One of the Dominicans in Isaiah House was Fr Bruno Hussar, a priest of Egyptian Jewish parents. Fr Bruno wrote an autobiography called 'When the cloud rises.' Well apparently one day the cloud rose and God said: 'Bruno, I want you to found a community of Israelis and Palestinians living together.'
Bruno thought this was a tall order but set about his task. For a shekel he purchased some land from the Latrun monastery, about 30 miles from Jerusalem and in the Ayalon valley, famous for the sun and moon standing still in the battle with Joshua and the scene of bloody fighting in the 1948 War of Independence. For a year he laboured to build, with a few hippies helping him. One day he said to God:'If you don't send me an Israeli and a Palestinian family within a week, I'm quitting!'
But they came. When I visited in 1989 there were 75 people living in the community and there was a School for Peace, where all the children learned Hebrew and Arabic together. Teenagers from the local Israeli and Palestinian schools come to workshops to meet the 'Other' and the encounters are often facilitated through music.
I had the privilege of meeting Fr Bruno there and he took me down to 'Dumiyah' which means deep silence and is a big white Dome where the people can pray. As I faced him in this place, I felt I had 'come home.'
Shalom from
Sister Gila
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