Germans and Jews

I don’t see the change possible today. But my work is Today I sat with Dr. Avi Kluger, head of the Global Listening Movement and one of the foremost leaders and scientists on listening and teaching listening.

Our conversation lasted two and half hours, the last hour of which I recorded, and — although I travelled to Israel to interview him — we spend most of the time talking about me.

Why?
Because I asked him the same question I’ve been asking all the listening teachers.

“How do you make listening more appealing?”

And unlike most teacher who would talk about mental health, or human connection, he surprised me by saying:

I’ll show you.

And then he said,

Tell me a story about your name.

And so I told him I have a Hebrew girl’s name and that comes with having a singularly persnickety conversation every time I introduce myself to a Hebrew native.

I pushed the conversation towards how I could bring listening skills to the world in a better way than done before, and he gently asked me, in so many skilled ways, why it mattered to me to do so.

What was it about me that made this matter?
And if I achieved it, would I be happy?

A fascinating approach to the conversation that met me at a more personal level than I expected, with a gentleness that was unique, heartwarming, and deeply deeply moving.

Nevertheless, even though I felt so heard and moved by the conversation in ways beyond this email, I couldn’t leave without some form an answer to my original thought.

This conversation was in Israel, so I asked the question about Palestine and Israel’s conflict.

How can listening help? Can listening help?

He said this:

“I’m working with a German researcher on this listening work.
His grandfather was an SS soldier at the concentration camp my grandfather was in.
Today we are working together.
I don’t think we can change the world with listening immediately.
But my work is for 50 years in the future.”

With heart,
Orly