This Palestinian American professor leans on his Quaker faith during conflict
This project was intentionally designed to exist outside of the news cycle.
I wanted to talk with people about what beliefs have shaped them and what questions have informed how they look at the world, and they didn't have to be wrapped up in a news event to justify that kind of conversation. But in a series about meaning and purpose and our collective humanity, it's really hard to ignore the war happening between Israel and Hamas.
Soon after Israel started airstrikes in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, we talked to a professor of Jewish studies at UCLA named David Meyer. It was a moving and nuanced conversation. Today we bring you an equally thoughtful voice.
Sa'ed Atshan is a professor of peace and conflict studies at Swarthmore College. He is also a Palestinian American with family still in the West Bank. He grew up going to a Quaker school in Ramallah and through that experience became a Quaker himself. And he is personally tethered to the news in a way I didn't expect.
Last weekend, . I brought this up with Sa'ed because those students went to the same Quaker school in the West Bank. I wanted to just get his reaction to
