Our
Story
The Jewish Dialogue Group (JDG) was a Philadelphia-based grassroots organization (2001-2012) founded to promote constructive dialogue within Jewish communities about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
JDG’s board members, staff, and volunteers represented a wide range of political perspectives, while sharing a commitment to values of justice and compassion. The organization did not take positions on any issues, but focused solely on promoting open discussion. JDG organized and facilitated dialogue programs of
several different kinds in order to help people to:
• listen to and understand one other, across political differences
• talk through their feelings
• examine difficult moral and intellectual questions
• think through the choices they face.
JDG’s volunteer facilitators led more than eighty dialogue sessions at synagogues, colleges, high schools, summer camps, and other venues throughout the Philadelphia region and in New York. These sessions attracted almost one thousand Jews of diverse ages, backgrounds, religious affiliations, and political perspectives. JDG used formats developed by the Public Conversations Project and the National Coalition Building Institute.
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