Settler Opens Her Home to Peace
Fourteen years ago, during the Second Intifada, Caroline Schuhl Schattner of Toulouse, France, felt the time had come to realize her Zionist dream. Frustrated with French news media coverage that made Israel out to be the aggressor during the prolonged uprising, she moved to Israel intent on becoming an actor in Israeli history, not a bystander.
Schuhl Schattner enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces and joined a combat rescue unit. Today, at the age of 34, with a master’s degree in linguistics, a husband and three children, she lives in Efrat, a largely Modern Orthodox town in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem, where she continues to work at making peace.
Every two weeks she hosts informal meetings in her home between Palestinians and Israeli settlers living in and around Gush Etzion, a flashpoint in 2015-16 for what is sometimes known as the “Knife Intifada,” a period when Palestinians regularly stabbed, shot and ran over random Israelis in the streets.
Schuhl Schattner believes that many Palestinians reject such violence, and she is determined to get Israeli Jews to know them, and for them to get to know Israeli Jews.
“I saw that Jews and Arabs live in the region and I see how they see each other — in business, at the shopping center — but they don’t know each other,” Schuhl Schattner said in phone interview from her home in Efrat. “Even though they meet via commerce, Jews have a stereotypical view of Arabs and Arabs have a stereotypical view of Jews. I thought that it’s a shame. We all live here, and we’ll all continue to live here.”
Schuhl Schattner was recently appointed project manager for olim [immigrants] at the Gush Etzion Regional Council. Her work with Palestinians is her personal initiative that she began a year ago.
Recently, she led a joint Israeli-Palestinian olive harvest in the village of Kfar Hussan.
“Most of the Palestinians, they’re people who want to live well — that’s what’s important to them,” she said. “And part of the good and simple life is to live in harmony with the Jews. Many of them don’t have extreme political views. If you succeed in having Jews and Palestinians meet each other, and the Palestinian sees the Jew is not the enemy, he’ll break out of his stereotypical view, and vice versa.”
The joint harvest produced a Facebook friendship between a young Israeli and a Palestinian, who are not allowed by Palestinian law to meet in person. Palestinians must receive permission from Israeli authorities to enter Israeli towns, but the Palestinian Authority can imprison Palestinians who interact socially with Israelis.
“Part of the good and simple life [for most of these Palestinians] is to live in harmony with the Jews.” — Caroline Schuhl Schattner
These days, about 20 to 30 people meet in Schuhl Schattner’s home for coffee, cookies, cake and conversations about topics that are generally taboo at the table: religion and politics. At the meetings, Palestinians often relay their frustrations with living under IDF controls that limit their freedom of movement, while Israelis express their fear of the terrorism and violence that make such security measures necessary. But participants from both groups generally agree that the Palestinian Authority doesn’t have the Palestinians’ best interests at heart — it seeks to thwart attempts at normalization in Israeli-Palestinian relations, and it feeds off conflict.
Schuhl Schattner said some of her friends and neighbors have been skeptical about her efforts, but she remains undeterred, encouraged by the story of one of her Palestinian friends whose brother was released from prison 10 years ago after serving a term for terrorist activity. After the friend introduced his brother to his Jewish friends, the brother’s hatred of Israel and Jews faded.
“I don’t care how much hate you instill in someone’s head,” Schuhl Schattner said. “If you have a good meeting, that’s what stays.”
JJ Inside The Print
It shouldn’t be too controversial that the best thing for Israel in the wake of these latest elections would be a grand coalition between Likud...
Like many children in the U.S., I once begged my mother to let me attend a Friday night sleepover. “It’s Shabbat night,” she declared in...
Krav Maga is the first thing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) uses to train new soldiers to get up to speed and ready for combat....
At the risk of being religiously incorrect, perhaps it is time someone said out loud what most observant Jews think to ourselves: Jewish holidays can...
Potential: A latent excellence or ability that may or may not be developed. “You know Mark, you’re a smart boy and have great potential. If...
Growing up in New Jersey, the only kind of fig I was aware of was the dried fig, which arrived in a nested clump in...
In 1962, I was 20, beautiful (so I was told) and, most of all, curious. After sailing across the ocean from New York to London,...
The following is a work of satire. Names (except for famous showbiz people), characters, synagogues, places, events and incidents are fictional. The High Holy Days...
This past summer at the funeral of my former father-in-law, I stood on the cemetery’s grassy hillside, looking at the family assembled. A late July...
Sara Stern sees invisible people. Those dark faces washing the dishes in the back of the restaurant; pouring cement on roads in the middle of...
As I write this story, everything is too close to call. As I write this story, everything is too soon to call. And too complicated....
