A Moment in Time: “The First Step Toward Peace Begins ….. Here.“

Dear all,

Last weekend I participated in a Culver City event sponsored by Unity of the Westside and the Heartfulness Institute. The organizers asked if I would share a prayer or thought about peace.

I asked many questions upfront, as (unfortunately) many “peace” events around the country morph into anti-Israel diatribes. As I researched the organizations and learned more about the event, I realized that was to be a day of building toward goodness.

And so …. A Muslim, a Christian, a Self-Realization Monk, and a Jew walked into a room….

And in that moment in time we dreamed about peace.

I left a better person than I was when I entered.

Peace only happens when we talk. With the vitriol we endure on social media, we have an opportunity and obligation to create space (sometime leaving our comfort zones) to enter real dialogue. It begins now. It begins here!

With love and shalom,

Rabbi Zach Shapiro

(Below is a video I created after the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in 2018. At that time, the Culver City community created a grass roots candlelight vigil with hundreds of people of all faiths entering Temple Akiba in support. We were all so moved by the love they shared. I took an excerpt of my original words and shared them at the peace event this past weekend).