ship within the Arab world. They increas- ingly understood that Antisemitic propa- ganda did not really serve their interests, neither internally and certainly not inter- nationally. In 2008, the previous king of Saudi Ara- bia, Abdulla bin Abdulaziz, gathered rep- resentatives from across the Muslim world to support his interfaith initiative to ad- vance global interreligious dialogue and collaboration. This was followed by the fi rst ever Saudi initiated multi-faith con- ference held in Madrid co-hosted by King Abdullah and the King of Spain, Juan Car- los. And I was honored to be one of rabbis invited. ► I N T E R R E L I G I O U S D I A L O G U E 10 This was followed up by an event at the UN to which Abdullah invited both reli- gious leaders and heads of state, including the late Shimon Peres; and a culmination two years later in the establishment of the remarkable King Abdullah International Center for interreligious and Intercultur- al Dialogue (KAICIID), together with the governments of Spain and Austria, and supported by the Holy See. I was honored to serve as the Jewish member of its found- ing Board of Directors. The programs that KAICIID initiated and continues to run are impressive in themselves; but for me the most impor- tant value of my involvement, was the op- portunity to interact with Saudi religious (as well as political) leaders who I would not have met personally otherwise, and to contribute to overcoming the misunder- standings, prejudices, and negative stere- otypes, on which they had been fed for so long. Saudi Arabia under King Salman and the Crown Prince Mohammed have con- tinued to support this interfaith dialogue, and I was also honored to be received to- gether with my colleagues on the KAICIID Board by King Salman in the royal palace in Riyadh. I believe I am the fi rst rabbi and Israeli to ever be so received. Howev- er, during this regnum, Saudi interfaith ef- forts have been primarily directed by the man they appointed as the new head of the Muslim World League (MWL) in 2016, Dr. Mohammed Abdelkarim Al-Issa. The MWL had long been the vehicle of international dissemination of an ex- treme and exclusive version of Islam, com- monly known as Wahabbism. Now un- der Al Issa, a complete turnaround took place in the MWL, repudiating the nar- row-minded orientation and pursuing an active outreach to other religious commu- nities, even hosting a multi-faith confer- ence in Riyadh for the fi rst time in May 2022, which included a dozen rabbis from Europe and the US, I, being the only one invited from Israel. As the International Director of Inter- religious Aff airs of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), I was honored to join with my colleagues in hosting Al Issa and some fi fty Muslim leaders from around the world in a pilgrimage to the death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 2020 on the 75th anniversary of their liberation. The event had a profound impact on Al Issa and he continues to speak about it, and is strongly outspoken against Holo- caust denial. The AJC together with other Jewish agencies have made eff orts in recent years to remove the very off ensive materials in the Saudi educational system in relation not only to Jews but also towards Chris- tians. The dramatic changes in the Sau- di Ministry of Education in the last years have led to an impressive overhaul in their A br ah am ic F am ily H ou se The Abrahamic Family House complex was designed by the G 11 educational materials, and today all of the off ensive passages have been removed and replaced by a constructive and respectful approach towards Judaism and Christian- ity. While the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) interfaith outreach began a little later, it swiftly overtook the rest of the Arab world. These were evidenced both in their edu- cational developments and in the estab- lishment of government initiatives to promote interfaith and intercultural tol- erance and to combat radicalism and ex- tremism. A major boost to this process came with the visit of Pope Francis to Abu Dhabi in 2019 where he signed a Declaration on Human Fraternity with the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, at a large gathering attend- ed by representatives of the faiths from around the world. In celebration of this, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed of the UAE announced that they would build a com- plex where there would be three houses of worship in the vicinity of one another – a mosque, a church, and a synagogue – to demonstrate their commitment to this religious diversity and mutual respect, and this complex would also advance in- terfaith understanding locally and in the world. This Abrahamic Family House was launched last year in the presence of lead- ing Sheikhs, Cardinals and Chief Rabbis, and the complex receives tens of thou- sands of visitors from around the world. Undoubtedly, the barbaric attack of Ha- mas last October 7th and the ongoing war in Gaza leading to such awful loss of life and the suff ering on both sides, has had a seriously negative impact on this process and many initiatives have been placed “on hold” as a result. However, I am convinced that this process of Jewish-Muslim recon- ciliation will continue to advance and fl ourish and bring blessing to both faith communities and to the world at large. For 22 years, Rabbi David Rosen was the Jerusalem based International Director of Interreligious aff airs of the American Jewish Committee from which he took leave last year to serve as Special Advisor to the Abrahamic Family House. Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye. Synagogue, mosque and church – no one building dominates the others. I N T E R R E L I G I O U S D I A L O G U E 12 Why is it so diffi cult for me to write this article, even though the topic has been central for me for around 40 years? I should mention that the majority of my Jewish friends are Israelis – citizens of the country that has offi cially been in a state of war with Leb- anon for decades. And it’s no secret that people are sometimes refused entry to Lebanon because they have posted pic- tures of their visits to Israel on social me- dia. This makes things complicated when you have to visit Lebanon once or twice a year on business and you also have good friends there who you don’t want to get into trouble. This introduction alone may show that Jewish-Christian encounters are not an in- nocuous topic in a “magazine about Chris- tian life in the Middle East”. So, what sort of Jewish-Christian encounters should I actually write about? About the retired Re- form rabbi friend, a human rights activist, with whom I mostly talk about the science fi ction series we both share a great inter- est in? About the architect who strives to preserve Christian buildings in Jerusalem, who takes to the streets week after week in increasing desperation to demonstrate against the extremist government in Isra- el, but who has almost given up all hope for his state? Or about the retired diplo- mat’s wife, who also fears for the existence of Israel, but who votes right-wing precise- ly for this reason and regularly tries to convince me that only “Bibi” Netanyahu can save Israel? But perhaps I should simply tell you about the Israeli colleague here in Germa- Our “Amen” to the same psalms Grounded in Jewish-Christian encounters ny, who sometimes wants to crumble un- der the heaps of resentment that is poured here on his country, but then never stops telling me about his grandfather who, as a doctor in Galilee, treated Jews and Arabs alike without distinction – even and espe- cially if the person had no money – with the result that his memory is still held in great honour in the local Palestinian com- munity to this day. As diff erent as these people are – some religious, others not so much – none of them would question one thing: that they all belong to the “Am Israel”, the “Jew- ish people”, and not merely to a religious community. To a people that has a close relationship to that stretch of land be- tween the Mediterranean and the Jordan based on biblical faith – without neces- sarily implying anything about political claims or concrete borders. Yes, I know, many of my Lebanese friends (and others too) will already disagree with me here, perhaps even claiming that today’s Jews have nothing at all to do ethnically with the biblical people of Israel, and for that reason alone they cannot be a nation. Per- haps they will even cite as key witnesses Jews of the calibre of Judith Butler or rep- resentatives of the extreme, ultra-Ortho- dox sect of the Neturei Karta. But that doesn’t work, especially not from a post-colonial viewpoint. The Jew- ish theologian Susannah Heschel once called for a “decolonisation of Judaism”: like all communities, Jews also have the right to defi ne their own identity instead of being defi ned from the outside – for ex- ample by a Christian church which then 13 Remembering a happy shabbat evening with Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman and his wife Paula (front centre) in Jerusalem, to which Uwe Gräbe (3rd from left) had also taken his colleagues from the EMS and EVS, Kerstin Sommer and Katja Dorothea Buck (left) as well as Dieter Heidtmann (behind Gräbe). goes on to exploit individual dissenting voices from within the Jewish community for its own purposes. Of course, ethnically, the Jewish peo- ple are an exceptionally mixed bunch, as you can see at fi rst glance on Israeli streets. Some have joined this community since biblical times – and yet they have entered into an ongoing continuity. “Like a link in the chain from the past to the future that has always been a part of me,” sings Barbra Streisand in the musical “Yentl”. As a religious person, I particularly like to connect with those in the communi- ty who are as religious in their own Jew- ish way as I am in my Christian way. And I’m happy to put up with the occasional ‘rebuff ’; for example, when Jewish and Muslim dialogue partners join forces and mutually reinforce each other in their crystal-clear monotheism, whereas with a Christian like myself, you never know whether I’m not ‘associating’ some hu- man elements to the divine, just as I liter- ally load things containing pork onto my plate that don’t belong there. I can bear it because I know I’ll be able to return to the synagogue next Friday evening with my Jewish dialogue partner. There we’ll wel- come Shabbat together and conclude the same psalms with our “Amen”. Uwe Gräbe Sa ra h Be rn st ei n I N T E R R E L I G I O U S D I A L O G U E 14 I am grateful for Islam Personal experiences from encounters with Muslims Being open and curious can be a good way to start an interreligious dialogue. But you also need a solid foundation if you don’t want to end up retreat- ing into your personal space when the other religion becomes a bit challeng- ing. At least that is what Katja Dorothea Buck has personally experienced. My fi rst encounter with “Islam” was in the third grade. Gamze, who was what we called a child from a Turkish guest worker family, sat next to me in class and was at least as good as me in German and maths. In sports, she was even better than me. We knew we were born to diff erent religions but that didn’t matter at all. We liked each oth- er. After fourth grade, I moved to gram- mar school. Gamze didn’t. We lost sight of each other. When I was about to fi nish school, the rumour was she had been sent back to Anatolia to get married. I, in turn, went to Paris to spend a di- aconal year in a care home for the elderly. Most of my colleagues there came from Al- geria, Morocco and Tunisia. I made many friends there too. For a while, we lived to- gether in a residential home, cooked to- gether and talked our heads off about God and the world. We were privileged to meet on neutral ground, so to speak. France was not our homeland for any of us. We discussed the fact that we had dif- ferent views on gender roles and religion but it didn’t become a bone of contention, thank goodness! This allowed me to ex- perience what Ramadan means in every- day life and how important the fi ve prayer times were. I was impressed by the con- sistency with which my friends lived their faith. I almost envied them how clearly they could say what was right and what was wrong before God. I am eternally