Uri Ben-Hur has a novel remedy for the scores of Arab children throwing stones at Israeli soldiers: throw back candy.
"Sure for a while they'll continue, but they're children," he wrote recently to Israel's foreign minister. "Soon they'll stop to eat the candy and then, you bring out the tables and the coffee and you talk."
Ben-Hur, a man whom friends consider "Ghandi in Buddha's body," received no response from the foreign minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami. But that's not important. Spreading his unique vision of peaceful coexistence is. It's a vision that Ben-Hur lives each day of his life as founder of the skin care company, Sea of Life, a joint venture between Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians.
In early 2001, Ben-Hur's message and some of his company's 200 products will arrive in the United States. And when they do, credit will go to a group of Rutgers University business students and thousands of Jews who donated money to the Jewish Federation's Partnership 2000 program.
The project is based in this modern desert city of 22,000, founded in 1961 on the ancient ruins of Tel Arad in the Tamar region near the Dead Sea, about two-and-a-half hours south of Jerusalem.
Sea of Life was founded three years ago on the strength of one unique product, mineral-rich mud from the Dead Sea. Today, its product lines include lotions, bubble baths, face-masks and other skin-care products sold throughout the world.
The Jewish Agency for Israel created Partnership 2000, or P2K, nearly six years ago in an attempt to involve Americans and Israelis in how money raised in the States is spent in Israel.
"There was a perception (among donors) that Americans were giving and Israelis were doing what they wanted with the money," said Monica Zalingher, Partnership 2000 Arad-Tamar regional director.
Jewish communities in the United States are partnered with geographic areas of Israel. The city of Arad and the Dead Sea region of Tamar are paired with the 11 Federations of New Jersey and Delaware.
The program selected cities such as Arad because they are neither major cities nor suburbs and represent areas of Israel with fewer economic opportunities and less development, Zelingher said.
"A few new places have been added in the last year. For example, Jerusalem has been partnered with New York," she said.
In addition to creating a partnership between Sea of Life and Rutgers University, some of the $450,000 raised in New Jersey has gone to programs for emotionally and physically impaired adults, a senior citizen day-care center, and absorption center for immigrants and a social club for Ethiopian Jews. "Some oft he things wouldn't happen without P2K," Zelingher said.
One relatively low-cost item was a $5,000 bookbinding machine that has gone a long way toward improving life for a group of emotionally and physically impaired members of The Hear to Heart Club adult day-care program. In November, the program opened a shop in a nearby bomb shelter, where club members, many of whom would otherwise be in a state psychiatric hospital, are learning skills that may help them land and keep jobs. Members are taught how to fix the stitched binding on books and produce blank notebooks and diaries for sale at the shop.
"The club makes money and puts it back into the club," said Sarit Oken, director of the program.
The donation of a $25,000 matching grant used to purchase a passenger van allows seniors who would otherwise be homebound to attend another adult day-care center. Plans are underway to use the vehicle for a Meals-on-Wheels type program.
Money from the program also helped with opening a Democratic School. The school, housed in an Israeli Scouts building, gives students most of the say in what they learn and how they spend their days. School administrators used funds from Partnership 2000 to supplement training programs for parents and teachers.
Ben-Hur, who is listed on his business card both as Sea of Life's founder and its chief philosopher, freely dispensed wisdom to visitors on a tour of the plant one day in November. Federation leaders from the United States have taken to calling him "Israel's version of Ben and Jerry," because he emulates the famed philanthropy of the American ice cream magnates.
Ben-Hur responds: "If everyone wants to copy me, that's fine."
His message is evident in nearly every aspect of the company. There are Palestinians, Israeli Jews, Jordanians and Bedouins among the 80 employees who work in the factory. In spite of the political tumult and violence across the country, they work side by side and each is a part owner in the company, which rewards employees with shares.
Ben-Hur believes the best way to make peace is to be economic partners, and so he stressed to visitors that the company is an Israeli-Palesitinian-Jordanian joint venture. The ownership arrangement is something he proudly states on all products.
For many Jews, donating to P2K may require a degree of trust, despite the program's best intentions. However, when Sea of Life products hit U.S. shelves in January and peace at last comes to the region, Jews in the Passaic County at least will be able to say they contributed to that.
Shvat 5761 - February 2001