Shlomo Zagman
11/08/2006
"In 2000 I met a religious man, who is my age, and there was true dialogue and true friendship. For the first time I began seeing things in such a different way that I view my previous perspective as ignoring something right in front of me. Like colors you don't want to see so you take them out of the spectrum of your vision, making yourself blind to certain colors."
For most of his life Shlomo Zagman lived in Allon Shevut, an Israeli settlement near Bethlehem. As a youth, he actively supported a political party that advocated deporting Palestinians to neighboring Arab countries, until a religious Jewish mentor convinced him that Israel's continued occupation and settlement of Palestinian territory endangers its future as a Jewish state. Shlomo and his wife left the settlement and moved to a city inside Israel, and Shlomo became a founding member of Realistic Religious Zionism, a group working to encourage religious Israelis to support withdrawal from settlements. Shlomo later left his corporate job to work at Mosaica Center for Inter-Religious Cooperation, promoting interfaith dialogue. Today he manages the field of two-wheeled vehicles at the National Port Authority, is active with Wounded Xcrossing Borders group and is exploring ways to engage in activism to end the occupation. He is featured in Just Vision's documentary, Encounter Point; to view one of his scenes please press here.
