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Soccer for Peace is an independent organization with no political or religious affiliations. Soccer for Peace held its first overnight camp in 2005, and our year long program began in 2007. We are based in New York City, and while our New York personnel oversee all curricula and program decisions, we partner with organizations in Israel to provide the best possible instruction and programming. Our work with local partners allows us as a still young organization to benefit from older organizations’ great expertise in specific areas of instruction, and to guarantee that we hire specially trained staff that is equally representative of our Jewish and Arab participants. 

The mission of Soccer for Peace is to unite children of war-torn regions in their shared love of sport. 

We use the game of soccer as both a metaphor and a vehicle for peace. Most of our participants, despite living several kilometres apart, would never meet were it not for this program. By uniting them in a commonly loved activity, always mixing the teams and stressing fair play and cooperation, bonds of friendship form naturally. Arabs and Jews suddenly find themselves united as teammates. We take great care to foster this spirit of cooperation, through the drills we run on the pitch, the subjects we address in dialogue and the social excursions we plan. 

We believe that a sincere and lasting peace can only be created by attitudinal change, which in turn only occurs through positive personal experience. The carefully planned and controlled activities we provide for our participants and the countless friendships and positive experiences we see as a result of our programs are thus a vital contribution to a much needed regional peace.

Targeted Population – Soccer for Peace operates in the Wadi Ara region in North-Central Israel. To ensure the best mix of participants, Soccer for Peace recruits at the municipal level. We select children living in close proximity to one another. This reduces transportation costs during a program and enables friendships formed on the pitch to be developed beyond it. We intentionally recruit from economically disadvantaged areas, where opinions are frequently more extreme, and luxuries such as summer camp are generally unrealistic.

Financial Needs – Programs are free with the exception of a nominal participation fee, enough to ensure that participants will indeed show up. We are committed to providing our participants with top quality instruction in everything we offer at essentially no cost. Our high participant-staff ratio, specially trained and ethnically, religiously and linguistically mixed staff and other tight quality controls increase our financial needs. However, we strongly believe that they are essential to carrying out our commitment to quality, integrity, and long lasting success. 

Name of Organization:Soccer for Peace
Number of Paid Staff:6 Part-time
Number of Volunteers:20
Total Organizational Expenses:$211,103
% of Organizational Overhead Expenses:9%

We attribute the success of Soccer for Peace to the quality and integrity of its programming, which is itself based on three things: 1) intensive soccer training, 2) carefully monitored and planned dialogue workshops, and 3) social activity and excursions. Add to this a highly trained and ethnically mixed and representative staff and the regularity of the programming, and you have a program unlike many others. Our students are primarily drawn to our program because they want to learn and play soccer in a rigorous setting. The supporting and regular dialogue sessions serve to reinforce lessons of teamwork that come out of their sports practice. At Soccer for Peace, lessons of coexistence and peace are not forced on unwitting adolescents. Instead, unexpected friendships and attitudinal changes occur organically and are reinforced with time in a setting that genuinely appeals to 10-16 year old boys.

The success of Soccer for Peace can be found in the friendships that are formed and the ease with which tense current events are discussed. Family days are a particular testament to the success of the program. Events such as last year’s group “bar mitzvah,” in which the entire group, regardless of background, celebrated their coming of age together with their parents and families, are a rare and wonderful opportunity for adults of different backgrounds to share in an activity they all enjoy – celebrating their children. Two parents, one Arab and one Jewish, spoke to the crowd and the children performed songs in both languages together. We make sure that translators, transportation and religiously appropriate food are provided. We have seen a change in the interactions between families at these events over time, and are proud to report that as the children’s genuine friendships form and become more solid, the families become more and more comfortable with each other and even begin to form connections themselves.

Contribute to Peace - Shalom
Diversity - B'Tzelem Elohim
Harmony - Shalom Bayit
Justice and Fairness - Tzedek
Relationships Between People - Bein Adam L'Chavero

Soccer for Peace participants are Israeli and Arab Israeli youth with a passion for Soccer. We believe that Soccer for Peace would be particularly compelling to today’s Jewish youth because of the obvious similarities btween themselves and the youth reached by this program. Given the popularity of team sports, and soccer in particular, a Jewish youth interested in giving tzedakah might take particular pleasure in the fact that s/he thoroughly understands how the principles of teamwork and the experience of playing together can lead to peace. A Jewish youth specifically interested in giving to Israeli causes will likely feel more connection to a charity which supports a program they would enjoy themselves and which serves children their age. The possibilities for personal connections between the children, such as a sister soccer team in the States or pen-pal opportunities, might further increase a sense of investment and thus a desire to give.

As well, Soccer for Peace is committed to eventually bringing its own participants back as junior counselors and helpers once they have graduated from the program. The opportunity for past participants to give back to the program and to use their own experiences to assist the growth of the next generation of participants adds to the uniquely organic nature of Soccer for Peace.

Name:Ori Winitzer
Title:Executive Director
Address:240 West 98th Street 12A New York, NY 10025 United States
Telephone:212 645-2334
Email:toby@soccerforpeace.com
Website:www.soccerforpeace.com