My mother laid it out for me: even changed into a butterfly I’d still have a caterpillar’s face. Geisha-fluttering in summer gardens or blossom-shopping on...
One verse, five voices. Edited by Salvador Litvak, Accidental Talmudist And there, you shall build an altar to the Lord, your God, an altar of stones....
Is it September already? Are the High Holy Days almost here? Are they already serving pumpkin spice lattes? For many people, pumpkins are just pumpkins...
Editor’s note: Journal Food Editor Yamit Behar Wood was going to write this two-page spread. However, a family tragedy prevented her from doing that, so...
The Engelmans were the first family I knew that took food really seriously. They owned the three Nibblers restaurants in Los Angeles. When Carol Engelman...
Traditionally on Rosh Hashanah, sweet foods are eaten — apples and honey, for example — to symbolize the hope for happiness and a sweet life during...
On a recent trip to Israel, I sat with my friend Adeena Sussman and her husband, Jay Shofet, over incredible, home-style food at the tiny...
Whether she’s planning menus for her family or her Food Network series, “Girl Meets Farm,” Molly Yeh likes to work backward. “I usually start with...
Former Los Angeles Rabbi Menachem (Mendy) Weiss was sentenced on Sept. 9 to six years in New Jersey state prison for aggravated sexual assault, with...
Early Sunday morning on Sept. 15, families from Shomrei Torah Synagogue’s (STS) religious school in West Hills got up bright and early to drive 90...
The most up-to-date statistics released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in October 2018, revealed that drunk drivers killed almost 11,000 people in 2017,...
While there has been a decrease in anti-Semitic sentiment in the United States, anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise. So said Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO...
Community members are still mourning the Sept. 11 deaths of 19-year-old Michael Lertzman and 60-year-old Sandra Lertzman. The mother and son were shot and killed...
Playwright Angela J. Davis’ “The Spanish Prayer Book” is set in 2007, when an Oakland school teacher discovers she has inherited a collection of rare...
Over the past three decades, Richard Kind has worked steadily in theater and on screen, amassing more than 230 credits in film and television, including...
According to the Talmud, when sacred Jewish texts are worn and no longer usable, they must be buried in a Jewish cemetery. This sacred storage...
The story of Joseph, as we find it in the Book of Genesis, was called “the most beautiful story in the world” by Tolstoy. So...
Rochelle Berman died Aug. 23 at 82. Survived by daughters Jill (Russell) Neuman, Jodi (Marc) Schwartz; sons John (Eileen), Bradeley James (Julia); 7 grandchildren; 2 great-grandchildren....
I’m often asked if all the little details at a dinner party like place cards and napkin holders are really necessary. After all, people are...
Steven Rajninger, a principal at San Francisco-based Herman Coliver Locus Architecture, specializes in designing sacred spaces and affordable housing. The firm’s designs include the recently...
[caption id="attachment_304603" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Richard Hirschhaut, American Jewish Committee’s new L.A. director. Photo courtesy of American Jewish Committee[/caption] The American Jewish Committee (AJC) named civil rights...
FRI SEPT 20 “Dirty Bomb” The award-winning short film “Dirty Bomb,” a true story of Nazi resistance about a group of concentration camp prisoners conspiring...
[flipbook pdf="https://online.flowpaper.com/77360759/AEFall2019/#page=1"] For full-screen mode, click here.
For six seasons, “Downton Abbey” enthralled audiences with its captivating saga of aristocrats and their servants at a British country estate, amassing 15 Emmys before...
After four groundbreaking, critically acclaimed seasons, and surviving the shock of a sexual harassment scandal involving its star, “Transparent” bids farewell to the Pfefferman family...
Jewish talent shines on camera and behind the scenes this fall in dramas and comedies, modern tales and period pieces, and stories factual and fictional....
Last season, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” took us to the Catskills. In Season 3, we’re going to Miami and beyond as comic Midge (Rachel Brosnahan)...
Camryn Manheim has had a very busy summer. In addition to shooting the new ABC series “Stumptown,” she sent her son to college, remodeled her...
Movie fans know Stanley Kubrick as the acclaimed director of “Dr. Strangelove,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “A Clockwork Orange” and “The Shining.” They may be less...
Unlike the many biographical documentaries that celebrate notable individuals’ monumental achievements and contributions to culture or society, “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” has a liar, a...
Harrowing Holocaust survivor stories are told within a chilling contemporary prism in playwright Wendy Kout’s “Never Is Now,” a world-premiere production at the Skylight Theatre...
Taking place during Hanukkah, the world-premiere play “Eight Nights” tells the story of a family who occupies an apartment over eight decades, and follows a...
