Rejecting Hate: A Special Shabbat Worship Service

Rejecting Hate: A Special Friday Evening Shabbat Worship Service with Guest Speakers Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon

In the popular imagination, Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon should be the bitterest of enemies.

When Aziz was nine years old, his older brother was arrested from their home in a small West Bank town just outside Jerusalem on suspicion of stone throwing. Released a year later, he died within weeks of internal injuries.

On October 7, 2023, Maoz’s parents were killed when their home on a moshav near the Gaza border was struck in a Hamas attack.

Animosity for the “other,” then, would have been easy.

Instead, both men chose another path: trading anger for partnership, and grief for a shared commitment to reconciliation. Their story is a powerful rebuttal to cycles of violence.

In their bestselling book, The Future Is Peace, Maoz and Aziz recount a week-long journey across Israel and the West Bank, exploring what connects their peoples. At every stop, they faced the same question: In the face of so much loss, how can hope endure?

During the service, they join us on the bima to discuss their answer that ” Hope isn’t found. It’s created.

Maoz Inon is an Israeli tourism entrepreneur and peace activist. Aziz Abu Sarah is a Palestinian author, journalist, and National Geographic Explorer.

This program is partially sponsored by Robert Sigefried.