California State University, Northridge’s Jewish Studies Program is hosting a series of workshops on peacebuilding as a way to strengthen community and fight antisemitism. Three workshops will be held this fall and four will be held in spring 2025.

“I have wanted CSUN to offer something in the area of peacebuilding for years, especially after Oct. 7,” said Jennifer Thompson, director of the Jewish Studies Program. “Most of us do not have the skills to navigate this kind of unrest in ways that we would feel good about.”

Brie Loskota, a researcher with the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, will host the first workshop, “Building Peace Across the Globe,” in the Lakeview Terrace Room of the University Student Union on Tuesday, Oct. 29, at 10 a.m.

Participants will gain an overview of the field of peacebuilding as Loskota describes her experiences teaching peacebuilding all over the world, co-founding the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute and strengthening communities in her work with numerous non-governmental organizations, or NGOs. The workshop will include an art exercise in which participants draw timelines of their lives to gain insight into their own experiences.

“Brie told me that ‘a lot of times, people think that peacebuilding is getting the other person to come to your side, but it starts with changing yourself,’” said Thompson.

Thompson added that art-making, which will be incorporated into some of the workshops, can help people move through the discomfort that can come with peacebuilding.

“Working towards peace itself is not peaceful. It can involve a lot of good feelings, but also uncomfortable feelings,” she said. “Art making can be a way to process that in a way that is more comfortable without having to put them into words, because you might not even be able to do that.”

Aaron Hahn Tapper, a Jewish studies professor at the University of San Francisco, will lead the second workshop, “Transforming Conflict,” on Tuesday, Nov. 12, at 2:30 p.m. in room 130 of the Extended Learning University Commons and on Zoom. Tapper is the founding director of the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice and founded two peacebuilding organizations.

The final workshop for the fall is “Breaking Barriers, Building Hope: A Conversation with Adnan Jaber and Michal Greenfield of Standing Together.” Standing Together is a grassroots organization of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel working for peace, equality, and social and climate justice. The workshop will take place on Monday, Nov. 18, at 11:30 a.m.

The first workshop of the spring will feature a conversation with Mira Sucharov, a political science professor at Carleton University, and Sa’ed Atshan, chair of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore College. They will explore ways to discuss Israel and Palestine while maintaining a positive relationship. The workshop will be on Thursday, Feb. 6, at 1 p.m.

Other workshops in the spring include anthropologist and filmmaker Natasha Zaretsky of New York University, who will give a talk about her work on Argentine Jews in the aftermath of antisemitic violence, CTVA professor Judy Korin’s new documentary film “Adrift,” which focuses on refugees, will be screened, and speakers from the Parents Circle/Bereaved Families Forum, a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization made up of people who have lost family members and loved ones to violence in Israel or Palestine and are now working together to stop the conflict, will be in the peacebuilding series. Date and time to be determined for these events.

The Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing, the Ethics Minor, and the American Indian Studies Program are co-sponsoring the entire workshop series.

“I want students to know there are a lot of good people working on peacebuilding in different ways. I want them to learn skills that they can use in their own lives, however that may be,” said Thompson. “If everyone could learn something about it at some point in their college education, I think it could be incredibly beneficial.”