Dear Friend!

Please consider the following message concerning The Discovery Program, an exciting opportunity:

We are searching for 18 exceptional young people (nine Muslims & nine Jews) from eighteen different countries between the ages of 16-18 to participate in an historic project. Together, they will create an unprecedented Muslim-Jewish Relations Guidebook to Mutual Discovery.
It will be distributed to Jewish and Muslim communities all over the world at the end of 2006.

We need your help to get this information/application into the hands of the 16-18 year-olds in your communities. Applications are due no later than January 20th.

Applicants must be:
- highly motivated
- prepared to engage with the project via the Internet on a daily basis for four months
- feel comfortable communicating in basic written English with other mostly non-native speakers
- have access to a camera and a willingness to explore their religious community through photography
- knowledgable about their own religious tradition and comfortable serving as a peer educator to those from the other community
- willing to serve as an ambassador for Muslim-Jewish relations both in their own community and abroad

Please be in touch with us directly if you have any questions and thank you for forwarding this email to the right people.

Sincerely,
Eli Epstein, Chairman
Gul Rukh Rahman, Co-Executive Director
Ari Alexander, Co-Executive Director
Houda Abadi, Director of Education
Irfan Syed, Director of Development

Discovery Program:

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the World"
Nelson Mandela

The Discovery Program is an intensive four-month online seminar that is
designed to act as an educational gateway in bringing together Muslim
and Jewish youth to examine their current, as well as prospective
relations. Youth from all over the world are encouraged to engage in
thought-provoking discussions that tackle themes related to religion,
political debates, and the Arab-Israeli conflict and its effect on
Muslim-Jewish relations. The program also provides an open forum to
critically analyze the different forms of media and their impact on
these two communities. The Discovery Program creates new opportunities
and possibilities to learn about the 'other' by providing young Muslims
and Jews with a platform to understand one another, to appreciate their
respective culture and tradition, as well as to explore the similarities
in beliefs and practices.

Along the lines of the notion that "a picture is worth a thousand
words", the participants also discover their shared spiritual values
through photography and thought provoking discussions. Each group of the
discovery program consists of eighteen students, 9 Muslims and 9 Jews,
who are selected from Jewish and Muslim communities from all over the
world to take pictures of Muslim and Jewish religious themes, symbols,
rituals and events. These photos serve as powerful and spiritual visual
tools that both challenge and prompt the students to explore and reflect
on many issues that are considered 'taboo'. At the end of this
educational journey, the students work together to publish a photo essay
that serves as an educational tool for use in Muslim and Jewish schools
and communities around the world. This photo essay is a combination of
photos and essays compiled by the participants in order for them to
share their discoveries, insights and realizations with other Jews and
Muslims locally and globally.
The main goals of this four month long seminar are to:

1. Become leaders in Jewish and Muslim youth dialogue
2. Discover common theological and cultural beliefs and practices
3. Foster interaction between Muslim and Jewish teenagers around the world, with the aim of restoring a culture of respect based on knowledge and understanding
4. Become pioneers in the exploration of Jewish and Muslim traditions and breaking down the walls of mistrust, hate, and rivalry
5. Build creative and practical skills for peace-building and open dialogue between the two communities.

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Le programme Discovery est une confrence intensive en ligne de quatre
mois. Discovery se prsente comme une plateforme ducative destine aux
jeunes musulmans et juifs en les rassemblant pour examiner leur courant
et tisser des relations entre eux.

Les jeunes du monde entier sont ainsi encourags a engager des
discussions provocantes sur des themes comme la religion, le dbat
politique et le conflit arabo-isralien et ses effets sur les relations
entre juifs et musulmans. Le programme est galement un forum ouvert pour
accueillir des analyses critiques sur les diffrentes formes des mdias et
leurs impacts sur les deux communauts. Discovery est donc un programme
qui cre des opportunits et possibilits pour apprendre et connatre
l'autre dans un dbat bas sur la comprhension des cultures et des
traditions rciproques et permet d'explorer les ressemblances entre les
deux communauts.

A travers la notion de une image vaut plus de mille mots , les
participants dcouvrent galement leurs valeurs spirituelles partages par
la photographie et les discussions provocantes et les penses. Chaque
groupe du programme se compose de dix-huit tudiants, 9 musulmans et de 9
juifs, qui sont choisis au sein mme des deux communauts a travers le
monde. Ils sont invits a prendre des photos sur les thmatiques juives et
musulmanes, les symboles, les rituels et les ftes. Ces photos servent
d'outils visuels puissants et spirituels que les deux groupes peuvent
explorer et rflchir sur beaucoup de sujets considrs comme tabou. la fin
de ce travail, les deux groupes choisissent les photos qui seront
regroups dans un recueil et serviront comme un outil ducatif dans les
coles musulmanes et juives a travers le monde. Cet essai de photos porte
la signature de tous les participants par la prsence de leurs photos
respectives et par les compilations qu'ils ont choisi a partir de
thmatiques locales ou globales.

Les objectifs de ces quatre mois de sminaires sont :

1. devenir le leader dans le dialogue entre jeunes juifs et musulman
2. Dcouvrir les courants thologiques et culturels et les pratiques des deux communauts
3. Favoriser une interaction entre jeunes musulmans et juifs dans le monde en instaurant une culture de respect base sur la connaissance
et la comprhension de chacun.
4. Devenir le pionnier dans l'exploration des traditions juives et musulmanes et briser le mur de la mfiance, la haine et la rivalit
5. Construire une plateforme crative et pratique pour installer la paix et le dialogue entre les deux communauts.
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APPLICATION FORM

Please email your completed application to houda@children-of-abraham.org
OR fax it to (+1) 718-237-8765 no later than Jan. 20.

Our postal address is
25 Washington Street
4th Floor
Brooklyn, New York 11201
United States