Tired but filled with enthusiasm, the participants gathered one last time for committee sessions in the morning on 14^th August. The committees convened to wrap up discussions, reflect on their work and to talk about experiences that had made the most impact on participants.

After the session, the Closing Ceremony for MJC 2014 began, where Committee Chairs outlined the discussion and progress during the conference of their respective committees. They summarized the topics that had been discussed, but mostly, they wanted to commend and thank the participants for their honesty and authenticity, their energy and unbelievable motivation and for having created a safe space, an atmosphere of trust, respect and support.

Participants presented their ideas of how to spread the MJC spirit and values after the end of the conference: an interreligious poetry slam in Berlin, genocide education in Karachi, a pan-pal system between Jewish and Muslim kids, designing a feminist clothing line, and creating different online platforms for interreligious dialogue. These were some of the 23 creative ideas participants had come up with in order to reach disparate communities who may never get to meet otherwise.

Secretary General, Ilja Sichrovsky, welcomed the participants into the MJC family, “Maybe we won’t get the entire world repaired, but we will actively work on repairing it together. And without you (participants) we are nothing but empty halls. So thank you for having faith in MJC, and by coming here you have already made a huge statement against bigotry and ignorance”.

Seven eventful days had come to an end. It was exciting and exhausting, surprising and confusing, cheerful and sad, emotional and thought provoking.  Most of all, people will go home remembering the friends they made and the things they learned. And maybe some of them will come back next year to continue the conversations they had and to start new ones.