The Mastery Foundation - October 2011

Our first developmental Intensive took place in Nazareth in July for 30 grassroots community and religious leaders. Part of its success can be gauged from this comment made by Shimshon Zelniker, former president of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and co-chair of the Hand in Hand Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel.

In my many years in civil society training all over the world I have not come across a better group than the one you had in Nazareth. If I had to assemble a group for one of my training seminars I doubt that I could have come with that high a percentage of outstanding, (relatively) young, and motivated civic activists as you have. The achievement is all the more impressive coming as it did at a time when Israeli society is undergoing a dramatic and exhilarating outburst of civic energy that rivals the Arab spring and exceeds it in many important ways. Each of the participants can and I think will play a critical role in this movement and some will stand out in it when the time comes.

To read more about the Intensive, click here.

Eighteen participants completed the School for Leadership in September and a new class is scheduled to begin the three-year curriculum in November. Click here to read an article by Northern Ireland graduate Tony Macaulay written for The European magazine on the 50th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall. Click here to read an article on US graduate Eileen Burns from Franciscan Spirit magazine.

One of our founding board members and a great friend of Mastery, Father Ed Zogby, died in June. His was a warm and welcoming – almost impish – presence, and his enthusiasm for life was contagious. Here in the homily at his funeral and in the newsletter from his last parish, you can glimpse the difference made by this loving man of God.