The Muslim-Jewish Tipping Point - Full Post
July 30, 2008
Social Action | The Future
(5 comments)
By Eboo Patel
(First posted on Newsweek/Washington Post's On Faith)
"Nobody believes you guys actually exist," I said to the group I was eating dinner with.
I was sitting with the North American Board of Reform Judaism's youth movement (called NFTY) at their summer leadership camp, Kutz.
These five teenagers were responsible for leading programming for thousands of young Reform Jews across the country. This year's study theme: Muslim-Jewish Relations. And these young leaders couldn't be more excited it.
I do interfaith work with young people for a living, and even I was taken aback by their enthusiasm.
"Tell me why this is so important to you?" I asked. The reasons spilled forth:
"Making new friends."
"Making peace."
"Sharing lessons on what it means to be religious in a secular society."
Susan Sontag once wrote, "Whatever is happening, something else is always going on." While newspaper headlines are dominated by stories of hatred and violence between Jews and Muslims, there is a quiet revolution taking place off the radar screen.
Last year witnessed an historic warming in Muslim-Jewish relations in America. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism (the largest Jewish denomination in America, with 1.5 million members and 900 congregations), gave a well-received keynote presentation at the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).
In the recent issue of Reform Judaism, the movement's magazine, Yoffie writes: "The time has come to engage in dialogue with our Muslim neighbors and to educate ourselves about Islam."
Professor Ingrid Mattson, the President of ISNA (an umbrella body for the millions of American Muslims) responded in kind by traveling to the URJ Convention and making these remarks:
"Muslims have instinctively turned to the example of Jews in America to understand how to deal with the challenges we face as religious minorities whether these challenges involve securing the right to religious accommodation in public institutions, or dealing with workplace discrimination. At the same time, I believe that the Jewish community will also benefit from having Muslim partners in the struggle to uphold the constitutional separation of church and state, to promote civil liberties, to extend religious accommodation to minorities and to counter prejudice and hatred."
There are other Muslim-Jewish efforts afoot. Organizations like Seeds of Peace, Search for Common Ground, Children of Abraham and Abraham's Vision, have been nurturing this revolution for years. Rabbi Marc Schneier's Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which played a profound role in advancing black-Jewish dialogue with Russell Simmons, is focusing now on Muslim-Jewish issues.
We might actually be at a tipping point on this seemingly impossible issue.
And I have a hunch that it's young Muslims and Jews, just like the ones I met at the Kutz camp, who are going to push this thing over the edge.
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Lovely to read this article of youth and hope, but will Kutz make any difference in the West Bank or Gaza, where Palestinians are merclessly being driven out?