STEP (Science Training Encouraging Peace) is a unique cross-border, people-to-people,
nonprofit organization that pairs young Israeli and Palestinian science scholars (one Israeli and
one Palestinian per pair), and helps pay their stipend for the full length of a graduate degree at an
Israeli university, with fieldwork conducted either in Israel or in the West Bank or Gaza. The
students must work in the same lab or science department on a shared project, for the full length of
a graduate degree (2-4 years), at least once per week, but most work together daily. The ‘pairing’
and the prolonged duration of support during the period when they must overcome many
obstacles and hurdles of graduate research are two aspects of STEP’s design that enhance
chances for building sustained, trusting, interdependent professional bonds and even
friendships.
Many people are asking how STEP Fellows are doing during the current crisis. Are Israelis and
Palestinian STEP Fellows still conducting research together? How do they manage? There are
many positive – even “beautiful” – stories of STEP Fellows working together. One STEP Fellow had this to say: It is so easy to be swept up in the fear and the hatred, and being a STEP Fellow, along with the friendships I have made, and the programming we have been a part of, forms a constant angel on my shoulder reminding me of what I am made of, and what I believe in. It has been a true light in the darkness for me.
This Shabbat, Allen Taylor and Kim Kronenberg, the co-directors of STEP, would like to share some of these stories along with the struggles and challenges STEP students and faculty are facing day to day.