Prof. Ada Aharoni is a Peace Culture Researcher, writer, poet and lecturer. She is the Founder and President of IFLAC: The International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace. Ada lives in Nesher, Israel.

HEBREW SITES:
Ada Aharoni's Homepage in Hebrew | IFLAC in Hebrew | World Congress of the Jews from Egypt | Jews from Arab Countries and Peace

Turn on your speakers, click and enjoy A Green Week or Why?
from Ada's CD To Haim - To Life: Love Poems

NEWS:

New Book: The Voice of Peace in the Process of Education

(2008.04.25) This innovative book on Peace Education is edited by Sara Zamir and Ada Aharoni.

In its recommendation, IFLAC Literary and Educational Recommendation Committee says:

This book has been highly praised as an innovative voice in Peace Education. It establishes comprehensive and critical examination of the Peace Eduaction issues, dilemmas and visions concerning the process of peace education in Israel, as they appear today. It also demonstrates new implementations of the theoretical as well as the practical views of peace education. It is a book that should be used in all schools, colleges and universities, as well as by other institutions and forums around the world.

The book can be ordered from the publisher: Achva Academic College of Education, M.P.O. Shikmim, 79800 Israel, tel. 972-8-8588172.

IFLAC's Call on Passover and Easter:
Create Ministries of Peace in Israel and Palestine

(2008.04.20) On this Passover and Easter, there are more Israelis and Palestinians pushing to transform the atmosphere from violence to harmony and peace.

IFLAC: The International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace, is eveloping guidelines for this purpose, and it proposes that we should pass on to concrete peace thinking and peace actions, by the creation of Ministries of Peace, both in Israel and Palestine. These crucially needed MINISTRIES OF PEACE would be charged with implementing the spreading of a PEACE CULTURE in all our region, and take in charge all the various aspects of negotiations of a viable and lasting PEACE agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.

IFLAC works toward an atmosphere and a mechanism to put a stop to incitement and hatred. It is absolutely imperative to reject the poisonous messages drilled into Palestinian children, and their education of a CULTURE OF DEATH. In Gaza, in particular, even the youngest children are taught that killing Jews is a duty of Muslims and that Israel's existence can never be tolerated.

Israeli textbooks are slowly reflecting more of the Palestinian sad and tragic experience, and Palestinian books too should reflect the sad and tragic reality of Israel, under constant Palestinian Kassams. This would create Bridges of understanding, tolerance and harmony.

Creating a culture of peace may seem like wishful thinking in the face of daily deadly rocket attacks on Sderot and the South of Israel by the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad, as well as in the face of the threat of military escalation as retaliation efforts by Israel.

However, convincing people that real peace, though difficult, is a tangible possibility, could go a long way toward facilitating compromise and making peace a reality. IFLAC works to attain a real PASS OVER experience from a culture of violence to a culture of peace.

IFLAC is so much more than a fantasy for peace poets, music composers, filmmakers and dreamers - IFLAC PAVES THE ROAD TO PEACE, with our daily IFLAC NEWSLETTER DIGEST, all our peace projects, and all your efforts dear media colleagues, and IFLAC members and friends.

New CD: To Haim - To Life: Love Poems

(2008.04.13) This CD is dedicated to Ada's husband, Haim Aharoni, who passed away in 2006.

Ada's four Love Poems in memory of Haim are put to music by Robert Nissenson and are here sung in Hebrew by Michal Tal, including What is Happiness?.

Ada then reads the poems both in Hebrew and English, among them Our Beautiful New Home.

The CD also contains other of her poems put to music by Yigal Alfassi and sung in Hebrew and English. One of them is the beautiful Why?, sung by Revital Levanon. Another is the classical A Green Week, sung by Anat Yagen.

To order the CD, please send an email to Ada Aharoni.

IFLAC on YouTube

(2008.02.23) Two IFLAC videos have been posted on YouTube. One is an introduction to IFLAC, where Ada interviews Barbara Lanz, young Austrian peace activist and student newcomer to IFLAC, and then Barbara interviews Ada.

The other, IFLAC España, is posted by the IFLAC Branch in Spain. It presents the main goals of IFLAC in Spanish, and photos of poets and writers who promote peace, equality and human rights. The video is accompanied by the song "We Are The World" (USA for Africa).

History and Culture of the Jews of Egypt in Modern Times

(2008.01.30) New book published by the WCJE - The World Congress of the Jews from Egypt - and edited by Prof. Ada Aharoni, Prof. Aimee Pelletier, and Ms. Levana Zamir.

It is the Proceedings of the WCJE World Congress at Haifa University, in June 2006, and it contains 30 articles, by 30 world famous researchers, including the works of the three editors.

The book is in English, French, and Hebrew and includes beautiful historical pictures of a model multicultural society that is no more.

Order information

Ada Aharoni: An Israeli scholar of literature and peace

(2008.01.10) Doug Holder at Ibbetson Street Press recently conducted an online interview with Ada. They talked about IFLAC, Peace Culture TV, Ada's poetry and Saul Bellow. When asked about IFLAC and cultural exchange as a means to bridge gaps, Ada answered: "We believe that all conflicts can be alleviated if the sides know and understand each other better, through bridges of culture and literature. Our culture is at the basis of our identity, and in a long and tragic conflict like the Arab-Israeli one, the wounds are very deep, on both sides, and to heal them we need a vehicle that can go that deep, and the most appropriate ones are Poetry, Literature and Culture."

Read the whole interview: Ada Aharoni: An Israeli scholar of literature and peace

New Year Greeting for 2008 from Ada

Dear Friends,

(2007.12.31) I take the opportunity of the last few hours of 2007, to wish you and yours all the best of good health, peace, happiness and success in 2008.

