James Paharik, an associate professor of sociology and faculty coordinator of the Genocide Studies and Holocaust Program at Seton Hill University (SHU), recently published “The Long Journey: In Search of Justice and Peace in Jerusalem,” which combines 24 interviews he conducted with the blogs he wrote during his 2007 sabbatical in Israel and the West Bank.
By Aja Hannah
Staff Writer
James Paharik, an associate professor of sociology and faculty coordinator of the Genocide Studies and Holocaust Program at Seton Hill University (SHU), recently published “The Long Journey: In Search of Justice and Peace in Jerusalem,” which combines 24 interviews he conducted with the blogs he wrote during his 2007 sabbatical in Israel and the West Bank.
“[Blogs] have made it a lot easier for people to get their thoughts and feelings about issues out in the open. Blogs provide a unique opportunity for communities where people who are interested in similar things can share, contribute, and learn about these topics,” said frequent blogger Greta Carroll, a sophomore.
By trying to write every week for his readers at SHU, Paharik said he became disciplined about writing. “When I got back, I looked at all the material I had and it seemed that it could be a bigger project…It turned out that a couple of people in the Greensburg community had just stumbled across the blogs and so they knew about my project even before the book came out,” said Paharik.
Paharik’s blog entries and book reflect his experiences with the Israeli and Palestinian conflict as well as the insight he gained from observing the situation and talking to people. The book combines these details into nine essays that describe Paharik’s journey through Jerusalem as he searches for peace. He divides his time between working with the Benedictine Dormition Monastery’s programs for peace and interviewing a diverse group of people in the city. “I wanted to meet others in the city who are also doing interreligious work and tried to bring people together and foster reconciliation,” said Paharik.
His interviews with Jews, Palestinians, Armenian and Ethiopian Christians, and other individuals revealed that the people strive to work for peace, “though they would recognize that religion can be used to make conflicts worse and to deepen the hatred between people. They’re all looking for ways to use religion as a resource in peacemaking,” said Paharik.
Lois Sculco, a Sister of Charity at SHU and an administrator of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education, said she could really appreciate the book not only because of her prior visits to Jerusalem, but also because of his insight. “I appreciated the scenes he describes and especially how those places recalled Scripture passages which inspired me… as well as his references to Martin Luther King and other comparisons he made to similar situations in the United States and in other parts of the world,” said Sculco.
Carroll, who attended Paharik’s religion course last spring, read a few excerpts from Paharik’s book in class. “I found most of what I read interesting since I knew almost nothing about the things he was writing about. It is certainly informative,” said Carroll.
“I want my work to reach the largest possible audience. I wrote the book to give voice to many hundreds of peace and human rights workers who are not known in the outside world,” said Paharik. “Particularly in the United States, we are unaware of their dedicated efforts; the media does not publicize them, and that is a shame because they are doing very important work to create a better future for all of the people of the region.”
Paharik’s blogs are still accessible via http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JamesPaharik, but “the book supersedes the blogs at this point,” said Paharik.