From Pain to Peace: Young Peacebuilders Training in Wetzlar, Germany

Further reports and photos will be coming out in the coming weeks. Please enjoy this write-up from AR Germany Board members Bjoern & Sarah Rech. 

October 14th – 20th, 2025: Wetzlar, Germany

12 young peacebuilders from Israel gathered in Wetzlar, Germany, for a week of peacebuilding training with Sheikh Ghassan Manasra, Rabbi Mordechai Zeller, Sheikh Abed Manasra, Chris Miller, Paul K. Chappell, Sebastian Kutscha and Sarah & Bjoern Rech.

At the beginning of this week everyone left early for home and were incredibly grateful for the time and the opportunity to get to know each other in peace and safety, to have experiences, to shed tears or simply to have joy and fun together. Their thanks and appreciation were exuberant and went to the seminar leaders, the hosts, the organization, the donors and the parish of the Kreuzkirche in Wetzlar. Many had already attended several peacebuilding seminars, but everyone agreed that this week was outstanding for them.

In this short week, a close community has noticeably grown, in which there was a lot of lively discussion and work. People looked out for each other, respected each other and made friends, including with the host families.

After an icebreaker day with exercises to get to know each other, the workshops initially focused on trauma and trauma management with presentations on the topic on site and with a guest lecturer from Oregon in the USA via Zoom. Saturday was dedicated to comparative text studies of the Joseph story, in which the same story was told from a Jewish and Muslim perspective and significantly more similarities than differences were found.

The mild weather on Sunday was used to create our own poems and poetry after a walk in the forest and to recite them to each other.

In the meantime, we followed the traces of the Shoah in Wetzlar and discovered the Jewish cemetery and the memorial site of the former Wetzlar synagogue together. Friday in Frankfurt was certainly a special experience with the visit to the Jewish Museum, the Frankfurt Cathedral including organ playing and the Abu Bakr Mosque, through which we were well guided by the board of the Muslim community in Frankfurt. It was particularly touching to experience a joint prayer at this place between Muslim, Druze, Christian and Jewish participants, including a rabbi.

In the Jewish Museum, the museum guide seemed a bit overwhelmed at times due to the relaxed, lively discussion with Muslim and Jewish participants in our group.

But the week wasn’t just about work. Coincidentally, it was the weekend of the Wetzlar Gallusmarkt (Autumn Fair) , which they got to know in this way, but they also discovered local shisha and ice cream cafes and that the traditional Arabic dessert “Kenafeh” is also available in very good quality in Wetzlar! We definitely want to mention that our guests apparently discovered a passion for playing boules at the Kreuzkirche.

The meeting evening was certainly another highlight. Sheikh Ghassan Manasra and Sheikh Abed Manasra introduced the visitors from Wetzlar to the work of the Abrahamic Reunion with music, singing and a lecture. Further questions could then be discussed in the individual discussion
groups, which would certainly have continued for some time had we not interrupted them due to time constraints. We will also never forget the spontaneous joy of life that was shown at the end of the event with a dance together.

During the week it was nice to see how maturely the young adults spoke to each other, even if their views were sometimes different, and how much responsibility many of the young adults have already taken on for peace in their lives.

We were able to experience a very moving and wonderful week with all these wonderful people, for whom we are very, very grateful.

Shalom Salaam Peace Frieden
Board of the Abrahamic Reunion e.V.
Sarah und Björn Rech