Making Their Own Peace

Book excerpt: Every year since 1968, when she made her first pilgrimage to the city, Ann Madsen has returned to Jerusalem. In the course of her many visits, and of the five years she spent there as a resident, Madsen became intimately familiar with the city she had loved at first sight. Yet as she came to know the women of Jerusalem--Muslims, Jews and Christians--she wondered at their courage and persistence. "Why do they stay here through war after war?" she asked herself. How were these women able to maintain their vision, their hope, in the midst of perpetual conflict and danger? The result of her questioning is this primer for peace, illustrated by the lives of twelve women who have made their homes and lives in this troubled and beloved city. The twelve women profiled in this book represent thousands of women who live and work every day in Jerusalem, where, without waiting for political negotiations to succeed, they have found their own ways to make peace.