In Memoriam: John Wallach
A Sower of Seeds of Peace
August 2002
John Wallach and Seeds of Peace campers.The passing of John Wallach on July 10 was considerably more than a deep personal loss to his family and friends. It was a loss of leadership to a global community of those who strive for a less hateful world and inter-communal reconciliation.
John was a true entrepreneur of peacemaking. In 1993, at the height of an award-winning career in journalism, he conceived of a summer camp coexistence experience for children of societies divided by hostility and conflict. As Henry Kissinger said at the funeral, "All great things are somebody's dream, . . . and it has been a privilege to be permitted to walk a little bit of the path with him."
John's conception was based on a profound insight: The most effective way to break the cycle of distrust and hatred that sustains conflict over generations—the confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians, Greeks and Turks in Cyprus, ethnic groups in the Balkans and Afghanistan, Indians and Pakistanis—was to bring together teenagers and help them confront the personal hostilities and stereotypes that sustain group conflict.
As he once observed, the Seeds of Peace experience was a "detox" program for getting rid of hatred before it poisoned the minds of emerging young leaders, before they were trapped in yet another cycle of self-destructive conflict that burdened their elders. (For more on John's life and work, see "A Letter on Behalf of My Father," by Michael Wallach, www.seedsofpeace.org.)
John Wallach's social concerns and compassion found expression through qualities of entrepreneurial genius. He not only had the insight to conceive of an innovative program of reconciliation, he had the promotional skills to generate political and financial support for his concept, and the organizational sense to bring his conception into reality. In less than a decade, John "grew" Seeds of Peace from a modest two-week experience for 45 Israeli, Palestinian, and Egyptian youngsters at a rented facility to an extended summer program for more than 400 campers from 23 countries at a permanent campsite in Maine. And with the support he generated from those who shared his vision, John was able to create a "coexistence center" in Jerusalem and make innovative use of the Internet to connect "seeds" who remained separated by the hostility that continues to divide Israelis and Palestinians.
The Institute of Peace was fortunate to have had the opportunity to support the growth of John's vision. A modest grant in 1994, Seeds' second year of operation, gave John enough backing to bring professional counselors into the program and develop other sources of funding. A second grant enabled him to evaluate the effectiveness of the camping experience. And a fellowship at the Institute in 1997–98 gave him the time to write an appealing book about his creation, The Enemy Has a Face: The Seeds of Peace Experience (U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2000). This was precisely the use of our resources that Congress had in mind in creating the Institute and funding its work. It demonstrates that the Institute is not a self-contained set of programs but an outreach vehicle with the ability to empower creative efforts at peacemaking by innovative individuals and institutions around the world.
Seeds of Peace is now in its 10th year of operation. The effort has acquired a certain institutional momentum, but John's leadership was essential to its vision and growth. His untimely passing challenges us to find ways to sustain his work. There could be no better way of memorializing the innovative peacework of John Wallach, a sower of seeds of peace, than to find ways to sustain his creation. The Institute of Peace is committed to working with his wife and collaborator Janet Wallach and the Seeds of Peace family to give ongoing life to this unique approach to freeing young people from the bonds of hatred that trap societies in enduring conflict.
—Richard H. Solomon
