BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — The four women leading an evening of collective prayer, song, dance and storytelling began by placing pinches of cool soil from two wooden bowls into the cupped palms of audience members.

In one bowl, the members of the Israeli-Palestinian peace group “Women of Vision” explained, there was Palestinian soil, and in the other, Israeli. Audience members who gathered at the All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Brattleboro were then instructed to place the earth in the center of an altar, surrounded by candles.

“This earth holds the secret to our unity,” Israeli peace activist Dorit Bat-Shalom said. “We really need you to hold the sacred earth that is beyond right and wrong.”

She went on to explain that the Saturday night event — the first night in a series of “Women of Vision” events being held in southern Vermont and throughout the Pioneer Valley this week — was not about politics. The two Palestinian women and two Israeli women that made up the group would not debate policy; rather, they would bear witness to one another’s suffering and pray for each other, each other’s families and for peace.

“We do not talk politics,” Bat-Shalom said. “We talk the language of the heart, the language of the womb.”

The peace group, which typically meets monthly on the night of the new moon in Israel or Palestine, is now touring western Massachusetts. Jodi Falk, the Greenfield resident who organized the tour, first met Bat-Shalom in Israel during the second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising.

Falk said she noticed that despite high levels of tension between Arabs and Jews in the region, art has the ability to connect people across ethnicity and experience. Following the Oct. 7 attack that launched the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Falk felt it was necessary to connect the “Women of Vision” to a wider audience, and worked with the women to create a tour of the northeastern United States.

Shira Golan, an Israeli member of the peace group, said that to her, the tour is important to change American perceptions of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

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“Each one of us is working on our own path for peace,” Golan said in an interview in a mixture of English and Hebrew. “[We realized] how necessary [it is] here to bring this voice because, unfortunately, this is not the picture that they (the Western media) are advertising. They are advertising war and separation. And so many good things are happening in this land, so it’s about [showing] the world.”

Golan began her career singing in Hebrew and later studied Arabic so she could translate her music in hopes of being more effective in her mission to bring peace to the conflicted region through music and connection.

The four women sang, danced, told stories and prayed, in a combination of English, Hebrew and Arabic. Audience members were invited to join in the song and prayer.

At several points during the evening, the women cried as they sang and danced, as did many in the audience. Amira Abo Ata, a Palestinian healer, peace activist and educator, explained that she believes this was essential.

“We release trauma from the body,” she said. “When you see someone cry, no matter who they [are] — Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, American — you fall in love with them.”

At one point in the evening, Marwa Abu Juila, a Palestinian peace activist, took the hands of Golan. Bat-Shalom took the hands of Abo Ata. The women took turns blessing one another.

“I pray for you to find your inner peace in the middle of this war,” Abu Juila said to Golan. “I am here to tell you that I stand with you, I stand behind you. … One Earth, one land, one source, one divine. So I pray for you, our land, our families.”

Golan concluded the event by addressing the audience.

“Peace,” she said in Hebrew. “God willing,” she said in Arabic.

“Thank you, daughters of peace,” she said in Hebrew before repeating the sentence in Arabic.

The rest of the “Women of Vision” tour dates are as follows:

■Tuesday, Sept. 24, from 7 to 9 p.m. — First Church of Deerfield, 71 Old Main St. in Deerfield.

■Wednesday, Sept. 25, doors open at 6:30 p.m. with the program from 7 to 8:30 p.m. — All Souls Church, 399 Main St. in Greenfield.

■Thursday, Sept. 26, from 5 to 6 p.m. — For educators, at the Springfield Jewish Community Center, 1160 Dickinson St. in Springfield.

Donations of checks or cash will be accepted, with money raised going directly to the women for food and transportation. A GoFundMe page has also been set up for donations at gofundme.com/f/support-women-of-visions-journey-to-hope.