A Community Gathering with Omid Safi

Our hearts are filled with anguish as Israel continues its relentless bombardment of Gaza following Hamas’s October 7 attack, which itself came after decades of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. So many of us feel helpless, and for some, hopeless, as we bear witness to—or personally experience—seemingly endless cycles of violence, trauma, and dehumanization.

Join us for a presentation followed by a conversation with Prof. Omid Safi, an Iranian-American Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University.

Some of the questions we explore:

• Can we move beyond condemnation to envision what “love has to say” at such a time?
• Can honoring each other’s grief allow us to reclaim some humanity?
• Can we speak difficult truths yet keep hoping that reconciliation remains possible?
• Can we respond to this crisis in a way that doesn’t reinforce its architecture?
• Can we respond in a prophetic way — calling for real justice, not just an end to external violence?
• What could a sustainable peace, rooted in justice, look like, given the huge imbalance of power?

Please join us for this thought-provoking discussion, aimed at the deepest questions of justice and peace.