Meet Volunteers Behind the Largest “Iftar in the Synagogue” to Date

By Michal Goldschmidt
JCUA 2012 Intern

Michael Goldschmidt

With our popular event, Iftar in the Synagogue, right around the corner (Thursday, Aug. 2), our planning committee is working hard to ensure the evening’s success. With more people expected to attend than ever before, there’s more preparation and organizing to be done, and our committee have their work cut out.

This past week the meeting was held in Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Hebrew Ethiopian Congregation – one of the three locations for “Iftar” 2012. Upon arrival, Tamar Manasseh, an energetic rabbinical student on the planning committee and a leader at Beth Shalom, greeted participants enthusiastically. She gave a tour of the synagogue, so that everyone could visualize Iftar occurring there and discuss which rooms should play host to which elements of the program.

Talia Yousuf (left) and Mariam Afzal, representatives of the Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals.

As always, this year’s committee is made up of Jewish and Muslim volunteers, some of whom are representatives from co-sponsoring organizations and communities. Committee members Talia Yousuf and Mariam Afzal, representatives of the Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals, are both extremely excited for the event and proud to be involved.

Talia noted that as much as the event itself is impressive and evokes a feeling of pride, “it’s the group of dedicated and diverse individuals from the committee who are the true source of my inspiration. It takes a lot of effort and dedication to bring forth such a large scale project.”

Workers’ Rights Examined in Jewish-Muslim Text Study

Reflections on Our Text Study on Workers’ Rights

By JMCBI

Just before May Day, the traditional celebration of workers’ rights, we came together to explore what Jewish and Muslim traditions contribute to the current discussion on labor.

Sponsored by JCUA’s Jewish-Muslim Community Building Initiative, this text study featured Rabbi Victor Mirelman and Muslim chaplain Abbas Chinoy who facilitated the event on a rainy Sunday evening in the comfortable Dollop Café in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.

The need to contemplate labor issues has gained urgency around the Midwest. In Wisconsin, only a few months ago Gov. Scott Walker made it almost impossible for public employees to organize; and in Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is also changing the city’s relationship with its employees. It wasn’t even a month ago that Gov. Walker repealed the Equal Pay Enforcement Act that had offered legal avenues to fight wage discrimination based on race, age, disability, religion and sexual orientation.

Muslim chaplain Abbas Chinoy (at top, in photo at left); and Rabbi Victor Mirelman (in center of photo at right).

The evening began with this question: How have worker rights (or lack thereof) influenced peoples’ lives?

While one participant had very positive experiences with her union, another expressed her disappointment with the union of which she had been a member; she said she had been neither well informed or well cared for.

Iftar in the Synagogue: Slideshow

More than 250 Jews, Muslims and people of other faiths attended Iftar in the Synagogue on Aug. 19, 2010. The event was held at Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. Get a feel for Iftar from this slideshow:

Photos: Jonathan Lehrer / Slideshow production: Katherine Randall

Read Aaron Cohen’s account of this inspiring evening

Sharing Sacred Space: Muslims and Jews at Iftar in the Synagogue 2010

By Aaron B. Cohen
Guest Columnist

Friday, Aug. 20, 2010 – Last night my wife and I attended the Iftar at the Synagogue, organized by the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and a number of other Jewish and mainstream Muslim groups in the city. What a blessed event—literally. It was the first time in a long time that I felt the immediate urge to participate in something that seemed crucial. [See photos from Iftar in the Synagogue.]

For Jews and Muslims what is the alternative to sitting together and attempting to establish relationships? It’s not an attractive alternative to be sure. There are hard and vexing issues between us that need to be resolved, issues that are not entirely—and perhaps not even slightly—based on each group adhering to different religious beliefs (although religion certainly is a heady and at times toxic part of the mix).

Those issues may or may not be resolved through personal connections; sometimes conflicts of interest have lives outside of the individuals who experience—and indeed may wish to resolve—them.

But one thing is certain: when people of good faith join together in an exercise that brings them into the orbit of the “other,” where they experience one another as human beings with like needs, an act of holiness occurs.

Iftar in the White House signals a time for communal respect, according to Jewish Council on Urban Affairs

For Immediate Release
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Chicago

CHICAGO, Aug. 16 — One of the two Jewish guests at this year’s White House iftar meal says the interfaith event should be viewed as an opportunity for a new level of communication and understanding between the Jewish and Muslim communities in America.

Jane Ramsey, executive director of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA), wrote in a blog post today about the iftar meal held last week at the White House. Iftar, a communal meal at which Muslims traditionally break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan, should “embody the foundation enabling us, ultimately, to act together to create healthy and just communities and to jointly tackle Islamophobia and anti-Semitism,” Ramsey wrote.

At the White House for the Communal Iftar Meal

By Jane Ramsey
Executive Director, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs

As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began last week, it was my pleasure and honor to take part in a special interfaith iftar meal at the White House hosted by President Obama.

During Ramadan, Muslims fast until sundown every day, then break the fast with a communal meal called iftar, usually shared with family and friends, along with invited guests of all backgrounds and faiths. According to sources, similar to Yom Kippur for Jews, fasting provides the opportunity for a Muslim to remove the evil effects of the sins committed by him/her and to purify his/her heart and soul. As well, good deeds are multiplied manifold during Ramadan.

Nearly 90 members of the administration, community representatives and foreign heads of state attended the White House iftar.

A commitment to religious freedom

Sharing with Muslim friends many times over the years, I have come to deeply appreciate the significance of participating in one another’s traditions, learning, growing and deepening our understanding and our friendships. These are among the small acts of support that embody the foundation enabling us, ultimately, to act together to create healthy and just communities and to jointly tackle Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.

JCUA's Jane Ramsey with the president at the White House iftar meal.

Indeed, by hosting an iftar in the White House, as he has a Passover seder and other observances, the president is signaling respect for each faith tradition, and a depth of commitment to religious freedom and tolerance.

Joining me from the Jewish community at the iftar was Hannah Rosenthal, who recently was appointed special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, for the state department, and who also serves as rabbi in her hometown of Madison, Wis.

The evening brought many opportunities for personal interaction as well as interesting, touching and powerful moments from the backdrop of this extraordinary residence.