Join Rebecca Crichton in conversation with Andrea Cohen, a long-time facilitator of Compassionate Listening practices. Andrea will share personal stories of how these practices have transformed conflicts - with families, friends, and within challenged communities - into relationships based on greater understanding, caring, and connection. Andrea Cohen, MSW, is a certified Compassionate Listening facilitator. She is the author of Practicing the Art of Compassionate Listening and director of the Compassionate Listening film Children of Abraham. She also co-directed the Compassionate Listening-based Jewish-German Reconciliation Project for several years. Rebecca Crichton started her “Encore Career” as Executive Director of NWCCA in 2012 after 21 years with The Boeing Company. She refashioned her skills and knowledge as a writer, curriculum designer, and leadership development coach to offer Creative Aging programs at many Seattle area venues. An active participant in the local aging community, she writes regularly for 3rd Act Magazine.

Susan Partnow , from the Compassionate Listening Project talks about the importance of developing the listening skill.

We are dedicated to empowering people and communities to transform conflict, cultivate resilience, and enhance their capacity to be change-makers in their lives, communities, and in the world.

Twenty-two Jewish Americans travelled to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza with the Compassionate Listening Project. Children of Abraham is a 34-minute broadcast-quality documentary that chronicles this journey. The film follows the Jewish participants as they visit with and listen to Israelis and Palestinians – from leaders to refugees, and seek to understand the complexities of religious, political and human rights issues. Participants include Jewish leaders and professionals ranging from secular to observant. This beautiful documentary introduces the Compassionate Listening reconciliation model, and humanizes each Israeli and Palestinian portrayed. The film delivers a compelling message that conflict can be transformed through listening with compassion. Speaker cameos include Dr. Haidar Abdul Shafi, Founding member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Dr. Eyad el-Sarraj, Founder, Gaza Community Mental Health Program, Sheikh Ahmad Yasmin, former Spiritual Leader of HAMAS, Yossi Klein HaLevi, Yehezkel Landau, Amos Gvirtz, Rabbi Menachem Froman, Founder of Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful, Israeli Settler's Movement), and more. "Children of Abraham compellingly documents the profound possibilities within a society in which friends and enemies alike attune themselves to the voice of the other. It should serve as an urgent reminder of how badly we transgress and how much we forfeit when we dismiss the power of listening as too simple. This is not a promotion of a naive quick fix, but rather a call to the wrenching but essential heroism that Jewish tradition says inheres in making one’s enemy into one’s friend." ~ Rabbi Gordon Tucker

The Jewish-German Compassionate Listening Project was founded in 2002 by Beate Ronnefeld and Leah Green, to provide an opportunity to advance Jewish-German reconciliation and healing. The project brought together Jews, Germans, and those affected by World War II, to explore beliefs and to humanize the “other”. Through Compassionate Listening training, personal sharing and hearing the stories of witnesses, participants deepened their understanding of the complex wounds generated by WW II and the Holocaust, and experienced tremendous personal healing. After the first delegation in 2002, Brian Berman and Andrea Cohen led two additional delegations with Beate, and the Jewish-German Project became a living reconciliation model among participants. For more information: http://www.compassionatelistening.org/delegations/jewish-german "I think this project is a world healing – and personal healing miracle. From the moment we started, the healing began…" - 2002 participant

How do we find common ground with people we oppose or disagree with?  We are generally more focused on expressing our views than listening to the other's point of view.  Compassionate listening is a process we can use to bridge our differences. Raised on a small kibbutz in the Arava desert in Israel, Tali Goodfriend is the eldest of nine children. She has been living in Montreal for over 30 years, teaching at Vanier College in the Continuing Education Department, Early Childhood Education. She also teaches at Concordia University in The Art Education Department. One of the courses she created and teaches is “Art As A Means for Social Awareness”. She is a member of “The Montreal Dialogue Group” and certified facilitator in “Compassionate Listening Project”. In her role as Compassionate Listening facilitator, she works with diverse groups in Montreal and Co-leads Compassionate Listening Delegations to Israel/Palestine.She holds a BA in Studio Arts and a Masters degree in Art Education from Concordia University. The current focus of her art is exploring art for social change. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

How simple Compassionate Listening tools can help transform and resolve conflict.

This introduction to the history and work of the Compassionate Listening Project includes interview clips with founder, Leah Green, senior trainers Andrea Cohen and Susan Partnow, and training participants. The film focuses on our work in Israel and Palestine, our former work with German-Jewish reconciliation, and our work world-wide.