When Jews and Muslims came together for a \u201ctwinning\u201d event on Nov. 16, the Pico Union Project was filled with jamming, rapping, rhetoric, dancing and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the only way we will ever find peace \u2014 through the arts and dialogue. So this is a really good start,\u201d Genie Benson, Keshet Chaim Dance Ensemble executive director, told the Journal.<\/p>\n
As she spoke, IKAR Chazzan Hillel Tigay\u2019s band played, and dancing attendees \u2014 approximately 400 people turned out \u2014 swarmed the open space between the front row of the venue\u2019s pews and the stage. The event, titled \u201cTogether in the City of Angels: A Musical Celebration of Muslim Jewish Unity,\u201d was part of the Weekend of Twinning, which is actually a monthlong season of events that involves faith communities around the world, as far away as Morocco. It involves social justice-oriented, educational and cultural events that promote dialogue between Jews and Muslims. It is the brainchild of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU), an organization founded by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, who serves as chair, and New York-based Rabbi Marc Schneier, who serves as president. In partnership with the Islamic Society of North America, it promotes Jews standing up for Muslims, and Muslims standing up for Jews. It also works on Jewish-Latino relations and Jewish-African-American relations.
\nThe goal of the group\u2019s work with Jewish and Muslim communities is to push back against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, FFEU Muslim-Jewish Program Director Walter Ruby told the Journal during a reception following last weekend\u2019s concert. To that end, faith leaders in Los Angeles recently created the Southern California Muslim-Jewish Forum (SCMJF).<\/p>\n
The event at the Pico Union Project also marked the launch of SCMJF, which includes leaders of synagogues and mosques advocating on behalf of one another. Members include Wilshire Boulevard Temple Rabbi Susan Goldberg, King Fahad Mosque\u2019s Mohammed Akbar Khan, Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue\u2019s Rabbi Judith HaLevy and Imam Jihad Turk, the president-designate of Bayan Claremont, an Islamic graduate school of Claremont Lincoln University and Pacifica Institute’s Atilla Kahveci.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe relation[ship] between Israel and its neighbors in the Muslim world is quite tense, and that sentiment spills over to relationships here,\u201d Turk said in an interview at the Pico Union Project. \u201cOur aspiration for events like this and for the many different Muslim and Jewish organizations that were represented here today is that religion is not tribalism, that religion is something that, when done right, calls us as human beings to our higher selves and, when we take religion and faith seriously, both of our faiths, Islam and Judaism, call us to combat immorality, criminality, violence, hatred, wherever it\u2019s found.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group aims to serve as an umbrella body in L.A. that focuses on strengthening Muslim-Jewish relations locally \u2014 instead of, say, the Anti-Defamation League on the Jewish side and the Muslim Pubic Affairs Council, one of SCMJF\u2019s partner organizations, on the Muslim side, Ruby said. Source: Jewish Journal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Jews and Muslims came together for a \u201ctwinning\u201d event on Nov. 16, the Pico Union Project was filled with jamming, rapping, rhetoric, dancing and more. \u201cIt\u2019s the only way we will ever find peace \u2014 through the arts and dialogue. So this is a really good start,\u201d Genie Benson, Keshet Chaim Dance Ensemble executive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificainstitute.org\/orange-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificainstitute.org\/orange-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificainstitute.org\/orange-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificainstitute.org\/orange-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificainstitute.org\/orange-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pacificainstitute.org\/orange-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificainstitute.org\/orange-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificainstitute.org\/orange-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificainstitute.org\/orange-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificainstitute.org\/orange-county\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}