The 100-Year View: Nicholas Porter wants to help transform the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
September 11th, 2018 | Alumni, Careers, SIT Graduate Institute
Nicholas Porter is an Episcopal priest, but his perspective is broader than one Christian denomination, or even Christianity as a whole. His chief mission is to aid peace efforts in the region where three of the world鈥檚 major religions co-exist. Nick attended the SIT Conflict Transformation program in 2013 and 2014.
His interfaith effort is a natural fit, he says, given his background: 鈥淚 come from an Arab Christian, European Christian, and Jewish heritage. I鈥檓 a practicing Christian and Episcopal priest, but I have specialist knowledge in all the Middle Eastern religions.鈥
Jerusalem Peacebuilders was born in response to the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks against the United States. 鈥淭here was a tipping-point realization for my wife and me that
interfaith understanding and peacemaking in the Middle East couldn鈥檛 be sidelined anymore in our lives.鈥
Nicholas retired from parish ministry to develop Jerusalem Peacebuilders. He began the organization before he attended SIT Graduate Institute, though he says it 鈥渢ook a marked upswing in activity鈥 after he finished his education.
It was at SIT that Nicholas found a new clarity in his calling as a peacemaker. 鈥淚 had a classmate who had just returned from the Peace Corps in the Ukraine during the time the Russians annexed Crimea. It obviously affected our classmate quite a bit. We discussed the pros and cons should she go back. I was really struck by something she said: 鈥業t鈥檚 going back to places like Ukraine 鈥 or other unsettled areas of the world 鈥 where knowledge is created and discovered. You鈥檙e at the front lines of the creation of knowledge.鈥欌
鈥淚 felt in that a real call,鈥 he says, 鈥渁 challenge both literal and figurative. What an SIT education is great for is to really be there, to be where knowledge is created and to be on that front line where transformation is occurring.鈥
It raised an inevitable question in Nicholas: 鈥淚 asked myself: What do you have to offer?鈥
He felt called to take up the challenge of building peace in Jerusalem, where conflict has gone on for a long time. He has few illusions about the scale of the task at hand. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been the better part of 100 years getting into the current [Israeli-Palestinian] situation. It will take at least that much time to come out of conflict.鈥
Because of that long view, Jerusalem Peacebuilders works to train young Israelis and Palestinians to be tomorrow鈥檚 peacemakers. 鈥淭he purpose of our organization is to unite Israelis and Palestinians of every kind of background and prepare them to be positive agents of change in their society. Our goal is a transformed conflict, a peace in which they can share Jerusalem and the land in dignity, security, and peace. But we won鈥檛 be the ones doing that. It鈥檚 our participants; they are the agents of change.鈥
The organization began by bringing 11 students from the region to Brattleboro. In summer 2018, there were about 125 students between ages 14 and 18 training in several locations in Vermont, Connecticut, and Texas.
鈥淭hey are all involved in a four-year program of interfaith leadership and peace education. It occurs both in the schools they attend in Israel and Palestine, and at summer residential programs. Not just sort of camp. The kids do coursework one or two semesters per year, and the summer residential programs are two weeks.鈥
It鈥檚 important to Nicholas that peacemaking not be imposed from outside. 鈥淥ne of the great things SIT taught me is to be aware of an element of Western imperialism in peacebuilding. That鈥檚 why we鈥檙e working hard with local organizations and our participants and our grads to replace ourselves.鈥
He hopes that some of Jerusalem Peacebuilders participants will go on to be 鈥渢hought leaders鈥 and 鈥渟ociety leaders.鈥 That鈥檚 something that happens, in his view, not only because of their commitment to peace, but because of their commitments to each other as participants in the programs.
Nicholas says he uses what he learned at SIT 鈥渋n almost everything, all the time. The education I received from the professors I had the privilege of studying with at SIT was outstanding. I use what I learned in conflict transformation, in mediation, and in designing experiential learning programs every single day.鈥
He believes so strongly in SIT鈥檚 model that he鈥檚 made it a point to work with and hire SIT grads. 鈥淚 have confidence in their learning, and their training. It鈥檚 simple 鈥 the motivation of SIT folks is to better the world.鈥