grateful to them because they are the reason why I chose to major in religious studies with a specialisation in Islam rather than Protestant theology. I wanted to know more about Islam, to be able to read the Koran in the original and, above all, to understand where all the prejudices against Muslims in Europe come from. My studies took me to Cairo for a year, where, as a Christian, I was now faced with an overwhelming and very self-con- fi dent Muslim majority. As a young Euro- The domes of the mosques in Cairo are beautifully silhouetted against the light of the setting sun. I N T E R R E L I G I O U S D I A L O G U E 14 15 pean woman, I also had a special status in Egyptian society. My openness and curi- osity towards others were quickly misun- derstood as an interest in having closer re- lationships. It was a painful experience for me learning to put up boundaries between myself and others. Islam, which I had previously encoun- tered in friendships, was suddenly per- ceived as a challenge in everyday Egyp- tian life. The university canteen and all the street snack bars closed during Ram- adan. For me, it felt like a forced obliga- tion to fast. The nearby mosque turned up the loudspeakers for the call to prayer (adhan) even louder than usual. My anger grew with every decibel. I actually quite liked the adhan and enjoyed listening to the somewhat strange-sounding melody. But now I felt under attack and provoked. I retaliated by listening to oratorios and motets by Bach and Mendelssohn as loudly as possible through the headphones of my old Walk- man. I rediscovered myself to this music. That was “mine”. But one question kept nagging at me. Interreligious encounters obviously re- quire more than just a little openness and curiosity. It also needs a solid foundation from which you can approach another person. But what was my foundation? It couldn’t be retreating into my own per- sonal space and listening to familiar mu- sic. Some nights I couldn’t sleep, brooding and ruminating, feeling incapable of sur- viving just one more day in this challeng- ing city. The brooding only stopped when the muezzins softly and gently called to prayer at the fi rst light of dawn. I knew that not all Muslims would be getting up now to turn towards Mecca. But I found it comforting that a sleeping city was re- minded to pray to God at this early hour. Decades later, I learnt from Klaus Schulten, the church musician who has played on many organs in the Middle East, that one of the most common melodies of the adhan is in the Dorian modal key, the same key as, for example, the wonderful Easter hymn ‘”Christ is risen”. Since then, I’ve enjoyed listening to the adhan even more. And when I’m travelling in Jerusa- lem, Beirut, Cairo or Amman and a muez- zin calls to prayer, I sometimes sing along quietly to “Christ is risen”. Not as a way of distancing myself from the other religion, but in gratitude for all the challenges that Islam presents. They have helped me grow in my own faith. 15 M oh am m ed Q as em /u ns pl as h. I N T E R R E L I G I O U S D I A L O G U E 16 Interreligious dialogue plays a central role in Nihal Missaoui’s life – profes- sionally, at university and in her private life. This is because, in her experience, encountering and exchanging ideas with others helps you grow in your own faith. It all started with a friendship with a fel- low student I met in my fi rst semester. He was a Catholic Christian studying Catholic theology; I was a Muslim study- ing Islamic religious education. Our con- versations quickly centred around our faith, our ideas of God, but also our crit- icism of our respective faith communi- ties or institutions. We often sat togeth- er with our holy scriptures, read togeth- er and compared notes, talking literally about God and the world – and how we viewed it from the perspective of our two religions. Today we are best friends. In ad- dition to our deep friendship, we are also united by our faith, even if we don’t be- long to the same religion. This is because every time we talk, we come to the same conclusion – our love for God and our love for his creation are no diff erent. In a world where there is so much prej- udice against Islam and Muslims, I wanted to do my part to break down these prej- udices and – like my best friend and I – bring people closer together through faith. Together with a friend, I organised an in- terfaith fast-breaking event for the fi rst time in our hall of residence in Münster during Ramadan 2016 and this has now become a tradition. This event has proven to be a special opportunity to build bridg- es and break down prejudices. When we How I found my ummah When dialogue becomes a beacon of hope break our fast together, we not only share food but also stories, traditions and values. Over the years, the encounters and conversations have taught me a lot about the beliefs, traditions and practices of my fellow human beings, be they Chris- tian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or atheist. But most importantly, I was able to learn something about myself. Every encounter has led me to look at my own faith in a new light and how I live it. The questions and viewpoints of other believers have made me think more deeply about my own faith and brought me to question aspects that I may have taken for granted and never re- ally thought about. They asked me ques- tions that challenged me and for which I didn’t have an immediate answer, and that sometimes made me doubt myself. Ultimately, however, they helped me grow stronger in my faith and fi nd a deep, inti- mate connection to my religion and my belief in God. One of the most important realisations is the importance of community. Islam repeatedly emphasises the importance of the ummah, the community of believ- ers and the solidarity and connection be- tween them. Through the interfaith en- counters, connections and friendships that have grown from this, I have real- ised that this community is not limited to Muslims but that we humans form a large, global community. We are responsible for each other, regardless of religious affi lia- tion or origin. Especially in times when global con- fl icts give the