Essrea Cherin writes that growing up in Upstate New York in a progressive Reform Jewish family she absorbed the understanding that Arabs hate Jews. Years later, this belief was challenged when Cherin visited the Middle East to see it for herself: “Looking back on time in the Middle East, I recognize this as a transformational period. I now understand quite viscerally how fear can distort one’s view of the world. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to experience Arab culture for myself and have replaced mental images of monsters with real live people. Until that experience, I was unaware of the magnitude of the fear I had been clinging to. What a relief to let it go.”