Daniel Lubetzky

One of entrepreneurs’ and CEOs’ greater challenges is learning the art of contraction.

CEOs and entrepreneurs may feel they can do a task better than their team members because they have more experience.

But then they will never will build the professional potential of their staff, and their organizations will not reach their full potential, limited as they are by the hours of one human being.

Similarly with children, if overbearing parents control the lives of their kids, these are more apt to become meek children living in the shadow of their parents.

Same with Professors and Coaches and Doctors and Lawyers who have apprentices.

Philosophers of religion, when trying to explain why G’d, though all-powerful and omni-present, does not dominate our lives or otherwise prevent all forms of evil, talk about the supreme power of contraction from G’d, to allow free will to reign.  Were G’d not to contract its power, humans would never be able to have self-determination or otherwise do anything.

The power and the talent of contraction is thus vital to all pursuits where you want to build the strength of your team or eco-system.

Click play on the link here to see an example of excellent data visualization, and to get a sense of the depth of this recession.

From Phil in KIND’s communication dept:

All,

Fans of the popular, long-running soap opera “Days of Our Lives” may have noticed a special cameo on Monday, June 1^st! When Brady and Melanie found themselves trapped in the Kiriakis family mausoleum, things suddenly turned around for Melanie when she found a KIND Almond & Apricot Bar she had in her purse.

Just goes to show – carrying a KIND Bar can save the day, whether you find yourself trapped in a mausoleum or just craving a delicious and healthy on-the-go snack!  Please enjoy and feel free to distribute the link below.

http://www.kindsnacks.com/media-center/2009/06/kind-cameos-on-days-of-our-lives/

Best, Phil

A year ago we conceived a project to help young Palestinians and Israelis visualize what their lives would be like ten years from now if peace were to come.  To dare them to believe, hoping this will then prompt them to invest into turning this vision into a reality.  The project, Imagine 2018, received thousands of essay submissions from students, and captivated the imagination of millions.

Now its next phase – turning children’s winning essays into short films by award-winning directors – is also becoming a reality, as described in this email from Gil from OneVoice Israel. The next step is to make peace a reality.

Soldier and Boy                 Tel Aviv Damascus

Dear all,

We would like to update you that OVI had filmed the 2 short movies of the "imagine 2018" project.

There were two days of shooting : 24-25 of may.

Overall the outcomes  were beyond our expectations, since the producers and directors were very professional and organized, and they were able to recruit some of the best actors in the local market, that made this project very prestigious .we had:  Yona Elian – A very famous and respectable theater and movie  actor. an Israeli icon, Aki Avni, a very talented and well known actor. worked in LA in the past few years, Clara khoury, who played the "Syrian bride", Oshri Cohen, played a leading role in "beau for" Ali Nassaer (an Arab Israeli  actor and director) and the amazing kid , Abdallah Akkal.

[Read more →]

Dan Bar-On was an extraordinary man who, together with Sami Adwan, conceived a powerful shared narrative project, where Israelis and Palestinians read about their and their counterparts’ historical narrative – helping them understand they don’t need to give up their patriotism to better understand the other side.  Bar-On, who gave his life to peace efforts and who was an inspiration to OneVoice, lost his battle to cancer last fall.  He once wrote:

"[Hope for achieving co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians may in the end depend on] giving up the romantic, monolithic desires of the idealized past in favor of a less perfect but more complex understanding of the world and ourselves, an understanding that can create new possibilities for dialogue within our selves, among ourselves within a collective, and with the Other."

From "Tell Your Life Story" by Dan Bar-On, as related by Dr. Saliba Sarsar

[Read more →]

For those who can understand Hebrew – and for those who will get a kick out of just seeing the b-roll – here is a link to a story that appeared on Channel 2 in Israel, in their top news program, about OneVoice’s project Imagine 2018 – and the first two short films that were created by leading directors from essays from young kids visualizing what their world will look like in the year 2018.

דני דה ויטו ואקי אבני יעשו לנו שלום?

בארגון ONE VOICE בטוחים – יהיה שלום במזרח התיכון. השאלה רק איך הוא ייראה, בעוד עשר שנים נניח. אז איך זה קשור לדני דה ויטו ואקי אבני?

אורן אהרוני | המהדורה המרכזית, חדשות 2

Barack Obama’s election, and his speech today to the Muslim world, may be looked back upon in future years as a turning point for human progress and global understanding.  Far more revolutionary than the historical first of the heritage he represents is the ideological depth of his commitment to shared humanity.

I LOVE THIS MAN!

The philosophy is very much aligned with OneVoice, and some of the language and definitions properly redefine terms like violent extremism that were misused and abused in the last Administration and that did not even exist or make sense when OV was forged.

OneVoice Glasgow is a purely-volunteer-driven chapter that has risen above the rest of the international support efforts to such degree that it is worthy of attention.  They receive zero funding from OneVoice, yet deliver so much in their community and beyond. If we can decode what has made them so extraordinary, international support for Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolution will really take off.  Witness what a few committed volunteers have done: