How is Encounter different from other organizations or tour operators offering organized visits to meet with Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem?
Encounter is first and foremost a Jewish educational organization and decidedly not a trip provider or a tour company. We have a very narrow and specific target audience for our programs: deeply committed Jewish communal leaders who care about the American Jewish community, Israel and the relationship between the two against the backdrop of this conflict.
Secondly, we are not an advocacy or activist organization. We do not espouse or advocate for particular political “solutions” to the conflict (or anything else). Instead, we advocate for rigorous, informed and sophisticated ongoing education which we believe must include direct engagement with Palestinians on key issues of the conflict. Our approach is rooted in the philosophy of “self-directed leadership” — we trust our participants to determine the best ways to integrate this experience into their own communal contexts and do not attempt in any way to dictate or prescribe that for them.
PLEASE NOTE: The views expressed in this section of the website are not necessarily those of Encounter as an organization. We support the chorus of voices of the Jewish community in engagement with the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so long as they are consistent with our core values.