Father Emile Shoufani (Israel)
In 1988 Father Emile Shoufani (1947–) set up the Education for Peace,
Democracy and Coexistence project which has been running in the St Joseph
School, which he has directed since 1976. His personal attitude and actions are
always permeated with dialogue, peace and tolerance, as well as with the constant effort
to bring Arabs and Jews closer together by any means: e.g. the twinning of and exchange
of pupils between St Joseph’s and the Jewish secondary school, Lyada, in Jerusalem; or
his Memory for Peace project launched in 2002 in both Israel and France, aimed at
organizing a joint Jewish–Arab pilgrimage to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration
camp, which took place in May 2003. Father Shoufani believes that cultural and
religious diversity, far from being an obstacle, should be considered a way to peace.
His thoughts and work are broadly outlined in compilations of interviews published in
France: Le Curé de Nazareth (1998) and Comme un veilleur attend la paix (2002).