John Kiss
Hoping to find more ways to bridge the Israeli-Arab chasm, Kiss learned the international language Esperanto, and organized Middle Eastern conventions. In 2014, due to the rising violence during the Silent Intifada, Kiss collaborated with Palestinian activist Riman Barakat of the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information and Breaking the Impasse. Together Barakat and Kiss began to convene meetings in Jerusalem, encouraging dialogue. The project was called The Hallelujah Dialogue Project, and took place even in the face of terrorism in Jerusalem, in days when similar activities ceased to operate. Kiss, wishing to introduce the group to various projects of collaboration between Palestinians and Israelis, invited the Jerusalem Arab-Jewish Youth Chorus to sing, while introducing peace-related activities such as Ultimate sport, poetry reading, discussion groups, etc. According to Kiss, "encouraging encounters designed to eliminating mutual fear need have no relations to political stances."