CNN —My wife and I were recently invited to Thanksgiving dinner at the home of a friend. Nearly everyone is confronted by intensely emotional conflicts, with the upheaval roiling workplaces, college campuses, schools and other places. Arguments over Israel are nothing new, but the rifts are deeper and more lacerating than I can ever remember. In one particularly painful and personal case, a dear friend and I have disagreed for decades about antisemitism and Israel. Love may find a way, if not to move mountains, at least to allow space for durable resolutions.

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Persons: Joan Steinau Lester, CNN —, ” Joan Steinau Lester, Irene Young, ”, “, they’d, stiffly, “ I’m, recedes, Nelson Mandela, —, Martin Luther King, Jr, it’s Organizations: PEN, CNN Locations: Israel, Gaza, Israeli, South Africa