John Kiss
Throughout his peace efforts, Kiss remembered his first encounter with Arab youth at age 11, in which he learned of the power of art in creating bridges. As an adult, Kiss joined the Bereaved Families for Peace, and participated in the establishment of the first joint Palestinian-Israeli artists group within the organization's Narratives Project. The artists group brought together an equal number of artists from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The group focused on both narratives, the Israeli and the Palestinian. As part of understanding the Palestinian narrative, the group studied the Nakba and visited the Palestinian village Lifta, which was evacuated during the 1947-1949 Palestine war. As part of understanding the Israeli narrative, the group learned extensively about the Holocaust. "Learning about the Holocaust," Kiss said later, "helped the Palestinian members of our binational group to better understand the Jewish perspective and was a turning point in improving our relationship." The initiative won extensive media coverage for being a unique collaboration of artists from both sides of the conflict.