Seeds of Peace Cafe

This is the 2nd time I attended their monthly function at their gorgeous premises in French Hill, but this time I went with some friends instead of going at it alone. I went with Eliyahu who, with his very obvious Jewish Orthodox look, got quite a few stares at first from the Palestinians who were not familiar with him and who were probably wondering what's HE doing here. But he stayed quite a few hours, and I'm sure made some nice connections. As did the Attunement Man, Jeff, who distributed flyers for his Spiritual Interfaith Weekend in the Forest - the beginning of June.

Turns out this guy whom I met briefly at one interfaith meeting a couple of years ago, Azriel Cohen, had an exhibition of his artwork there. And not just any artwork. He arrived in Israel in the middle of the Intifada and sat in cafes - when it was quite dangerous to sit in many of them as they were targeted alot by terrorists. He sat in cafes in both East and West Jerusalem, got to know the patrons and the owners, and painted scenes from these cafes, which he had on display tonight. Much to my happiness, most of the cafe owners brought in generous samples of their menus much to my happiness. Forget about losing weight. I raised my hand when they asked "who loves chocolates on a scale of 10 - 15", and chose me among 4 others to sample amazing chocolate from Belgium, Lebanon and Syria. The Lebanese chocolate was "to die for". The Syrian chocolate - well I gave it an 8. The Belgian chocolate was interesting and unique, but not melt-in-your-mouth, plus I am more partial to the Lebanese than I am to the Syrians, so that got a 9.

The cafe owners spoke about the history of their cafes - one of the Palestinians had that cafe in his family since 1922 or so and showed vintage photos of his grandfather outside the shop.

I grabbed a handful of chocolate which I miraculously gave to my kids instead of stashing it away for myself, and gave myself more "chores" to do - like giving the Seeds of Peace coordinators some interesting options for the next few meetings and introducing them to the people who can organize it for them. Wow! Wish I could get paid some bucks for doing what I love, but this is all free work because it just needs to be done.

"Your're a peace junkie" said my buddy Eliyahu.

Yep. And a chocolate junkie too.