Getting aquainted: Melinda and Dana Slonim with Fulya Celik (centre).
Photo: Penny Stephens
A revolutionary Melbourne project is bringing Jews and Muslims together to overcome fear and hatred. Barney Zwartz reports.
Seven small girls, dressed beautifully in blue and pink, sidle shyly into the classroom. Accompanied by an electronic keyboard, they sing three songs, to the enthusiastic applause of some 60 adults and children. It could be a special event at any suburban school, but in this classroom a revolutionary experiment is unfolding. The audience is made up of Muslims and Jews who have committed themselves to a year of mutual engagement - meetings, picnics, seminars, discussions, sharing religious feasts and inviting each other into their homes.
On this warm Sunday afternoon, about 30 Jews have made the long trek - both physically and culturally - from Caulfield and St Kilda to Broadmeadows to share some music and food. The seven girls sing three Sufi spiritual songs and cantor Andrew Kolb replies with songs in Hebrew and Yiddish. The Muslim mothers have prepared enough traditional dishes to feed the Israelites' exodus from Egypt.
"Most Muslims have never met a Jew, and most Jews have never met a Muslim. Each have deeply held prejudices about the other," says Julie Ruth, whose longterm vision is being realised in this classroom at Isik College, and over the yearlong program called Building Bridges: Jews and Muslims.
Jewish barrister Jonathan Slonim says: "Some of my friends are secular humanists, and I think that as Orthodox Jews we have more in common with Muslims on some issues. Their lives revolve around the (religious) festivals, from one to the next, as do ours. One thing that struck me about the Muslims is that they seem to be very well-versed in their religious precepts."
The Slonims thought they would just dip their toe in the water and see what they made of it but now they are carrying on. "I was apprehensive driving up to that first meeting," Jonathan says. "I wasn't sure what to wear, what to say. We were told Muslim families have less in common with each other than us - Turks, Sri Lankans and Indonesians have very little in common.
"We found people very eager to mix and talk, but very respectful. I was possibly over-diplomatic in asking questions but the message was clear: ask what you want, as long as it's genuine."
Many Muslims were also struck by how much they had in common with the Jewish families. Emre and Fulya Celik were the last to leave the Australia Day picnic, along with three Jews whom they invited to their home for coffee a couple of weeks later. Fulya says: "Our similarities summon us to come together. That's how I feel about this program."
Emre agrees. "We have so much in common. One God. The same messengers. Abraham the forefather. We just celebrated Eid al-Adha which celebrates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son. When we want to bless someone we say 'may your meal be like that of Abraham', because we believe he never had a meal alone. He would wait until he saw a passer-by to eat with him or he wouldn't eat. There's a blessing in doing something as a group.
"If we can set an example, hopefully this can spread. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. It may be utopian and we may not reach it but we'll try getting there."
Julie Ruth had long wanted to bring people on this journey, via a program such as Building Bridges. After she took her present job as executive officer of the (Jewish) B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission, she found a willing ally in Orhan Cicek, director of the Australian Intercultural Society, a very active Muslim interfaith group with its roots in the Turkish community.
In a previous job, Julie had been deeply involved in helping asylum seekers, where she says she saw the worst of religious stereotyping. "Even before 9/11 you were aware that Muslims were being vilified and stereotyped, and that Jews and Muslims hardly knew each other. After 9/11 it got worse," she says.
"I was co-convener of Jews for Refugees, and we had a rally at the Maribyrnong Detention Centre. That's when I saw the absolute paradox in the Jewish community: thousands who survived the Holocaust and persecution, and all they could think was these were Muslims. I was so shocked."
The Australian Intercultural Society has launched many interfaith initiatives, and Orhan Cicek was eager to be involved. "The Building Bridges project is important because Muslims in Australia have been in isolation and haven't been able to integrate with the wider community and other faith groups," he says. "There is so much historical baggage and stereotyping.
When we started this we could see obstacles. But the important asset for both organisations was sincerity - we wanted to work for co-operation."
At first, many families and people Orhan asked to get involved were suspicious. "They asked, 'where does it come from, don't you know the history or the situation on the other side of the world?'
"People have said I'm a puppet of the Jews and called me an informer, you name it. Muslims in Australia, through their own networks, hatred is being propped up all the time. They say the last bridge we should build is to the Jews. But I say we are living in Australia and we don't want to bring overseas conflicts and crises into this wonderful country. This project can prevent that, and make it more secure for both communities."
To ensure that, the 10 families from each faith are asked to follow one ground rule: no international politics. As Julie Ruth says, Israel-Palestine always looms overhead, and they didn't want the project sidetracked by emotional political debate.
So far it hasn't been an issue. "Now groups are meeting privately in people's homes and we can't control or censor what happens there but we have asked them to be sensitive," Julie says.
It was always likely that participants would be sensitive by nature. Although families from each side were chosen to represent as wide a range as possible, clearly the more antagonistic members of each community were not going to get involved. "Bigots aren't going to sign up for this project, so it's somewhat self-selecting," Julie acknowledges. "But we tried to get a wide spread. We've got Orthodox, observant - there's a thousand shades of grey. Quite a few are traditional, who might associate with a synagogue but not be too strict in their private lives, plus progressive/reform and some wholly secular. That reflects our community pretty well. One end of the spectrum doesn't even mix with the Jewish community, let alone others."
Muslims also range from very devout, to observant, to mainly cultural. Their backgrounds include Turkish, Lebanese, Indonesian, Sri Lankan, Pakistani and Albanian. Most are far newer to Australia than the Jewish families and most are yet to feel as culturally secure.
This was something the Slonims noticed. Jonathan says: "Most seem to be first-generation families and they tend to talk about how many years rather than generations they have been in Australia. So, from an economic point of view, we are Australians: we are integrated and middle class."
Jonathan's last experience of interfaith dialogue was more dramatic. I was at La Trobe University in the 1970s, when it was a hotbed of activism, and there was some nasty stuff, such as Lebanese Muslims against Lebanese Christians. We had an ethnic festival with Muslims and Christians and Jews, and the Maoists tried to break it up and were thrown out. It did help defuse tensions on campus."
But this time the alliance doesn't require a common foe. Fulya points to a card a friend sent her that quotes a psalm from the Bible. "It says, 'Behold, how beautiful it is when people live in unity'. It's so beautiful, and it's what this is about. The impact of understanding is ordinary people who meet together."
Barney Zwartz is The Age's religion editor. The Age plans to follow the Building Bridges program and report again.
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