Students' quilted letters aim for peace in Mideast

Messages fight hatred found in school textbooks

Dot Paul / The Detroit News Molly Resnick has gathered about 2,000 letters from Jewish children to Palestinian children that will be sewn into 10 quilts. She hopes to produce 20. The letters, once stitched into quilts will head for display in Washington and then go overseas.

By Raxann Chin / The Detroit News

    WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP -- One by one, Molly Resnick stitches the hand-written letters together, weaving a large quilt to combat hatred. The individual panels are written by Jewish children to Palestinian children, all part of a Kids for Peace program organized by the 1-year-old group Mothers Against Teaching Children to Kill and Hate.
    "Please stop! Don't hate me just because I'm Jewish. I don't hate you. I'm just a human being. So please stop!," writes Sarah, 12, from upstate New York. Another letter from Marni, 10, of Maryland, asks Palestinian children to respect Jews because they are no different.
    Their letters, along with almost 2,000 other letters from children in Michigan and other states, were written on construction paper and sown into quilts that Resnick plans to display at the U.S. Capitol.
    So far, Resnick she has gathered almost 2,000 letters to make 10 quilts. She plans to make 20.
    Resnick said the letters are in response to recent reports that Palestinian children are growing up to hate Jews because their textbooks contain numerous references to Jews as the enemy, liars and wild animals.
    But Jim Zogby, president of the Arab-American Institute in Washington D.C., said Israeli textbooks also contain negative stereotypes of Palestinians.
    "Israeli kids learn terrible things about Arabs as well," Zogby said. "Arabs are portrayed as traitors and killers.
    "I'm not going to justify the (Palestinian) textbooks. But if they want to solve the problem, acknowledge that both sides are doing this, don't point the finger. We are supposed to be in the middle of a peace process, this is not the way to solve it. It's unfortunate that these children are used as a pawn in a propaganda war. I would like to see them do something more positive."
    Resnick insists her quilt program is a positive way to teach children that hatred is wrong.
    "We formed M.A.T.C.H.K. to draw attention to the violence in Palestinian textbooks," Resnick said, adding that the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, a New York-based Jewish research group, recently researched 140 Arab Palestinian textbooks and found them to have violent material promoting hatred.
    "More than 800,000 Palestinian students are exposed to daily incitement against Israel," Resnick said. "Every Jew should be frightened about this, and every human being outraged. How do you brain-wash children to hate? The mind of a child is like wet cement; whatever they learn is engraved forever."

Peace Quilts

    Molly Resnick has visited schools and summer camps in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey to gather letters for her "Kids for Peace" quilts. Mothers Against Teaching Children to Kill and Hate was formed in 1998 by Bloomfield Hills and West Bloomfield residents Resnick, Janet Aronoff and Rae Sharfman.