The Focolare International Center for Interreligious Dialogue organized a colloquium in Madrid, where Rabbi Silvina Chemen championed the value of religion not as a problem, but as an ethical and strategic resource for peace in everyday "microworlds".
In a global context where religious identities are often superficially interpreted as vectors of polarization and division, the space O_lumen Madrid embraced a decidedly disruptive proposal: to understand religion as an ethical, hermeneutical and strategic resource indispensable for building peace.
Under the title "Conflict and Religion: Beyond Confrontation," the International Center for Interreligious Dialogue of the Focolare Movement in Spain hosted a colloquium with the renowned Argentinian rabbi Silvina Chemen. Facilitated with great warmth by Dolores García Pi, former president of the Forum of the Laity of Spain, the meeting deliberately avoided dry academic presentations and traditional geopolitical analyses. The objective, in keeping with the culture of encounter promoted by Pope Francis, was simply to look at one another, listen to one another, and commit to what truly matters, through the "dialogue of life.".
The roots of the encounter and the inflated mattress
Rabbi Silvina Chemen, vice-rector of the Abarbanel University Institute and permanent member of the International Center of the Focolare Interreligious Movement in Rome, began by sharing her own life story. The granddaughter of Syrians who emigrated to Argentina, she grew up watching her grandparents play cards and smoke. hookah 1 with neighbors in an environment where it didn't matter who was Jewish, Christian, or Muslim: everyone was a "fellow countryman" supporting each other. "Interreligiousness is part of my DNA; I received it with life," she explained, deeply moved.
Recalling how she became a rabbi, she humorously and humbly affirmed that her vocation arose "from the bottom up," legitimized by the affection and needs of her own community. She also remembered with deep gratitude her close connection to the Focolare Movement, forged decades ago through her friendship with a dedicated Focolare member and the participation of her son Ariel in an important role. Super Congress2 of young people in Rome, where the young man himself opened a prayer, open to all religions, in front of the Colosseum, ringing the shofar (biblical ram's horn). "I always say I'll go where the river takes me, but I make sure my mattress is inflated," he noted to illustrate his docility to God's plans.
«"Microworlds" and seeds of peace in the Middle East
In the face of cognitive biases that reduce human beings to a single label or side, Chemen invited us to focus on the invisible stories that are transforming pain into fraternity. He shared his firsthand involvement in the initiative. The Road Not Yet Taken and her exciting encounter with Israeli and Palestinian women's groups, such as the activists of Women of the Sun in the West Bank. These mothers, united above the conflict, work in refugee camps to rescue teenagers from the clutches of hate and violent recruitment, achieving small but gigantic daily miracles, such as the recent opening of a small park and a soccer field in Bethlehem to offer an alternative horizon to young people.
When Dolores García asked her how to combine patience with a hopeful outlook when macro-results are slow in coming, the rabbi was emphatic: "One has interpretations of the 'macro-world,' but lives in 'micro-worlds.' And in our 'micro-worlds,' the results do bring hope because you get people moving.".
As an example, he cited the space he has led for eleven years, where Jews and Christians meet monthly on a regular basis to study the Torah and the Gospel together, face to face.. Texts that sometimes converse, complement each other, or disagree, but which serve to reveal that the wounds of others belong to us.. "When the other person is already a part of you, you are filled with a hope that is not empty," she concluded..
The event, which providentially coincided with the eve of the Jewish festival of Shavuot (Pentecost) , It left the attendees—both in person and virtually—with a renewed certainty that universal brotherhood is not a distant utopia, but a path that widens every time we decide to break down prejudices and choose dialogue in our daily lives..