Our world is still full of warfare and misery, because of the destructive culture of violence that ravages it. In 2008, IFLAC appeals to all governments, to all global institutions, to all the media, to all nations and to all people, to act as responsible caretakers and trustees of humankind and of our planet, and to daily spread a global culture of peace, of love, and of democracy throughout our world. Leaders should seek progress and fair benefits for all people, and completely eliminate violence, hunger and famine from our blue ailing planet.

IFLAC will double its efforts to pave the way to a culture of peace in the Middle East and in our world. I wish that 2008 will witness the beginning of the triumph of the opposite spirit to war, terror and violence: the spirit of respecting each other and each other's culture, valuing life, cherishing pluralism, and focusing on improving the quality of life on our planet.

Once again, I wish you all, a very happy and peaceful New Year.

Professor Ada Aharoni
IFLAC Founder - President

How To Help Create A World Beyond War Through Our Words

(2007.12.16) Writers have tremendous power - they have the power of the word, and well-chosen words can help to create a better world and a world beyond war. How can we do it?

Read the whole article to get some inspiration based on Ada's own experience.

The Women Who Change the World

(2007.11.25) In her Anthology "The Women Who Change the World" (Vietnamese only), Nguyen Bich Lan writes about Great Women Leaders, among them Marie Curie and Sister Theresa. She also included an essay on Ada, titled The Woman Who Built the Peace Bridge.

Nguyen Bich Lan writes about these women: "Most of them are not political leaders or first ladies... but their contribution to humankind cannot be denied. With their extraordinary will and intelligence and unlimited love, these women have created great things which deserve the future of a peaceful and beatiful world."

The book is published as a special edition on the 50th anniversary of The Women's Publishing House (Hanoi).

IFLAC on Radio Transilvania-Sighet

(2007.11.19) On 10 October 2007, our member, Mr. Tatomir Ion-Marius, Romanian Poet and Peace Activist, was the Invitee of the Week of the Radio Transilvania-Sighet, local radiopost belonging to Radio Transilvania. This invitation was made by the Redactor Chief of Radio Transilvania-Sighet, Mr. Claudiu Holdis.

During his interview, he presented IFLAC and its mission and also the date of birth of IFLAC. He ended his interview by reciting the poem Peace Is a Woman and a Mother, from my book You and I Can Change the World - Toward 2000.

We are glad to hear that IFLAC has been presented on the Romanian radiopost, Radio Transilvania.

Together toward a Culture of Peace and Harmony!

Prof. Ada Aharoni

Peace Stories Festival

(2007.11.07) Ada has started a new IFLAC Project, a Course on Peace Stories, and the training of Peace Story Tellers.

The best Peace Story Tellers will be chosen to present their stories at the FIRST PEACE STORIES FESTIVAL in Haifa, in May 2008.

The Story Tellers meet once every two weeks, at the "Rose of the Carmel Club," 47 Shoshanat Ha Carmel Street, in Haifa, at 17.30 to 19.00. They present fascinating stories, with feedback from the audience. All are welcome to come and tell their stories or to come and listen and enjoy.

For more, see under Projects.

New book on Saul Bellow

(2007.11.07) Ada's new book on Saul Bellow has just been published: Inner Voice of Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow.

The book is in Hebrew, and is published by Pardess Publications, Haifa.

Ada was awarded her Doctorate Degree in Literature on Saul Bellow at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1975.

The picture, showing Ada with Mr. Bellow, is taken at the First International Saul Bellow Congress at Haifa University in 1987. Ada organized and chaired the Congress.

Global Multiculturalism Versus the "War of Cultures"

Presentation by Ada at the "Globalisation for The Common Good" Conference in Istanbul, July 2007.

(2007.11.07) Culture is the essence of personal and national identity. What people read and watch, and the kind of culture, literature, and norms, they are exposed to, through the home, education, religion, television and the internet - provide them with basic values, beliefs and attitudes, which affect and motivate them throughout their lives. The stories people hear, read and watch, as children and as adults, become an integral part of the core of their identity and personalities. The Nobel Prize Laureate, Elie Wiesel, explained: "We are the stories we hear and the stories we tell."

Even religions, which are an integral part of culture, are mainly built on stories and parables. It is of crucial importance therefore, that those stories we are exposed to, at the socio-cultural, religious, and educational levels, which we are told, read, and watch on television and in films, should be inspiring, harmonious, peaceful and constructive ones, that open our eyes to the world, and that build and do not destroy.

We are today in the midst of a relentless "War of Cultures", that is causing ravaging violence and destructive wars in the Middle East and in other parts of the world. These "Wars of Culture" cannot be resolved by guns, bombs and tanks, they can only be resolved by cultural means, by bridges of understanding, knowledge, tolerance and respect for "the other's culture", and "the other's religion." That is, the promotion of "Global Multiculturalism" is at the root of the urgently needed global change from a dangerous Culture of Violence and War, to a harmonious Culture of Peace.

To overcome cultural barriers and mistrust of other civilizations and cultures, all governments, educational institutions, and the global media, should inter-connect and join hands, to promote a harmonious "Global Multiculturalism," which would include, among others, principles of the equality of women and men. The best way to accomplish this tremendous task, is by the creation of a network of the "Global TV by Satellite for Peace Culture" (GSPC), proposed by IFLAC, which can effectively promote "Global Multiculturalism" all over the world and help build an innovative, peaceful global village, beyond war, terror and violence.

Read the whole article (Word format: 123 KB)

PowerPoint Presentation (3 MB):

IFLAC's Call on Passover and Easter: Create Ministries of Peace in Israel and Palestine