Sarah's Legacy of Peacebuilding
By Yasmina Asrarguis
The New York Times
May 23, 2025
Ms. Asrarguis is a French-Moroccan researcher at Sorbonne University.
"…Sarah Milgrim was a quiet peace builder. She didn’t seek headlines. She sought dialogue. Just a few years out of college, she was already known for her engagement with organizations that brought together Christians and Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians. Her final master’s degree research project was on the role of cross-cultural friendships in peace-building…
"The Sarah I knew was a practitioner of what might be called peace diplomacy.
"I met Sarah on an interfaith trip to Morocco… I’m Muslim, and my work focuses on diplomacy and peace-building in the Middle East, particularly initiatives such as the Abraham Accords, as well as the everyday people-to-people relations that can make peace a reality. From the beginning of our fellowship, it was clear that Sarah believed in the possibility of a different Middle East, one built on coexistence, not conflict.
"…She had also worked with Arab and Palestinian communities through Tech2Peace, a joint Israeli-Palestinian NGO, which offers Palestinians access to high tech, entrepreneurship and new opportunities… she spent weeks following the journey of 12 Israeli and Palestinian participants in a seminar hosted by the organization, held at the planned Jewish-Palestinian village in the center of Israel, Neve Shalom-Wahat al-Salam.
"I learned Sarah was committed to a concept known as the “third narrative.” It’s a vision that seeks to rise above the noise of vengeance and violence by focusing instead on shared humanity and the mutual right to dignity, safety and peace for Jews and Muslims. This effort is about more than dialogue; it’s a deliberate stand against polarization. Sarah believed in creating a space for people to look for solutions…
"Those who mourn Sarah should reflect on her ideals, learn from her life’s work and aim as she did on creating the fragile groundwork for Middle East peace. It was a future she helped prepare for, one conversation, one relationship at a time…"
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