Dear Friends,

"You had the old Berlin Wall, this is our new Berlin Wall, a Peace Wall", said Louis, a teenager representing the voices of fourteen Berlin schools. The same sentiment was repeated again and again, during the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, and at the reception that followed at the Amano Hotel in the Mitte area of Berlin.

For me, it was like a dream come true. We all want our children to get it - to become active participants in changing the world for the better. I'm confident that their participation in creating the Mosaic Peace Wall set their thinking on waves of understanding and conversations they haven't previously engaged in. It also introduced them to youth from a variety of nationalities and cultures they don't usually meet. Some of them were surprised at how similar they are to each other in their wishes and behaviors. One of the Muslim teenagers asked for Yarmaka from a Jewish youth participant, so he could enter the Mendelson Cemetery, located right by the Peace Wall. Over 300 people were present at the ceremony, eagerly listening to the speakers and the children who opened the ceremony with our Peace Song.

Each one of them stressed how important it was for the youth to participate in the creation of the wall. I strongly believe that together with youth, artists, community volunteers, and educators, we brought peace to a place of war.

The ground by the wall still carries the footprints of the building that housed hundreds of Jewish elderly people, who were sent to concentration camps in Poland. For me, as someone who was born in Russia to parents who both lost their parents in the Holocaust, I never knew the joy of growing up with grandparents and it felt as if the elderly who lived by the wall could have been my grandparents, everyone's grandparents. That was another reason for why it was essential to create a Peace Wall right there - to never forget, yet bring peace to the place and their former inhabitants, created by the new generation of caring people.

I first saw this wall from the window of the Jewish School, after giving a Pieces for Peace Workshop. This wall cried for attention. On both sides of the wall, there are two strong, tall trees, like two Shabbat candles or guardians. Since we are committed to creating only one Peace Wall in each country around the world, I had no doubt that this was our 5th Global Peace Wall, for Berlin.

It took about two years to arrive at this celebration of the wall, but it was worth every minute. From the very beginning, the owner of the wall, Klaus Schutt, didn't hesitate to give us permission to go ahead and use his wall. In fact, when I first wrote him about the idea, he called me back and said, "I was hoping to do something like that on this wall...what took you so long!"

The CITYarts Peace Wall in Berlin, a part of our Young Minds Build Bridges Program and a symbol of the voices of our youth striving for cultural understanding and unity, is a permanent testament to peace in a space rich with historical and emotional significance.

The Peace Wall will stay there, to continually inspire people to think peace, not war. We made it happen because of the many dedicated people involved. From the educators in the Berlin schools, and the groups who kept on energizing the students to participate, to our wonderful and creative artists, Maayan Iungman and Svenja Teichert and their creative assistants, to our Project Coordinator, Kora Krause and of course, to our sponsors, Allianz, Sony Music, U.S. Embassy in Berlin, AMANO Group, Trend Group Mosaic, Mapei, Cosmomusivo Mosaik, Kerana, Event Consult, Ida Schildhauer, Franz Mayer of Munich, and the others who are still in the process of joining them - THANK YOU!

Thank you to the people who made it all possible...  

Warmly,

Tsipi