Community Building for 1000 Jews & Muslims 2023-25

February 16, 2025

We were very happy to meet again with nine participants. The group first met in August and decided to meet again a month later and talk about "new beginnings" in light of the approaching Jewish New Year, but in the meantime the war between Israel and Hezbollah broke out and we were unable to meet until now. In this respect, this encounter was itself a new beginning for the group...

A large part of the participants were new, so we held an introductory round and also talked again about the Interfaith Encounter Association, its approach and work, as well as the Ahmadiyya movement at the center of which we met.

We then moved on to talk about new beginnings and here are some of the points that came up: Judy said that basically every significant event in life, such as a wedding or the birth of children, changes life significantly. Also - the holidays happen every year but each time in a slightly different way.

Iris added that the word year in Hebrew (Shana) is ambiguous: it holds the meaning of repeating what was and also changing into something new. She also said that the topic reminded her of the hostages who are being released and need to start life anew.

Bushra emphasized that everyone should take a step towards a better future each time.

Rinat also spoke about how every day is a new beginning and this awareness helps a person overcome difficulties, move forward and renew themselves.

The group agreed to meet after Ramadan and before Passover and talk next time about the story of the Exodus from Egypt in the Torah and the Quran.

April 6th, 2025

We were happy to meet again. We read together the description from the Torah of the last night of the Israelites in Egypt: how they celebrated the first Seder with the Passover sacrifice, Matzot (unleavened bread) and bitter herbs; how they held the celebration ready to set off – with shoes, walking sticks, etc. (even though at the beginning of the evening Pharaoh still refused to allow the Israelites to leave); The plague of the firstborn at midnight, following which the Egyptians forced Israelites out of Egypt.

We agreed to dedicate several encounters to the joint reading of various stories related to Moses, from the Torah and the Quran.

May 11th, 2025

The topic of the encounter was the figure of Moses in the Torah and the Quran. We started by discussing how these two Holy Books are structured differently- while the Torah follows a semi-chronological storytelling model, the Quran gives commentary to different passages in a thematic approach. 

We read together verses from Surat Yunus and identified some underlying themes in Moses’ story, such as his confrontation with the Egyptian magicians, and the divine reward and punishment for good and bad deeds, respectively. One of the participants noted it was the first time he was reading any Quran passages- since it has been instilled in him not to read other people’s holy books. 

We then read the passage about Moses’ upbringing in the Torah. We discussed the episode of the killing of the Egyptian man who was beating an Israelite man, and there were divergent opinions about whether he acted correctly or not. A participant also pointed it may have been his way of stating himself as a Hebrew leader, not an Egyptian prince. 

We concluded the encounter with a discussion about leadership- why was Moses such a central leader in both Jewish and Muslim traditions. We mentioned he was somewhat a hesitant leader that struggled greatly with his mission. We suggested to continuing discussion some of Moses’ stories next time. 

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