July 19, 2007

By Kristkin Pazulski

Steven David Masters of Mt. Airy has been named president of the national organization Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, a Jewish grassroots movement advocating for peace in Israel.

Masters, who was instrumental in the group's founding in 2002, was elected unanimously by Brit Tzedek's board of directors in May and will take office in November.

"I'm really excited about the position," said Masters, who has been a long-time advocate for peace in Israel through a number of organizations. "It gives me further opportunity to put into action the tremendous care I have for Israel."

Throughout his two-year term -- after which he is eligible for a second term -- Masters will visit cities around the country, encouraging American Jews to seek peace in Israel between the Palestinians and Israelis.

"I'm encouraging American Jews to secure the safety of Israel," he said.

According to a survey by Prof. Steven M. Cohen, a sociologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for Ameinu, an American Zionist organization, most American Jews would like to see the United States involved in such a process.

Masters said that 75 percent of those surveyed agreed that the "U.S. should push both sides toward a peace agreement, even in the face of objections from Israelis or Palestinians," and he wants to help encourage and facilitate that.

The organization Brit Tzedek does that by sending out e-mail and Web alerts to its members, encouraging them to contact political figures. Most recently, the Web site's latest post urges its members to write to senators about a bill that was introduced to encourage President George Bush to make resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a top priority.

It also sends speakers, such as Masters, to different cities to educate American Jews about peaceful solutions to the conflict. For example, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year, Brit Tzedek brought former Palestinian and Israeli warriors to MLK High School to talk about their transformation from fighters to peacemakers.

Masters' new position is just one of many opportunities he has had to promote the peace mission.

In the 1980s, he lived in Israel and served as a consultant on foreign law for the Association for Civil Rights and lectured on the conflict as part of the Moshe Sharett Institute of World Labor Zionist Movement. He was a national and local leader in New Jewish Agenda and later the assistant director of the Jewish Peace Lobby.

He is also a founding member of his synagogue, Congregation Mishkan Shalom in Roxborough, and has been on the board of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Philadelphia for 13 years.

In his community, Masters is vice president for community affairs for West Mt. Airy Neighbors and a Democratic committee person in the 9th Ward's 15th Division.

In 2001, he founded his own local Palestinian-Israeli peace-conflict group in Philadelphia, which in 2002, with the establishment of Brit Tzedek, he developed into the Philadelphia chapter of Brit Tzedek.

"We affiliated to become part of a larger, national organization," Masters said.

Since then, he's been a board member for Brit Tzedek, where he has served as a national spokesperson, executive committee member and chair of the advocacy committee, all having duties that are integrated into his presidential position.

"Steve [Masters] is a very valued member of the local community," said Leonard Gordon, a rabbi at the Germantown Jewish Centre. "Brit Tzedek has grown with the aid of his nurturing and now has a seat at the table that's revitalizing the peace effort [in Israel]."