Local Educators to Speak to Newtown Quakers About "A First-Hand Look at Life in the West Bank"

A First Hand Look at Life in the West Bank

Educators Polly Lodge and Peter Palk will speak to Newtown Quaker Meeting about Life in the West Bank on Sunday, February 22 at 9:45 a.m. at the Quaker Meetinghouse, 219 Court Street, Newtown. . Worship based on expectant silence in the manner of Friends will follow at 11:00 a.m.

Peter Palk says, “While the ongoing conflict and devastation of Gaza has been in the news th e past two years, at least occasionally,’ ‘ordinary’ life in the West Bank has received minimal attention”. (Both the West Bank and Gaza are parts of Palestine.)

Polly Lodge and Peter Palk will discuss what they saw and learned when they travelled to the West Bank and Israel in the summer of 2024 with the Living Letters Program of the Friends United Meeting (Quakers) based in Richmond, Indiana..

Peter Paik has been a high school history and religious studies teacher for over 30 years. He has taught primarily in independent schools in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. For most of his career, he has also been a debate coach. He currently resides in Newtown.

Polly Lodge is a recently retired science teacher from George School and was a Friends United Meeting volunteer with Save the Children in Jerusalem from 1988-1990. Her first trip to the region was in 1985 with the Fellowship of Reconciliation and later led several George School trips to Israel/Palestine. Polly also led numerous service-learning trips to Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Vietnam, Nepal, Botswana, Bonaire, and Ghana.

Newtown Friends Meeting, co-founded by "Peaceable Kingdom" painter and Quaker minister, Edward Hicks, in 1815, is open to all who wish to attend. First Day Education classes (Sunday School) for all ages begin at 9:45 a.m. and Meeting for Worship begins at 11 a.m. Childcare is provided.