THE CROWD:

A beacon of hope for peace in the conflicted Middle East shone brightly in Newport Beach.

A Palestinian Muslim young man and an Egyptian-born Israeli Jewish young woman stood side by side in the chapel at Temple Bat Yahm Newport Beach to introduce themselves to a small gathering of 100 local citizens who had come together for a fundraiser benefiting the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.

The evening would also feature the remarkable vocal talents of film, television and Broadway star Mandy Patinkin.

The young people inspired the audience by explaining their involvement with the Arava Institute, which is in Israel’s Arava Valley near the Jordanian and Egyptian borders.

Their message was simple and clear: Peace in the region may never be achieved through political negotiations, but it may indeed be achieved through human interaction and cooperation.

For centuries Jews, Muslims, Christians and others have co-existed on the planet in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world, sharing common denominators found in family ties, cultural similarities, trade and business interaction, as well as the simple aspect of living together side by side, block by block, and apartment to apartment.

The goal of the Arava Institute is to unite people of divergent faiths and political perspectives under the umbrella of caring about environmental issues which affect them all. In the Middle East specifically, these issues are land management, agriculture, water resources, and, of course, oil and other natural resources.

The Institute educates young people in environmental sciences, and by learning together, hopefully friendships are fostered, differences are mitigated, and they are united by a common goal. The result is a peace-building process within a generation that may affect change in the future.

David Weisberg, executive director of Friends of the Arava Institute’s American office in Harrisburg, Penn., flew in for the evening to introduce the young students as well as to interface with Newport Beach support and to introduce Mandy Patinkin, who has aligned himself with the cause.

Patinkin is a proud member of the Arava Institute board of trustees and is also a veteran of the Arava Institute and Hazon Israel Bike Ride, which is a fundraising arm of the environmental studies institute.

The programs are largely funded by donations coming from North American organizations, foundations, corporations and individuals.

Special guests at Temple Bat Yahm were introduced including Rabbi Mark Miller, Cantor Jonathan Grant, Jonathan Leo, Bill Shane and Shalom Elcott for making the evening possible. Patinkin and his friend and longtime accompanist Paul Ford entered the chapel following a simple introduction.

There was no “hoopla” of any kind, no theatrical lighting, no special wardrobe, not even a grand piano. Ford sat down at a bench in front of an upright, and Patinkin, wearing tennis shoes, black pants and a black V-neck T-shirt, began his one-man show without even a microphone.

For the next hour the actor/singer delivered a nonstop emotional voyage, totally in Yiddish with hardly a word of English spoken.

Even familiar songs such as “Maria” from “West Side Story” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” and his touching finale rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” were all sung in the unfamiliar tongue.

Unfamiliar to most even in this largely Jewish audience. However, like the message of the Arava Institute, barriers of language were broken and without understanding a word, every word, every note, every nuance touched the crowd.

At the close of the performance a standing ovation in the chapel included Jeff and Debbie Margolis, Edward and Leslea Miller, Bernie and Joan Rome, Sandra Chakmak, Alex Chazen and Sabrina Cook, Phyllis and Sidney Sapsowitz, Rabbi Mark Miller and his wife, Wendy, and Cantor Jonathan Grant and his wife Sharyn.

For more information on the Arava Institute please call (866) 31-ARAVA, or go to www.friendsofarava.org.

THE CROWD runs Thursdays and Saturdays.