impression that our reli- 17 gions divide us from one another, it is all the more important for me to breathe life into this community and to keep strengthening our solidarity. Despite the diff erences between our religions, I realise time and again during interfaith encoun- ters that we have much more in common and that we are united by our love of God, our love of people and our longing for a peaceful world. In a society where the headlines are full of division, distrust, provocation and fear, my interfaith community is like a beacon for me, a light of hope to guide me. It re- minds me that we can build bridges and remember that we are all part of one big community and part of creation, and that by showing mutual respect, understand- ing and solidarity, we can create a more harmonious and peaceful world. Nihal Missaoui is studying history and Islamic religious education at the University of Münster. She is also involved in an interfaith research project. Fast-breaking is a pleasure for body and soul – but also an opportunity for interreligious dialogue. N ih al M is sa ou i I N T E R R E L I G I O U S D I A L O G U E 18 The Wasatia graduate program at Europa-Universität Flensburg brings together Jews, Christians and Muslims from various confl ict regions, including Israel and Palestine. They not only research solutions together, but also seek out interfaith encounters with their fellow students in order to be- come fi t as individual personalities for complicated moderation processes. Peace only has a chance when truth, justice and reconciliation come to- gether.” What sounds so simple and convincing is often extremely complicat- ed to realize. The best-known example of this is the Middle East confl ict. It can be discussed on a legal level, analyzed in terms of its political dimensions and re- ligious factors can be identifi ed. This has also been done diligently for decades in diplomatic circles, at universities, in edi- torial offi ces, on social media and in many places in living rooms and at private desks. But reconciliation does not happen on paper or at negotiating tables. Reconcili- ation happens through people. And they have a heart as well as a mind. They bring their diff erent experiences, trauma, convic- tions and sometimes prejudices with them. The Wasatia Graduate School at the Eu- ropa-Universität Flensburg focuses pre- With heart, mind and interreligious expertise The Wasatia Graduate School in Flensburg focuses on dialogue cisely on this and, in addition to all the academic aspects required for a doctoral program, also takes the mental compo- nent into account. People are not only objects of studies, but also subjects of ne- gotiation. In other words: Anyone who enrolls on this doctoral program at the Europa-Universität Flensburg must be pre- pared to get themselves wet. The importance of recognizing the suff ering of others in a reconciliation process is not only discussed in theo- ry, but also experienced in practice. A joint visit to the Holocaust memorial in Auschwitz-Birkenau is therefore a must. Students must also be prepared to decon- struct entrenched narratives and practice interreligious tolerance. This includes, for example, joint participation in a course on biblical argumentation at the University of Cambridge, where Jewish, Christian and Muslim texts are interpreted and dis- cussed. The doctoral program is based on an initiative by Jerusalem politics professor Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, who is con- sidered one of the great visionaries for a peaceful future for Palestinians and Is- raelis. (See Schneller Magazine 1-2024, p. Religion can be a powerful platform for promoting dialogue and reconciliation. T E E H O DA J , A L B A N I A 19 18-21 and Schneller Magazine 4-2021, p. 14-15). The Arabic term ‘wasatia’, which is translated as ‘center’ or ‘middle way’, can also be read with its religious-eth- ical connotation. In this case, ‘wasatia’ implies moderation, balance and justice. These virtues characterize the philosophy of the Wasatia Graduate School, which was established four years ago at the Eu- ropa-Universität in Flensburg. The aca- demic director is the Protestant theology professor Ralf Wüstenberg. The Wasatia Research Training Group works on an interdisciplinary and inter- religious basis. Its central aim is to train competent multipliers who can build bridges between historical analysis and theoretical refl ection and realpolitik solutions in concrete confl icts. In short, it is about training future leaders who The Wasatia program has deepened my understanding of reconciliation, especially in the context of the Middle East confl ict. S T E P H E N O P O N D O, K E N I A The new students at the Wasatia Graduate School. A total of 23 young men and women from diff erent countries are currently preparing their doctorates on confl ict resolution strategies in Flensburg. Centre: School Director, Prof. Dr. Ralf Wüstenberg; on his left, Dr. Zeina Barakat, Executive Director.. EU F Fl en sb ur g I N T E R R E L I G I O U S D I A L O G U E 20 will work in diplomacy and international peace and reconciliation work with heart, mind and interreligious competence to fi nd sustainable confl ict solutions. The current 23 doctoral students have very diff erent academic, family and bio- graphical backgrounds and come from various confl ict regions around the world. In exchange with German and inter- national students, they are working on comparative studies on trauma, hostility, confl icts and reconciliation processes in regions such as Northern Ireland, South Africa and the Balkans. The two partic- ipants from Israel and Palestine, Aviram Bellaishe and Nemer Shaheen, were fea- tured in a report by Norddeutscher Rund- funk in May this year that is well worth watching. (Short URL: https://t1p.de/ i4qy7) Dr Zeina Barakat, Executive Director of the Wasatia Graduate School in collaboration with Katja Dorothea Buck. Participants from Judaism, Christianity and Islam refl ected together on their sacred texts. This promotes mutual understanding. H A N I S M I R AT, PA L E S T I N E At a time of increasing global division and intolerance, this project is an