EDITH KURZWEIL
Multiculturalism Abroad
In
America the term
multiCIIlfuralisnI
has come
to
define the leftist.
African-American agenda; elsewhere, it encompasses the problems of
integrating ethnic and religious groups and sects that have legitimate
claims on the same territory. And
diversify
is not postulated as it is by the
"politically correct" as multiculturalism's rhetorical twin, but refers to
the necessary process of learning to keep up an ongoing, peaceful dia–
logue with the "other" - based on mutual acceptance and, eventually.
on respect. This is what I learned at the conference, "Meeting of Cul–
tures and C lash of Cultures: Adult Education in Multicultural Societies,"
during the last week of April.
Upon arriva l at Tantur, the Ecumenical Institute located on an im–
posing hilltop between Jerusalem and Bethlehem which hosted partici–
pants from Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, from Russia and
Germany, from Serbia and Slovenia, the United States and Great Britain.
its Czech-born American director, the Reverend Thomas Stransky.
pointed to churches, mosques, and biblical sites in the peaceful country–
side around us. Weare facilitating dialogues among Christians, Muslims.
and Jews, he said, but we refrain from talking abou t them for fear of
reprisals by some of the more extremist Muslims against their fellow
Arabs.
During an entire week, we would be propelled - intellectually and
emotionally - from Buberian high ground into
realpolitik,
from moral
education to immoral killings, while debating how best to defuse not
only the Israeli-Arab conflict but also the overpowering tensions among
majorities and minorities, nations and nationalities, in our post-commu–
nist world. As the "show and tell" about Israeli society was compared to
the intractable conflicts elsewhere - at formal meetings, over dinner in
the Arab village of Abu-Gosh and over coffee at the home of its patri–
arch, during visits to the Golan Heights and Jericho, to Brigham Young
(Mormon) University and a kibbutz in the north - we learned that
our
theories and perceptions also are culture-bound.
"Tolerance cannot be institutionalized or imposed by one side,"
