Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on November 15, 2012

Hani Azzam and Noam Waksman have a lot in common, despite the differences in their backgrounds.

Both grew up in Wellesley and graduated from Wellesley High School in 2011, and each has a strong commitment to the peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is that determination that led to the creation of a unique blog.

Azzam, who currently attends Tufts University, was born to an Anglo-Saxon mother and a Palestinian-American father.

Waksman, who currently attends Connecticut College, was born to a Jewish American mother and a Jewish Israeli father, and is a dual citizen of both the U.S. and Israel.

Together, Azzam and Waksman have created a blog called Until Next Year in Jerusalem, where they engage in a public conversation about the highly charged and often-politicized Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Townsman recently spoke with the WHS grads about the blog, their mission and their hopes for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Whats the story behind Until Next Year in Jerusalem? How did it come to be?

Waksman: The summer after my junior year, the summer of 2010, I had go in for a surgery and my mother, without telling me, made this book for me in which she emailed all my friends and relatives and people I was close to and asked them if there was anything they wanted to contribute to a book for me. Hanis contribution was a letter he wrote to me, which we have on the website, and the letter put into words something we both had always felt; it was the idea that our perspectives and our families come from opposite sides of a very contentious issue, and we both have opinions that oppose each other, in this strange and wonderful way that has brought us closer as friends.

We had always had debates where we discussed the issue, but over the summer, Hani had the idea, and we didnt think there was anything out there with an American perspectivehe suggested we write about it and I thought it was a great idea. We flushed things out and the blog was born.

Read the rest here:
Wellesley High grads blog about Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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