“Memory of peace”: that’s the title of the pilgrimage made to Auschwitz in recent weeks by some 500 young people, including Jews, Moslems and Christians from Israel and Palestine, and French and Belgian youngsters from families born from mixed marriages. The pilgrimage was led by Father Emile Shoufani, Greek-Melkite priest and director of the Arab-Israeli Institute of Saint Joseph of Nazareth. “Breaking the spiral of hatred”: that, explained Shoufani, was the aim of the pilgrimage that set out from the ghetto of Cracow and, after a pause in the synagogue of the city, continued its journey to the death camp of Auschwitz. “We went there to take upon ourselves the suffering of the Shoah said Shoufani . We would like to be a door that opens to change, a door opened to both sides in the conflict, Israelis and Palestinians, overcoming the logic of ‘who should take the first step'”. Father Shoufani began a project for education in dialogue and peace in his institute in 1988, trying to reunite Jews and Palestinians at school, in the conviction that “cultural and religious differences should be considered a path towards dialogue and peace”. During the pilgrimage to Auschwitz, Shoufani launched an appeal for the promotion of dialogue in the Middle East, signed by various international personalities such as the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur, recently awarded the Paul VI Prize, and the Grand Rabbi of France Gilles Bernheim.
