Jan 07 2009 / Interfaith Program Brings Muslims and Jews Together

by Jody Axinn

Muslims and Jews prayed together as part of an educational program at Congregation Beth El’s religious school in Bethesda, MD on January 6th & 7th. The school’s director, Louis Nagel, invited local exchange students, Dina Mahmod from Egypt and Tony Nugroho from Indonesia to present the Muslim version of each of the five Jewish prayers during the weekly service. As they went back and forth, Jewish to Muslim to Jewish praying, each were learning about the other’s religion. “If everyone took part in something like this, they would see how similar the two religions are and there would be less war.” Tony said after the program.

Mr. Nagel provided the essence of each of the Jewish prayers and Tony and Dina worked together, one Arab and one Asian Muslim, to find just the right comparable prayer in Islam. “It wasn’t hard, as there are many similarities between the concepts.” Dina said. The 5th-7th grade students sang a Jewish prayer, then Dina and Tony presented the similar concept from Islam to show the similarities between the two faiths.

The first Jewish prayer, called Ashrei, praises God in every way from A to Z using all the letters as an acrostic. The Muslim match was the 99 names of Allah. The second Jewish prayer, Hatzi Kaddish, works as a transition between parts of the service. Kaddish means sanctification which led into how each of the five prayer sessions for Muslims starts with a prayer making it holy. Amidah, the standing part of the Jewish service, led into the body motions that must take place in Muslim prayers and a demonstration on a prayer rug in the front of the synagogue. Amidah has thirteen thanks for God’s qualities which Dina and Tony matched to asking Allah for help in different situations. The Aleinu sums up the whole service as the chosen people acclaiming one God matched by monotheism in Islam.

Tony and Dina also spoke to the 8th grade comparative religions class earlier this year explaining the basics of Islam and how it’s practiced in each of their countries.

Dina and Tony were brought to the US by the US State Department as part of the YES program. This public diplomacy initiative builds bridges of international understanding, especially between Americans and people in countries with significant Muslim populations.

Photo courtesy of Jody Axinn

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