Samah and Lihi’s USA tour: developing new contacts; renewing old friendships

In November 2019 Nadi Youth Center coordinator Lihi Levian Joffe and I departed for an extensive tour of the United States. Our purpose was to meet new audiences, recruit members and supporters, meet private donors, foundations and groups, talk about the community and its peace education work, and to share news from the village, the School for Peace, the Nadi Youth Club and the Spiritual Center.

The Communications and Development Office of the village took a very active role in planning the tour and setting up the meetings, working with the American Friends of Neve Shalom – Wahat al-Salam and many local organizers.

Among the highlights:
• We visited Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, New York, Boston and Connecticut.
• Events included visits to synagogues, churches and an Islamic Center.
• We met with seven foundations, held twelve events and appeared in two panels at events together with other organizations.
• We secured many pledges and permission to apply for new projects.
• We nurtured contacts with donors who had previously given, and persuaded new donors to begin to work with us.
• We expanded our circle of friends in the United States by 500 new people and at least five of the groups we met decided to visit WASNS in the coming year.
• I personally met two Democratic congressmen and invited them to the village (Nancy Pelosi and Elhan Omar)

During the tour we talked about the village and its political context, answering many queries on hot issues like the Nation State Law, the electoral stalemate and the prospects for peace in the increasingly bleak political situation.

The tour was one of our most successful, in terms of making new friends, renewing ties with old contacts, and winning support for our programs.

This was Lihi’s first tour for the village and we worked well together. Thanks are due to the tremendous work of the American Friends of Neve Shalom – Wahat al-Salam in helping us conduct the tour, and of the course to the terrific work done by local organizers in all of the destinations we visited.

As we move forward into 2020, a lot now depends on earning the trust placed in us to carry out our work with professionalism and assiduity. We welcome this challenge, and look forward to reporting on new achievements.

– By Development Director Samah Salaime