example of a better way forward. J E R E M I A H S C H M I D T, G E R M A N Y Nemer Shaheen has recently managed to fl ee from the Gaza Strip and is now meeting Israeli Aviram Bellaishe in Flensburg. Both of them want to play their part in promoting understanding. Sc re en sh ot a us N D R- Re po rt ag e 21 S C H N E L L E R N E W S For the fi rst time in the Schneller histo- ry a woman has been given the position of the director of one of the Schneller Schools. Odette Haddad Makhoul was elected by the local board in June. For her it’s like coming home. In Lebanon there are a lot of private Chris- tian schools. Why did you choose Schneller for your career? I was born in Schneller. My father was an educator there and later he became the head of the boarding department. I was brought up in Schneller and went to school there till grade nine. But as my family still lived there, Schneller stayed my home even during my college and study time. Have you ever worked in another school than Schneller? I started working as an English teach- er at Schneller in 1987. During the crisis in 2017 I had to leave for fi ve years and worked at another school. Thank God I could come back to Schneller two years ago. It felt like a blessing to me. What do you like most at Schneller? It’s hard to say. I love all, all the kids, everyone. It’s so great to see how they de- velop, how they become men and wom- en. It’s a real privilege to see the graduates when they come back to their school and thank us all. I am proud of all of them. ► “In Schneller God’s love is passed on to everyone” Interview with the new director of the Johann Ludwig Schneller School Is there any child who you remember most? Most of them come from underpriv- ileged families. And when you see how they develop, you see that each of them is special. I remember for example one who came back from Saudi-Arabia to visit us. It’s so great to see how successful he is now in his life. How would you describe what makes S chneller unique? It’s the bond between the children and the educators, between the teachers and the children, between everyone at Schneller. It’s a place of love, where God’s love is passed on to everybody. There is nothing like Schneller. The Johann Ludwig Schneller School is a Lebanese institution belonging to the National Evangelical Church in Beirut. But due to its history it has a certain German legacy and is supported by a lot of donors in Germany and Switzerland. I assume that they would love to know more about the person who is now in charge of leading this institution. Would you like to tell us a bit about your personal background? JL SS S C H N E L L E R N E W S 22 I am married and I have three children, two sons and one daughter. My eldest son lives in New York, my daughter is in Lon- don, and our youngest one lives with us in Beirut. I studied English literature at the Lebanese University in Zahle. What are in your eyes the greatest challenges the institution is facing? It’s the fi nancial crisis in Lebanon. As a school we depend on donations and when there is a shortage of money, we feel this. We always think about how to protect the kids and the staff . For example, the price for gasoline or gas went extremely high. But we need it to keep the kids warm. And we have to feed them good. And what about the political situation? I can’t predict the future. But we are in an extremely instable situation. We keep hearing people saying, “In the fall there will be a big thing,” and then in the fall, when nothing happens, they say “I am sure, in winter there will be something big happening.” Planning for the future is extremely hard, especially when you are responsible for an institution. Imagine Schneller in ten years. How do you wish it will be there? I hope everything stays the same in a better way. I hope that we will have voca- tional training for girls, that we will have more boarding students and more classes, also high classes. You are the fi rst woman in charge at Schneller in all the Schneller history. Will there be some diff erences because a woman is now leading the institution? I don’t think so. Of course, it’s histor- ic that the board has elected a woman to this position. And I am thankful that they trust in me. But I don’t have to prove that now everything will be better because I Selfi e with the Director: the Schneller School is home for Odette Haddad Makhoul. She wants to pass this on to the children and young adults. Christian presence against the backdrop of Mount Lebanon. 23 Schneller Foundation funds boarding home furnishings in Amman Stuttgart/EVS. The Board of Trustees of the Schneller Foundation – Educa- tion for Peace unanimously decided at its meeting that €20,000 should be transferred from last year’s income to the Theodor Schneller School to fur- nish the boarding home rooms af- ter the general refurbishment of the buildings has been completed. The idea is to paint the rooms in suitable colours for the children’s ages and genders, and to provide high-qual- ity bedding, curtains, pictures and large mirrors. These were things that the children and young people men- tioned as important in a joint work- shop with the architects so that they would feel comfortable in the new rooms. The remaining €10,000 of the foun- dation’s income will be allocated to the free reserves. Since the changes in interest and exchange rates have been rather unfavourable for founda- tions, no funds were passed on to the two schools last year. On a positive note, however, a good €100,000 was donated in 2023. Net fi xed assets now stand at €2.64 million. Fortunately, interest rates are again on the rise. am a woman. No, I just want to do a good job. And if things change for the better, I will be grateful for it. Till now all directors at Schneller were Rev- erends. You are not a theologian. What does it mean for chapel or the worship service at church? This is a very important point. Because the worship service is a core element of Schneller. I know it by my own experi- ence. When I was a child, I regularly went to chapel in the evening. And I feel now that there was something very important planted in me. After the summer break we have to discuss