I grew up with a Jew­ish dad and a Chris­t­ian mom and have always strad­dled at least two worlds. I grew up won­der­ing why my pater­nal and mater­nal grand­par­ents were so angry when my par­ents decided to marry… and why my pater­nal grand­fa­ther refused to eat off my mother’s kosher dishes after she con­verted to Judaism. Because of his rigid­ity, she gave up on being a Jew and returned to church, where I was raised.

Today, that micro­cosm of rigid­ity and prej­u­dice con­tin­ues to play out on a much larger scale. Wars are fought in the name of God, as they so often have been. And yet, eight major reli­gions in the world share a belief in the Golden Rule — do unto oth­ers as you would do unto yourselves.

Today more than ever, we need tol­er­ance. Today more than ever, we need to cre­ate peace in our­selves as indi­vid­u­als in order for the larger world to be at peace. And today more than ever, we must shine light on the dark places inside each of us.

In my own life, I have found writ­ing to be my best cre­ative out­let. It has been fun, dif­fi­cult, reward­ing, chal­leng­ing, ther­a­peu­tic, uplift­ing. I think that writ­ing offers each of us a chance to look deep inside our­selves, to rec­og­nize our rigid places so that we don’t project them onto “the other” as enemy.

I also believe that most wars are started by indi­vid­ual lead­ers, not most peo­ple. I believe that peo­ple of all dif­fer­ent faiths want to live on a planet of peace today. I believe that our shared writ­ings can help fos­ter that peace… and edu­cate us in untold ways.

I truly hope you will join the TIFERET global writ­ing com­mu­nity. I look for­ward to wel­com­ing you into this wide and won­der­ful group of writ­ers and peacemakers.

Warmly,

Donna