NYU students Unum Muneer, with microphone, and Bradley Hercman, right, in Muslim garb, take part in “twinning program.”
by Doug Chandler Special To The Jewish Week
‘I learned that at least there’s somebody else who has to pray once a week — and that’s huge,” said Sahal Kango, an undergraduate at New York University, to a roomful of Muslim and Jewish students Sunday night. A dozen of those students, Kango included, had just spent the past few days engaged in a social experiment in which Jews and Muslims swapped identities, walking around the city dressed in what they considered the religious garb of the other group. And as they came together Sunday night to discuss their experiences, Kango’s comment drew laughter from both sets of students, many of whom have established friendships across religious and cultural lines. Turning more serious, though, Kango, a Muslim, told the group that he and the
Jewish student with whom he was paired had learned about each other during the project. “The main thing,” he said, “is that we’re both human.” Sponsored by NYU’s Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life and the university’s Islamic Center, the project was part of a much broader “Weekend of Twinning” involving 50 synagogues and 50 mosques throughout North America. As part of the “twinning,” houses of worship in 20 states, Washington, D.C., and Ontario, Canada, paired up to hold joint events, including public forums, dialogue efforts and visits to each other’s congregations. In New York City, Westchester and Long Island, nearly a dozen activities took place as a result of the effort, including the experiment by NYU students. The Weekend of Twinning was aimed at promoting understanding, respect and cooperation between Jews and Muslims, said Rabbi Marc Schneier, the local spiritual leader whose Foundation for Ethnic Understanding organized the effort. It also grew out of a previous event, a conference last year of rabbis and imams, which the foundation also sponsored. While there have been “pockets” of Jewish-Muslim cooperation in the past, Rabbi Schneier claimed, “nothing of this magnitude” has ever taken place. In addition, many of the past efforts have involved meetings between spiritual leaders. The Weekend of Twinning placed the cooperation “on a synagogue level,” said Rabbi Schneier, who leads the New York Synagogue in Manhattan. The rabbi acknowledged that some members of the Jewish community have expressed “apprehension” about his efforts. The objections have often been based on the view that, whatever good feelings may be engendered, no amount of dialogue or cooperation will ever eliminate the gulf that remains on Israeli-Palestinian issues. Some say that, until and unless a greater number of Muslims are willing to accept a Jewish state, such efforts are doomed to dissolve or to yield very little. But Rabbi Schneier disagreed, saying that the Muslim world includes voices of moderation and that ignoring those overtures would amount to negligence. “To hear the king of Saudi Arabia say that religion can be a force for reconciliation is a sign that we’re living in remarkable times of change,” the rabbi said, referring to King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz’s recent appearance at the United Nations. “There’s a struggle within Islam for the very soul of Islam,” and Jews have to align themselves with the moderates in that battle. In fact, the rabbi is planning to export the idea of “twinning” mosques and synagogues to major cities in Europe, he said. “My greatest hope is that if we can create a paradigm of Muslim-Jewish cooperation through the world, then we can apply the lessons we’ve learned to the Mideast.” Whether he expects that to happen soon or many years from now is something Rabbi Schneier didn’t say. In the meantime, the activities of the past few days appear to have been a start, according to participants. One event took place at Rabbi Schneier’s New York Synagogue, where his wife, Tobi Rubinstein Schneier, discussed “Women in Judaism and Islam” with Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America. The idea for such a forum came to Tobi Schneier while she attended a conference in Madrid last summer on interfaith dialogue, she explained to the audience of congregants and visitors. But the Saudi-sponsored conference angered her for its noticeable absence of women, she added, leading her to suggest a discussion between observant Muslim and Jewish women. Tobi Schneier also talked about the role of women in traditional Judaism, which she indicated is often misunderstood or denigrated. But the three mitzvot “allocated to women” — baking challah, lighting Shabbat candles and upholding the laws of family purity — carry great spiritual significance, she said. “Women shouldn’t in any way feel inferior.” For her part, Mattson, a faculty member at the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, said that while Jewish women are exempt from time-bound rituals, like daily prayer, Muslim women are bound by them. Islam also enjoins women to go on haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, and to pay a charity tax on their own wealth, just as it does for men, she said. Tobi Schneier also shared a story about a recent business trip she made to Dubai, where she attended a jewelry trade show. While there, she began a conversation with an Arab woman, covered head to toe in black, who wore a pair of earrings similar to her own. The rabbi’s wife asked the Arab woman why she wore the earrings if no one could see them, and the woman replied that she often attends women-only parties where guests can remove their veils and let their hair down. “I found that small, little encounter very noteworthy for me because it broke down all my notions of what I thought this woman would be,” Tobi Schneier said. The episode was brief, she added, but it had a large impact. The story earned praise from Mattson, who said Tobi Schneier demonstrated “courage” by asking a question that might sound offensive in a Muslim country. “The Arab woman reciprocated by taking the question in the honest spirit it was asked,” Mattson continued. “We need that spirit and that courage. We need to push ourselves to take a chance.” At another event, congregants from the Park Slope Jewish Center gathered at the Dawood Mosque in Brooklyn Heights, where they heard from Imam Abdullah Allam and the mosque’s lay leader, Dr. Ahmad Jaber. Jaber discussed the history of the mosque — the oldest one in the United States, he said — and fielded questions about Islamic religious practice. Meanwhile, the synagogue’s rabbinic intern gave an overview of anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world, remarks designed to give Muslim participants an idea of the Jewish psyche. While most of the evening was cordial and even friendly, some congregants expressed disappointment that only a handful of Muslim worshippers turned out for the event, a situation Jaber blamed on logistics. There were also moments of tension, as when a Jewish member of the audience began shouting at Jaber, a Palestinian, about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Another tense moment came when Jaber, explaining the differences between Sunni Muslims and Shi’ite Muslims, said Shi’ites had hijacked the religion and speculated that perhaps Zionists had hijacked Judaism — a comment that drew no’s from members of the synagogue. At NYU, the 12 students who exchanged identities discussed their experiences, drawing laughter at times and, at other times, nearly moving some observers to tears. Several students, Jewish and Muslim, spoke of their “hurt” when friends made jokes at the expense of the other group as the experiment began. Brad, a senior with plans to become a rabbi, said one of his Jewish friends asked when he was going to dress in “terrorist” garb, while Sumra, a Muslim woman who grew up in a largely Jewish neighborhood, said Muslim friends had criticized her for plans to wear a Star of David. Brad later said he felt hurt by the comment on several levels — as a participant in the experiment who failed to make “a very convincing Muslim,” as a Jew whose friends “would be willing to say something like that,” and as a person who, three years ago, would have said much the same thing. What changed since, he said, is that he matured. Sumra said she wound up feeling grateful that she was raised as she was, exposed to people of other backgrounds, and felt sorry that others hadn’t received the same exposure. In response to a question, Mohsen, a Long Island resident of Pakistani descent, said Jewish and Muslim students do disagree over politics at times, but that the discussion often becomes a “shouting match,” with each throwing different facts at the other. Once “you become friends,” though, you gain an appreciation of what the other person’s stance means to him on a deeper, emotional level.
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