Stijn Pilon
(1920 – 2002)

Stijn had many friends: Jews, Arabs, Christians Druze and Muslims. Stijn died on the day of Holocaust commemoration in Israel, on April 12th 2002. Many attended her funeral. Rabi Micha Peled, who was her friend said in his eulogy that she deserved the Jewish prayer of Kadish and this is how she was put to rest next to her husband, facing the hills of Galilee, in Nes Ammim, the place they have both come to call home.

Nes Ammim vor den Bergen von Galiläa.

Stijn Pilon am Grab ihres Mannes.

Together with Shlomo Bezek, a Jew from the Netherlands and member of kibbutz Ayelet Hashachar, Dr. Johan Pilon and his wife Stijn had made plans for a whole new approach between Jews and Christians.  After a difficult start in 1960 and heavy resistance from both the Jewish and the Christian side, finally a result came in the form of the ecumenical and international village Nes Ammim.

After the death of her husband Dr. Johan Pilon, in 1975, Stijn was the face of this Christian reconciliation-project in the north of Israel for more than a quarter of a century. Stijn stepped out of Johan's shadow and continued his legacy.

It became difficult for her to understand the developments – including the Second Intifada – in Israel and in the world in the last years of her life. It was also hard to find a new  task for Nes Ammim, but she believed in the importance of dialogue and particularly in the peace-work and the dialogue between Jews and Palestinians in Galilee.

But Stijn was not only an ideologist. She was also a mother with a busy house hold. Stijn and Johan had 5 children. They came back to Israel with 2 adolescents and 3 younger kids. the youngsters went to school in Regba, and made many friends. Making sure the two older boys did what was necessary to meet the requirements of matriculation in the Netherlands was not an easy task.

Being a mother and the wife of Johan Pilon made it necessary for Stijn to learn Hebrew - and she did so brilliantly.
She hosted friends of the children in the same level of consideration as she entertained important guests for Nes Ammim. One never knew how many people one would meet at the dinner table.

Stijn empfängt Israels Präsidenten Itzhak Navon in Nes Ammim.

Stijn zusammen mit Kindern und Freunden aus dem Dorf.

Stijn was a source of knowledge about Judaism, Christianity and Israel. She had a passion for learning and became a gifted lecturer. Her gift of story telling made her a remarkable person. Her capacity to see humour in the stories made it easy to listen to her.