Mandel G03 is lit up by the projector screen as students pile in. It’s 7:30 p.m. Participants greet each other as they haphazardly cut chocolate babka from Bakey, and the president of J Street U, Ayla Wrubel ’25, does a sound check on Zoom. Once everyone has adjusted in their seats, quiet descends on the room. The two women on the screen, Leonore, an Israeli Jew, and Randa, a Palestinian, smile graciously. They are the founding members of Zeitouna, an all women’s peace group in Ann Arbor, Michigan that meets bimonthly to engage in dialogue on the Israel-Hamas conflict. The group is where Leonore and Randa have fostered a friendship that has lasted over 20 years, since they met in the summer of 2002. After some technological kinks are smoothed out, the students watch a Columbia Broadcasting System clip from April 2024 of a Zeitouna meeting with six Palestinian and six Jewish members, one of whom is a Holocaust survivor. The women eat together before sitting with reporter Lisa Lang, to whom they express how the group has supported them but also challenged them. 

In light of the recent growing hostility on college campuses, Zeitouna has spread their wisdom in peace-building dialogue with students. At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Zeitouna helped guide the Jewish and Arab Alliance club, founded by Jewish student Evan Rotker ’24. And now here, at Brandeis, they visit virtually to advise students on how to successfully facilitate conversation with “the other.” 

After introducing themselves and their background with the region of Palestine, Wrubel asks Leonore and Randa how they incorporate empathy into their work. “We insist on being human with each other,” Leonore responds. The two discuss their “principles of dialogue,” which include listening while refraining from judgment, and absorbing what the other person has said without thinking of a response. “You have to be ready to listen to things that might hurt you,” Randa shares, “but, if you value yourself and the other, it’s worth it.” 

Their advice for students at Brandeis? Find common ground, and interact with each other not as opposing sides, but as people. If a student wants to get involved in dialogue work, Randa advises that they “go with an open mind. We are all human beings.”

Wrubel opens the floor to questions from the audience. I ask if the two have faced any pushback from their families in their work and, if so, how they address it. Randa says that if her family was aggressively against it, she wouldn’t have joined Zeitouna, but that they have supported her endeavors with the group. Leonore shares that there are certainly family members she avoids talking about the conflict with, including a relative that served in the Israel Defense Forces during the Six-Day War of 1967. Some people, Leonore remarks, are not capable of engaging in dialogue, and that’s okay. 

An hour in, it’s time to say goodbye. The audience erupts in applause as Wrubel thanks Randa and Leonore for their time. The cool Tuesday evening wishes us all goodnight as we head back to our dorms, full with their guidance. 

In a divided world, Leonore and Randa offer a glimmer of hope. Zeitouna proves that there is another way, a different approach. Hate grows with miscommunication and misunderstanding, but if we take a moment to listen to one another, we may be surprised at how similar we really are.