this issue carefully in the local board. To keep the high level of chap- el and worship service at Schneller is one of my priorities. Katja Dorothea Buck conducted the interview. Ch ar be l K ar am /u ns pl as h S C H N E L L E R N E W S 24 Reverend George Haddad has been Director of the Johann Ludwig Schneller School (JLSS) in Lebanon since 2006. Now he is retiring and leaving behind an organisation that is in good shape despite all the crises that surround it. Suit. Tie. A brisk stride across the court- yard. Suddenly he bends down and picks up the only sweet wrapper fl y- ing around far and wide and takes it to the rubbish bin. Everyone sees it – and hope- fully understands the message behind it. No matter what form the long-term crisis in Lebanon takes, if we stop paying atten- tion to the little things, we would even- tually lose everything. Later, he measures exactly how much heating oil the suppli- er pumped into the tank. Fraud is a plague that poisons us all, he says. Or he disap- pears into the control cabinet of the new photovoltaic system to check the amount of electricity being fed into the grid. Otherwise he’s adjusting the router settings for the internet, calming a dis- traught father who can no longer pay for his son’s transportation to school, or keeping track of how the Johann Ludwig Schneller School (JLSS) is actually doing fi nancially in his parallel accounting sys- tem – a perennial question since the man- dated system, with its state-imposed ‘offi - cial’ exchange rates, only supplies highly inadequate information. That’s how I got to know Reverend George Haddad. In 2006, he took over as Director of the JLSS: he is an all-rounder, fulfi lling The end of an era George Haddad hands over a house in good order his duty even as far as the threshold of pain. Now he would reply, “No, I’m just a Schneller alumnus.” Indeed, he actually attended primary school here. In those days, learning many practical skills was simply part of life “at Schneller”. Now he is leaving the school and going into retire- ment – roughly two and a half years after the offi cial retirement age. This is also a refl ection of his sense of duty, and he has repeatedly emphasised how important it is to him to not miss the right moment to say farewell. Before he became director, he had al- ready had an exciting career behind him – as deputy manager of a Christian book- shop in Bahrain, school chaplain and teacher in Nabatiyeh in southern Leb- anon, pastor at the Anglican All Saints Church in Beirut – which he saved from the bulldozers after the civil war and then had it restored in the midst of brand new tower blocks. At the JLSS, he came full circle. He im- plemented and initiated so many things here: the construction of an energy-effi - cient water supply and heating system; a photovoltaic system; numerous new train- ing programmes; admitting large num- bers of Syrian refugee children and their mothers who learned the tailoring trade here; setting up new training workshops for carpenters, industrial electricians and recently even servicing electric cars. No one was allowed to drive a wedge between Christian, Muslim and Druze children. Everyone always came together 25 Solar panels for the JLSS – that was one of George Haddad‘s many innovations. He is framed here by Uwe Gräbe and EVS Chairwoman Kerstin Sommer. for prayers at the church. And whenever enthusiastic musicians came to the region, he invited them to organise a music pro- ject with the students. He even ended up playing the organ that was installed in the church in 2017 himself. He was always accompanied by his wife Laure, with whom he lived in the small di- rector’s house on the edge of the Schneller site after their two children Stephanie and Daniel had emigrated to the USA. Count- less friends and friends of friends have experienced the charming host couple here. That’s when the strict director’s tie came off , when the best Schneller wine was served and fi nally when the hostess dished out her home-baked fruit cake. Then there was plenty of laughter, but also some deep conversations about religion and politics, about our faith and about the hope that sustains us. The Evangelical Association for the Schneller Schools is both humbled and grateful for George Haddad’s life’s work. There has never been a dull moment be- tween us. This gratitude will be celebrated on 30 September in St Michael’s Church on the Schneller site. Once again, the or- gan will resound – to the praise of God and to the joy of the Haddad family and their guests. That is, as long as the politi- cal and military situation doesn’t throw a spanner in the works. George Haddad is handing over a well-managed house to his successor, Ms. Odette Haddad Makhoul, who also looks back on a long history with the Sch- neller School. There will be many chang- es. Every new director brings in their own unique style. However, the challenges re- main enormous. May God’s blessing be stronger than the challenges – and may the Haddads enjoy a long and happy re- tirement together. Uwe Gräbe JL SS S C H N E L L E R N E W S 26 It’s six o’clock in the morning. I‘m off to meet Yousef Al-Rabaiyah. We hav- en’t seen each other since the end of my voluntary service in 2019. Back then, Yousef was about to take exams for his fi nal school certifi cate. Now I’m waiting for him in the courtyard of the boarding home at the Theodor Schneller School (TSS). I want to go with him to Hashemite University where he is in his second year of study- ing to become a nurse. Yousef (born in 2004) grew up not far from the school. He started at the TSS in the fi rst grade. I taught him German in the ninth and tenth grades when I was an ecumenical volunteer in Jordan. Yousef was a remarkably motivat- ed and bright student who was popular not only with the staff but also with the other boys and girls in his class. Today, Yousef is running a little late. When he eventually turns up, he has two coff ee cups with him, one for himself and one for me. He insisted on picking me up at the school so that I wouldn’t have to travel alone on the bus. He looks at the newly planted lettuces and greets Samer Al-Batarseh, head of the boarding home. After