Lessons From the Road to Muslim-Jewish Partnership

When I started my career in interfaith engagement 16 years ago, Muslim-Jewish relations were generally characterized by friction and mutual suspicion. Many American Jews did not know Muslims and tended to view Islam through the dual lenses of 9/11 and the Second Intifada. Meanwhile, most American Muslims were not engaged with modern Jewish life and often saw Jewish advocacy as fueled by Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian bigotry. When tensions flared between Israelis and Palestinians, our American communities adjudicated the conflict with dueling press releases and reciprocal condemnations.