Tag Archives: Center for Justice and Peacebuilding

Campus Assets: Two lawyers opt to work for peace

J. Daryl Byler ’79 and Lindsay Martin ’05 both have law degrees, are certified to practice law in states other than Virginia, and instead work for the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. Experiences with Mennonite service in early adulthood instilled in them a deep-seated commitment to advocate for others and promote nonviolence and community development. ...More

From Lawlessness in Libya to CJP Studies

In Benghazi, residents have become used to falling asleep to the sound of bombs playing their deadly lullaby. This is the daily reality Najla Mangoush’s mother describes to her from the family’s home in Libya. And it is the reality Mangoush will face as she considers bringing her two school-aged daughters back to Libya when ...More

Representing the ‘Least of These’

No matter who you are, navigating the American legal system can be daunting. If you’re a poor, undocumented immigrant, it can be a lot worse than that. “This is a seriously marginalized group in the United States…. It’s very easy in the system for the rights of an indigent, unrepresented, undocumented immigrant to be completely ...More

Restorative justice and talking circles: JMU embraces EMU’s teachings

Not long after he’d come out of the closet, Mark was at a party with his friends. At some point that evening, a group of guys approached Mark and told him they suspected their roommate, Joe, was also gay. They asked if Mark would be willing to talk with Joe about this. 1 Mark thought ...More

It’s their home – helping inmates live outside walls

The twisting corridors and ad-hoc floor plan suggest a history of repeated additions and expansions to the Gemeinschaft Home, which once again is bursting at the seams. In late 2013, a closet-building campaign was launched to ensure the growing number of residents of the home – which helps former inmates find work and provides various therapeutic ...More

CJP leader Daryl Byler nurtures Iran-EMU relationship

J. Daryl Byler’s 11th trip to Iran marks the culmination of nearly a quarter-century of bridge-building efforts between North American Mennonites and Iranians. Byler, who is executive director of EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP), last visited Iran in 2009, before Iran severely restricted visas for visitors from the United States and Canada for ...More

From defying death to get bread to advocating for Afghan women in Washington D.C.

For the first eight years of her life, Simin Wahdat, 31, was oblivious to the deep fault lines of history that ran through her childhood city of Kabul, Afghanistan. Kabul, praised in the ancient sacred texts of the Rigveda as “a vision of paradise set in the mountains.” On the Silk Road linking east and west ...More

Ten CJP-educated Afghan peacebuilders

  Simin Wahdat is the tenth Afghan-born person – four being women – to enroll as a graduate student in EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP). Five of these 10 Afghans belong to an extended family that believes strongly in education and public service, for both women and men. Simin is the cousin of two sisters ...More

Doug Hostetter: No one loses in peace work

The United Nations system contains about two dozen graduates of Eastern Mennonite University – most of them alumni of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) featured in the current issue of Peacebuilder magazine – but a handful have emerged from our undergraduate ranks, including Doug Hostetter ’66. Hostetter is not on the payroll of ...More