At Penn, author Yossi Klein Halevi shares value in hearing Israeli and Palestinian views

Israeli author Yossi Klein Halevi spoke at Penn Hillel Monday evening to share his personal perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Halevi, who grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. but moved to Israel later in life, talked about his New York Times bestselling book, “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor." The book, meant to facilitate an open dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, features Halevi's perspective on the conflict as well as letters written by Palestinians. At the event, Halevi shared how his experiences shaped his views and the writing of his book, emphasizing the importance of Israelis and Palestinians both sharing their sides of the story.

“We can’t tell our story to ourselves anymore,” he said.

Halevi spoke about his experiences living in Israel and the close proximity of his house to the Palestinian border. From his house, he said, he can hear the Muslim call to prayer and see his neighbors on the other side. Halevi said living so close to the border made him more interested in learning about Palestinians' point of view.

In an interview, Halevi spoke about his interest in gaining a better understanding and appreciation for various religions, such as Christianity and Islam. He recalled visiting a mosque in Israel while wearing a kippah — a Jewish head covering — and expressing his desire to learn how Muslims pray. 

"I've come here to honor my Muslim neighbors," Halevi recalled telling the mosque's religious leaders. 

After spending some time learning about Islam, Halevi said, he wrote a book about his experiences called “At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for Hope with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land.” About a year after the book was published, Abdullah Antepli, chief representative of Muslim Affairs at Duke University, reached out to Halevi and expressed interest in learning more about Jewish religion and culture. Klein and Antepli later decided to found the Muslim Leadership Initiative, now in its seventh year of operation, which teaches Jewish and Muslim Americans about each others' religions and cultures.

“That experience of teaching Muslim Americans and looking at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through their eyes, really trying to understand their trauma, led me to write ['Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor'],” Halevi said.

Students who attended Halevi's talk appreciated hearing about his book and how his work relates to Jewish groups in the United States.

“I think it’s really interesting because there are so many different groups that operate out of Hillel, and they all have different official policy positions," College sophomore Joseph Steinberg said.

Steinberg said the talk helped him “to think about how those positions reflect American values and American terminology, which might not necessarily be applicable to what’s going on in a whole different part of the world to a whole different people."