MADA (Horizon)

Bringing women together to create peace between religions within communities.

“Our purpose is for women to bring their hearts together, to create peace locally within our community and our religions, to strengthen women religiously and to create cooperation among the religions in our local community.”

Members of this Cooperation Circle (CC) live in a local community where there is often violence based on mistrust and fear between the different religious groups. Members believe that women can meet together to learn about religions within their communities to create harmony together and have a positive influence on their families and larger social circles. They hold regular meetings with different religious groups to get to know others and their customs so as to support women to create cultivate harmony between religious groups in their communities. They also hold large meetings with deep discussion about different religious holidays – sharing customs and rituals. Meetings with Jewish women’s groups from other communities are also held to strengthen connections between women in their local region and country – from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem — and to learn more about other religions. This CC is a program within the Daliat Ha Carmel Community Center and therefore are part of the Israeli National Community Center system and have access to meet regularly with twenty other Arab and Jewish community centers.