On September 7, Within Your Gates was officially launched by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, in partnership with Notre Dame Jerusalem at the University’s Tantur campus. The event brought together an intimate group of scholars and practitioners to celebrate the new initiative.
Director of Notre Dame Jerusalem Daniel Schwake, Ph.D., set the stage by chronicling the beginnings of Within Your Gates, which will serve as a Forum for applied interdisciplinary research and outreach—rooted in the realities of Jerusalem—convening scholars, faith, and civic leaders across traditions to serve the common good of the Holy City.
Schwake detailed his initial conversations with Cardinal Pizzaballa following the events of October 7, and an agreement that the only way forward was together. And together encompassed all peoples, a message Schwake reinforced in addressing the audience: “A Christian perspective can be whole only when it integrates the common good of all communities and hears all voices.”
From there, they held a series of discussions with Palestinians and Israelis of different political and religious beliefs to better understand how they saw their future in the Holy Land. Gradually, this process evolved into a project exploring the role that language plays in perpetuating conflict, with participants drafting essays on words that open and close hearts. These foundational steps over the course of several trying years eventually led to the launch of Within Your Gates.
Reflecting on the event, Vice President and Associate Provost for Internationalization Michael Pippenger shared: “Within Your Gates reflects Notre Dame’s conviction that universities can create spaces where scholarship, faith, and civic leadership come together in service of the common good. We are deeply grateful to His Beatitude for choosing Tantur as the place to launch this important initiative and dialogue. We look forward to contributing to and learning from this dialogue as it seeks to create new ways of understanding all of our responsibilities in the Holy Land."
The launch event featured a discussion between Professors Karma Ben Johanan and Sari Nusseibeh, moderated by Schwake, in addition to a conversation between Cardinal Pizzaballa and Alessandra Buzzetti, a Jerusalem-based journalist and Middle East correspondent. These dialogues were marked by honesty and intellectual rigor, exemplifying how the Forum can create an open space for expressing divergent opinions and perspectives.
“The purpose is not to agree,” Cardinal Pizzaballa told the audience. “You have to bring those who disagree, but are ready to listen…This empathic attitude is also very important; it helps you to understand the position of the different communities, the different opinions…Otherwise we risk building and producing something that is just ourselves.”
While there is an international sense of urgency around the current situation in the Holy Land, the Forum’s leadership understands that change will not happen overnight.
“Within Your Gates is not naive to the challenges around us,” Schwake said, “but believes in the value of the scientific method, advancing serious research and scholarly deliberation to produce publications with practical application.”
“It's very complicated right now. We are not ready to do it. The pain, the wounds, the mistrust is too deep,” Cardinal Pizzaballa admitted. And yet, the “impossible” task ahead is not an excuse to give up. “We cannot allow ourselves to leave—to give to the next generation—the situation as it is now. We have to do something.” The Forum is a space specifically designed to dream, to dare, to be uncomfortable, and to be a bothersome presence to dominant perspectives, he added.
Attended by around 100 people, the launch event showcased that in a polarized society there are many who still yearn for a different kind of conversation. More workshops, conferences, and essays will follow. And while these activities are critical to the Forum’s mission, they are not the metrics by which success will be judged.
“The success of this Forum will not ultimately be measured by the size of its events and the presence. It will be measured by the processes that will follow, by the discussions that will follow, by the impact that it will hopefully have on the deliberation process,” Schwake shared. “Tonight is not the culmination of Within Your Gates. It is just the beginning. Help us identify what we are not seeing. Challenge our assumptions. Write with us. Think with us. Join our conferences and workshops.”
Originally published by at jerusalem.nd.edu on September 21, 2026.