Thought for the Week: Shared values
Peter Kurer reflects on shared values
In 1938 my family and I were saved from the Nazis by members of the Religious Society of Friends. My brother and I, when we came to Britain, were then given two free years at Quaker boarding schools. After two years my father could afford to support us. All of our school education was at Quaker boarding schools. Later, two of my own daughters also had their education at a Quaker boarding school. In all my Quaker education, I never heard one word that conflicted with what I had learnt at home.
For the last nine years I have volunteered as a dentist in a dental clinic in Israel. It is for children on the official ‘poor list’ of Jerusalem. I have been going three times every year, for two weeks each time. The clinic is for children of all religions and ethnic backgrounds. How Quaker is that?
I learnt that in Israel they are very keen that every married woman who wants to have a baby should be able to have one. IVF is free, as many times as is necessary, for Israelis and, of course, also free for Palestinians. How Quaker is that? In Israel, when you say ‘hello’ to anyone, the greeting is ‘Shalom’, which means peace. How would the word ‘Shalom’ be as a greeting between Quakers ?
In south Manchester I have been involved for many years with a Jewish home for elderly Jews. In the home we have a water garden dedicated to the Religious Society of Friends. It has the inscription: ‘Lest we forget the help the Quakers gave Jews in the Nazi era’. The garden was opened, in the presence of Friends, by Jonathan Sacks, the chief rabbi, in 1997.
Due to my involvement with this home, I was invited to visit the Melabeu Alzheimer Day Centre in Jerusalem. The section I saw is for English-speaking people. This centre divides people into three categories, depending on their condition. I felt the way these people were kept occupied, with the aim of contentment and keeping their minds active, was superb. The day centre is for Jews, Christians and Muslims.
There was this man Moses who took the Jews out of Egypt in Old Testament times. After a few months he needed some peace and quiet; so, he went to the top of a mountain for forty days and forty nights. Moses came down with, arguably, the most important set of principles ever: the Ten Commandments. From where did Moses get them?
He had neither a mobile phone nor a laptop computer with him. There was no library up there. Could Moses have got the Ten Commandments by meditation – a direct line with his maker?
At the BBC Prom concerts, shortly before the Olympic Games last summer, one of the groups performing was the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim. The orchestra is a mixture of Israelis and Palestinians working and playing in harmony together! Consider the conception of this orchestra, the work and effort to put it together, the two sets of people with different backgrounds working in harmony. How Quaker is that?
Not everything in Israel is perfect, but what has been achieved in sixty-five years is amazing. I have seen enough that shows there are a great many fundamental foundation stones shared between Jews and Quakers. Could those shared, fundamental values explain why, in my ten years at Quaker schools, I never heard one word at variance with what I learnt at home?
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