a brief chat, we set off to the Hashe- mite University of Jordan, a trip that takes quite a while. The university is one of the more recent public universities in Jordan and is located just outside the city of Zarqa in the middle of the desert. Founded in 1995, it is one of the largest universities in the country with over 30,000 students and has a good ‘It‘s an honour to help people in need’ University visit with a Schneller alumnus reputation. The TSS is very proud of the fact that a former student is now studying there. The university is actually located not far from Yousef’s home. It takes twenty minutes by car, but by public transport, the trip is a bit of an odyssey. At 7 am, we get on the bus in front of the TSS bound for Zarqa. At this time of day, the whole of Jordan is out on the roads. There are traf- fi c jams everywhere. We have to change buses several times. Two and a half hours and three buses later, we fi nally arrive and Yousef is happy to show me around his university where he is in his second year of studying to become a nurse. The entire course is in English. Today is enrolment day, which means that all the students come to choose their courses and sort out any problems with their schedules. To cover his tuition fees, Yousef has to work part-time in a house- hold goods store. He has to plan exactly how often he can come to university and at what times. He will probably need about three more years to complete his bache- lor’s degree. “When you work part-time, everything takes longer,” he says. After all, you don’t need a Master’s degree to be a nurse in Jordan. While we are waiting outside the offi ces, we have plenty of time to talk. Yousef tells me he still has a lot of contact with boys and girls from his time at the TSS. Some are studying pharmacy, translation or en- gineering at other universities. Many have completed an apprenticeship and are al- ready working. 27 EV S/ Li sa S ch no tz In Jordan, a nurse is a highly respected profession. “It’s an honour for me to help people in their time of need and care for them when they are ill,” says Yousef. “I’m responsible for ensuring that their digni- ty is respected, even if they can no longer recover.” We meet Yousef’s friend from uni- versity, Abdallah. The two of them show me around the university’s huge cam- pus. What impresses me most is that the walkways are covered with solar panels. “When it gets hot in summer, you can come here to get some shade. They also spray water over the path,” say Abdallah and Yousef and they show how proud they are that the Hashemite University has re- ceived several awards for its renewable en- ergy projects. “Our university is striving to be climate-neutral.” On the way back to the TSS, Yousef talks about his hopes for the future. “First- ly, I hope to become a good person and achieve my dreams someday. I can well imagine working abroad, perhaps in Ger- many.” He can still speak a little German, even though he has used it very little since his time at the Schneller School. Lisa Schnotz worked at the Theodor Schneller School in 2018/2019 as part of the EMS Ecumenical Youth Volunteer Programme. She now sits on the Executive Committee of the Evangelical Association for the Schneller Schools (EVS) and regularly visits Jordan privately. The TSS is very proud of the fact that Yousef Al-Rabaiyah is studying nursing at the university. S C H N E L L E R N E W S 28 Dr George Sabra has been in charge of the Near East School of Theology (NEST) for twelve years; before that, he was Dean of Studies for many years. Now he is retiring. He is succeeded by Dr Martin Accad, who becomes the new President of the seminary. In his last report to the NEST Board of Managers, Sabra compared the current situation in Lebanon to the last years of the Civil War from 1986 to 1990. That was when he began his service at the NEST. It is diffi cult to say which period is worse, then or now, but one thing is abundant- ly clear: Sabra has kept his institution on course, objectively, unruffl ed, always ex- acting the same academic standard which he stands for as a graduate of the Universi- ty of Tübingen (doctorate 1986). From the very beginning, he gave his whole-hearted support and helped shape the “Studies in the Middle East” (SiMO), an international study programme which the EMS is responsible for in Germany. He has founded several international part- nerships and most recently introduced online basic courses in theology. During the past few years, his eff orts have been part of the ongoing struggle for the in- stitution’s very survival. The constituent churches, the staff and the student body as well as the international partners owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Sabra for everything that he achieved. In September, Dr Martin Accad takes over as President of the NEST. He has his spiritual roots in the Church of God, re- ceived his doctorate at Oxford and until recently served at the Arab Baptist Theo- logical Seminary and attended a Baptist church. Accad has already taught Islam and Christian-Muslim relations at the NEST for two years. He advocates a “keryg- matic approach” (see Schneller Magazine 2-2023, 12-13) – meaning for him the middle way between an indiff erent equal perception of all religions, and a pure- ly evangelistic approach. In this respect, he bases his views on a “Public Theolo- gy”, as postulated in the ecumenical doc- ument “We Choose Abundant Life” (see Schneller Magazine 1/2022, 26-27). He also co-founded a working group entitled Holding a university on course whatever the crisis Georges Sabra N ES T Fu lle r S em in ar y Martin Accad 29 ”The Archaeology of Violence” whose aims is to make diff erent narratives about the Lebanese civil war understandable for the respective other side – a long overdue en- deavour in a country where the traumas of war have been suppressed for far too long! The tragedy, however, is that the change of leadership takes place virtually on the brink of an abyss. The SiMO programme has been suspended for the time being due to travel warnings and travel restrictions; there are now virtually no international students at the NEST. Not only that. A cer- tain amount of disillusionment has crept into international relations – as a result of each other’s stance (even if only assumed) on violence in Israel and the war in Gaza. Accad would like to continue building up NEST’s international networks, attact new student groups and place the NEST even more fi rmly on the regional and international theological map. We wish him infi nite strength and God’s abundant blessing! Uwe Gräbe An evangelical school becomes fi t for the future Beirut/EMS. The crises in Lebanon have had serious consequences for evangelical school work. For example, the National Evangelical Church of Beirut (NECB) had to close its school in the centre of Beirut two years ago. The project for an evangel- ical vocational training centre in Abay was put on ice. Apart from the Johann Ludwig Schneller School, the NECB only has the National Protestant College (NPC) left in Kfarshima on the south-eastern outskirts of Beirut. And this institution has also fall- en into serious diffi culties recently. There was only one alternative to clos- ing the NPC in Kfarshima: the entire in- stitution had to be made so sustainable that energy costs, for example, were to- tally economised. That is where the Evan- gelical Lutheran Church in Württemberg stepped in. Although it was unable to pro- vide a regular subsidy for the NPC, it used development funds to subsidise a photo- voltaic system and a refurbishment of the building to make it energy-effi cient. The new photovoltaic system is already ful- ly operational. Now another part of the building is being refurbished. The course has thus been set for the NECB to continue providing valuable educational work and at the same time contribute to the integri- ty of God’s creation. S C H N E L L E R N E W S 30 Cordial invitation The Evangelical Association for the Schneller Schools e.V. (EVS) invites all members and friends of Schneller work to the 2024 General Meeting on Sunday, 17 November 2024 at the Evangelical Church of St John (Johanneskirche) in Karlsruhe-Ettlingen in Friedrichstrasse/corner of Albstrasse 10:00 Church Service hopefully with Rev. Dr Habib Badr from Beirut 11:30 General Meeting, Part 1 with reports from the Schneller schools 12:30 Lunch Gemeindehaus, Friedrichstraße 43 14:00 Public keynote speech Rev. Dr Khaled Freij , Director of the TSS: “Child protection and the challeng- es of boarding home life in times of war and crisis”, followed by a panel discussion which will also feature the new director of the Johann Ludwig Schneller School, Odette Haddad Makhoul 15:15 General Meeting, Part 2 Formalities About 16:15: Conclusion and blessing for a safe journey home All EVS members will receive a detailed written invitation to the General Meeting. NEW: Digital Newsletter The Schneller editorial team is delighted to off er its readers a free digital subscrip- tion to the Schneller magazine. So then you’ll never miss an issue again! A digital subscription allows you to re- ceive every issue on the day of publication by e-mail in PDF format and as an e-book link. Simply scan the QR code for the Eng- lish or German edition and fi ll out the ac- companying form. Your subscription will then start with the following issue. You can also subscribe without a QR code by clicking on the links below. German magazine: https://schneller-schulen. ems-online.org/abo English magazine: https://schneller-schulen. ems-online.org/en/subscription You can also subscribe with this QR code 17.11. 31 139th Year, Issue 3, September 2024 Publisher: Evangelical Association for the Schneller Schools e.V. (EVS) in the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity (EMS) Editors: Katja Dorothea Buck (executive), Dr Uwe Gräbe, Joscha Quade Translations to English: Chris Blowers Vogelsangstraße 62 | 70197 Stuttgart | Germany Tel.: +49 (0) 711 636 78-39 E-Mail: evs@ems-online.org | www.evs-online.org Registered offi ce of the Association: Stuttgart Layout: keipertext.com | Martin Keiper Contact address of Swiss Association for Schneller Schools in the Middle East (SVS): Pfr. Ursus Waldmeier, Rütmattstrasse 13, CH-5004 Aarau Donation account Post: CH62 0900 0000 4001 1277 8 Donation account Bank: CH47 8080 8001 8975 0443 1 info@schnellerschulen.org | www.schnellerschulen.org The Schneller magazine is published four times a year. The price is included in the EVS membership fee and in the SVS annual fee. The Schneller Magazine is also available in German and can be read online: https://schneller-schulen.ems-online.org Reader‘s Letters Response to Schneller Magazine 2/2024 I would like to thank Uwe Gräbe very much for his article on page 4. He presented a diff erent view of the situation in the Holy Land in very impressive and clear words, placing the people on both sides of the confl ict at the centre, in what I consider a very balanced way. Reading the article made me realise that the scope of this „confl ict“ diff ers signifi cantly from almost all previous confl icts in the Holy Land. And that this time, it will probably take a very long time before there is a rapprochement or even mutual understanding and acceptance. Bernhard Scheurenbrand, Berlin Obituary The Evangelical Association for the Schneller Schools (EVS) bids farewell to Reverend Hans-Ulrich Dapp who passed away on 5 February 2024. As a young man, he was a trainee at the Johann Ludwig Schneller School (JLSS) in Lebanon and was then associated with Schneller work all his life. The EVS also bids farewell to Adelheid Köberlin who passed away on 23 April 2024. She worked as an educator at the JLSS from 1968 to 1971. The EVS has lost a loyal friend in her. www.evs-online.org The Schneller Schools are dependent on your donations. Donations for EVS: Evangelische Bank eG IBAN: DE59 5206 0410 0000 4074 10 Endowment contributions to the Schneller Foundation: Evangelische Bank eG IBAN: DE09 5206 0410 0000 4074 37 The Evangelical Association for the Schneller Schools (EVS) is a member of the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity (EMS) Vogelsangstr. 62 | 70197 Stuttgart | Tel. (0711) 636 78-39 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells 2. Peter 3,13
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