This lecture is the 13th annual Yoder Dialogue on Religion, Nonviolence, and Peace and features Jean Zaru, Palestinian Quaker, peace activist, and author of Occupied With Nonviolence: A Palestinian Woman Speaks (2008).
This event is free and open to the public. It will be followed by lunch and informal dialogue.
Born into a Quaker family in Ramallah, Palestine, Jean Zaru was eight years old when she witnessed the Nakba (“the catastrophe”) that made 750,000 Palestinians permanent refugees during the creation of the State of Israel. Zaru’s family responded by distributing emergency food and water and opening their home and lives to dozens of refugees. Since then, Zaru has committed herself to the liberation of Palestinian people and Palestinian society. She is a leader in the Palestinian Quaker community and a pioneer for women’s equality. She serves as clerk of the Ramallah Friends Meeting and was a founding member and vice-chair of Sabeel, an ecumenical Palestine Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.
Zaru has served on the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches and has been a member of the International Council of the World Conference for Religion and Peace. In 2010, she was awarded the Anna Lindh Memorial Prize, which supports those who “have the courage to fight indifference, prejudice, oppression, and injustices in order to promote a good life for all people in an environment marked by respect for human rights.”
The Yoder Dialogues are named in honor of John Howard Yoder, a professor of theology at Notre Dame from 1968 until his death in 1997. Yoder’s teaching and scholarship profoundly influenced theological discussions about war, social justice, and the relationship between church and state. He was a founding fellow of the Kroc Institute, where he initiated courses on war, law and ethics, and nonviolence. His books include The Priestly Kingdom, What Would You Do?, and The Politics of Jesus.
Sponsored by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies