Coalition Crosses Religious Lines to Aid the Community...
As she sat on her deck with her walker in front of her, surveying the crowd of people working to repair her home, Geraldine Dorsey was pleased about the volunteers who came together — from different faiths — to help her. “They were one,” Dorsey said of the members of three synagogues and one mosque who gathered April 25 to make repairs to the home of the 75-year-old Mount Airy resident, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and has limited mobility. The interfaith group, which has dubbed its collaborative efforts CIRCLE, or the Columbia-Rockville Interfaith Rebuilding Coalition for Living Enhancement, was there to repair the home suggested by Rebuilding Together Howard County, a nonprofit that uses volunteers and donated...
Muslims, Jews Work Together to Help Less Privileged...
April 25, 2010|By Robert Little, The Baltimore Sun Gary Metz and Ayman Nassar have this in common: They are both men of faith, both active in their Howard County congregations, and they’re fully willing to take on the dirty work of helping the less privileged. Nassar is a Muslim, and Metz is a Jew, but it was the similarities that brought them together at a home renovation project in Mount Airy on Sunday. Both reject stereotypes; both view education and cooperation as the path toward shattering them. As Metz oversaw a crew of volunteer painters from local synagogues, Nassar corralled a group of teenagers from his mosque to dismantle an old shed out back. By the time the...
Peace Prize for Jewish and Muslim Leaders of United Hatzalah...
When Jerusalem resident Eli Beer implemented a neighborhood-based volunteer emergency response system to Israel in 2006, he wasn’t dreaming of prizes, only of saving lives. But in recognition of the fact that United Hatzalah of Israel has brought together some 2,100 trained volunteers from every sector of Israeli society to respond to medical emergencies in Arab and Jewish neighborhoods without discrimination, Beer and Arab-Israeli United Hatzalah-East Jerusalem leader Murad Alyan were chosen to receive the 2013 Victor J. Goldberg IIE Prize for Peace in the Middle East from the New York-based Institute of International Education. The award, which includes a $10,000 prize that the men intend to donate to their organization, was presented at a June 24 ceremony at the US Embassy’s...
‘Twinning’ Project Brings Muslims and Jews Together...
NEW YORK (JTA) — Daisy Khan seemed right at home in the ornately decorated main sanctuary of B’nai Jeshurun, a large and vibrant synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “I want to thank you for inviting us into this sanctuary, which is very much like a mosque,” said Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement. She added, “It feels strange to wear shoes in here!” Several dozen women — approximately equal numbers of Muslims and Jews — had come together at the Nov. 14 event to discuss gender issues in their respective faith traditions. From the food on the table — hummus and flatbread — to the integrated small-group dialogues, the evening focused on how...
Muslims and Jews Band to Fight Hunger
On the day after Yom Kippur, an intergenerational group of about 25 people from the Or HaLev havura gathered at the Chester home of David Glassberg and Beth Pletcher. Teens Jason Cohen and Tyler and Jason Volk, all from Randolph, were in the kitchen tossing salad. Nearby, Bernice Billig of Hackettstown, some years their senior, was chopping fruits and vegetables, while in the garage, Roz Steinberg of Byram Township and a group of middle-aged women were preparing sandwiches from whole grain bread, honey, peanut butter, and cinnamon. All worked under the direction of Zamir Hassan, founder of Muslims Against Hunger and the Hunger Van, a kind of mobile soup kitchen. Hassan and his Hunger Van had arrived with all the...
Jewish and Muslim, Bonding Over Dieting...
BROOKLINE, Mass. — Your mother-in-law fixes you a plate of food. Does she determine what you eat, and how much? So went the question, part of a nutrition-themed game inspired by “Family Feud,” during a meeting of a women’s weight-loss group here the other night. Charlotte Badler, 23, lunged forward to answer. “What if you asked if you could wrap up the rest of it for tomorrow?” she offered, and then addressed an imaginary mother-in-law: “Because I would love to take it to lunch at work tomorrow.” “I love it,” cheered her teammate, Adebola Yakubu-Owolewa, 29. The two leaned in for a high-five. Ms. Badler is Jewish; Ms. Yakubu-Owolewa is Muslim. They and eight other women — five Muslims and...
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