BEST IN PEACE

Six months after the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. soil, Gretchen Grad was in bed at her home in Glenview, unable to fall asleep one night.

The fractured world concerned her.

“I was thinking, ‘Maybe we could do something to help heal the world,’” Grad says.

Her mind raced. “Something” turned into an bold idea to bring Middle Eastern teens to U.S. soil, where they would join teens from the North Shore and other Chicago area communities to engage in serious dialogues.

She hoped her vision would empower young Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans to become agents of change in their communities and around the world.

A wide-awake Grad created Hands of Peace. A little more than a year later, the international nonprofit launched its first three-week Summer Program in 2003 and welcomed 21 participants at Hands of Peace sponsor Glenview Community Church. San Diego has been the organization’s second Summer Program site since 2014.

Grad estimates a combined total of 90 teens will congregate at this year’s pair of Summer Programs from July 13-31.

The number of Hands of Peace Summer Program alumni is close to 800.

“We picked up that first Israeli-Palestinian delegation at O’Hare and then stopped at a park in Glenview,” recalls the 60-year-old Grad, who lived in Glenview from 1993-2022 before moving to Harbor Springs, Michigan. “I still can’t believe it took us only 15 months to put the Summer Program together. I had never built an organization from scratch.

“I remember a Palestinian woman, who had accompanied the teens on the trip, looking at me at the park and saying, ‘Can you believe they’re really here?’”

The Hands of Peace Chicago Benefit, “Power of Purple,” was held on May 7 at Chevy Chase Country Club in Wheeling. It raised close to its goal of $157,000 and featured change maker and Hands of Peace alum Stav Friedman as speaker.

Friedman is an environmental scientist who’s leading research projects at Imperial College London.

Many of the Middle Eastern teens who participate in Hands of Peace hail from areas deeply divided by conflict and violence. Each morning during the Summer Program, for more than two hours, they meet and engage in dialogue groups with guidance from adults, who are trained facilitators.

“The conversations are often intense and deeply emotional,” Grad says. “Each teen is actively listening and trying to understand the other side’s perspective. They’ve cried in those rooms. They’ve gotten angry. But what’s great is their commitment to developing skills to lead, as well as their willingness to take a deep dive into critical thinking.

“It goes from black-and-white thinking to the uncomfortable gray,” she adds. “And that’s when progress starts and they begin to think, ‘Change is possible.’ What excites me, and what people should know, is that real peacemaking is going on right here on the North Shore.”

Grad grew up in Rochester, New York, and attended Pittsford- Mendon High School, where she developed interests in math and science and was a volunteer for several organizations. She was only 16 years old when the local ambulance corps trusted her to serve as a volunteer overnight dispatcher. Her father, Ed, worked as a Kodak executive.

“My father,” Grad says, “raised me to be very independent and responsible. I took academics seriously.”

But she discovered, thanks to English teacher Paul Littrell in her junior year, the joys—and importance— of levity in the classroom.

“He was an influential teacher,” Grad says. “He had such passion for the subject, and he taught with frivolity. I loved that a sense of play, as well as laughter, became part of the learning process for me.”

Grad earned a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and an MBA at the University of Chicago. She worked for First Chicago Capital Markets as an economist, securities trader, and fixed income expert from 1985- Her final position there was managing director.

She and her husband, Brian—“My Hands of Peace right-hand man,” Grad says—raised daughters and Hands of Peace alumni Erika, 28, and Dana, 26. Erika lives in Virginia and has already traveled to 105 countries, 60 more than her mother has. Dana is a scuba instructor on Maui.

Not too many mothers get invited to join one daughter on a trip to Armenia and to join another daughter for whale watching on Maui.

“It’s a humbling experience,” Grad says of motherhood. “But I love every opportunity to experience the world alongside my daughters.”

Though she’s no longer a resident of Glenview, where she became a parishioner of Glenview Community Church on Easter in 1995, Grad insists the village will never leave her heart.

“We picked the best community in Glenview,” says Grad, who serves on the Hands of Peace Board of Directors. “My best friends live in Glenview. I love its diversity. Did you know 53 languages are spoken by Glenview’s residents?

“The people of Glenview,” she adds, “are engaged locally and globally.”

Every summer, the most moving Hands of Peace moment unfolds atop the Glenview Community Church parking lot. It’s where Summer Program participants board buses for the trip to O’Hare Airport.

“You want a strong Hands of Peace visual? I have one,” Grad says. “The good-byes are long and emotional. The Palestinians and Israelis don’t board the same bus because they’re booked on different flights. Picture the Palestinians on a bus as they look at their new partners in peace on the ground. As the bus departs slowly, they roll down their windows and reach down to clutch the outstretched hands of Israelis and Americans for another round of good-byes.

“It’s so intense,” she adds. “It’s so special.”

Visit handsofpeace.org for more information. Gretchen Grad invites the public to attend Hands of Peace’s 2023 Summer Program “Farewell Celebration” on July 30 at Beth Emet The Free Synagogue in Evanston. To volunteer or serve as a host family, contact Emily Kenward at 847-922-9389.