[In Good Faith] What Canadians can learn from Israelis and Palestinians whose grief led them to advocate for peace

This episode originally aired on The CJN's peace-building podcast, In Good Faith. To subscribe and hear more, visit thecjn.ca/faith.

There’s a teaching that appears almost word-for-word in both Jewish and Islamic scriptures: whoever kills a soul, it's as if he killed the entire world; anyone who saves one soul, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. Judaism and Islam diverge on many points—but on this one, they’re in unanimous agreement.

Yet over the last two years, both Jews and Muslims in Canada and around the world have felt like they’re in a constant state of mourning over the violence and death in Israel and Gaza. And it’s not just the weight of the loss itself—there is also rage when it feels like someone else’s grief is being prioritized above your own, or when the reality of your grief is questioned.

At the same time, grieving is fundamentally not about death. Grief can heal us and bring communities together—as it has for both guests on today’s episode of In Good Faith.

First, you’ll hear from Layla Alsheikh, a Palestinian mother whose six-month-old son died after inhaling tear gas that Israeli soldiers shot into her West Bank village in 2002. After her story, Yonatan Zeigen discusses life after the murder of his mother, the Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, at the hands of Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. What connects these two bereaved voices? After suffering a brutal loss, both wound up turning toward peace-building as a way to honour the legacy of their late family members.

Credits

• Hosts:  Yafa Sakkejha and Avi Finegold

• Producers:  Michael Fraiman and Zachary Judah Kauffman

• Editor:  Zachary Judah Kauffman

This podcast is sponsored by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, with support from the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation.