Hannukah, Moses & David - 3 Encounters of the Jerusalem-Hebron Youth Interfaith Encounter:

On December 12th we met in the Old City of Jerusalem. Due to the Jewish Holiday of Hanukah we left the thread of our last encounters – personalities in the Bible and in the Koran – and talked about Hanukkah. The Jewish members provided the historical background of Hanukkah and told about the Holiday's commandments and its current atmosphere.

Hanukkah actually celebrates a cultural-religious struggle. The Jews of the time felt that the Greek try to impose on them a culture that does not fit their religious values and therefore revolted. What is the meaning of this for us today, as Jews and Muslims? Is America today's Greece? Do the values of the western culture of today contradict our religious traditions? And if so: should we fight for our values?

It was interesting to see a very clear difference between the Jewish and Muslim participants. While the Jews saw positively some values of the western culture, such as women's equality, democracy and more, the Muslims did not share this attitude. I think the difference may come for the difference in the perception of religion – as total or partial. For the Jewish participants religion is an answer for certain issues but can not handle all aspects of modern life. For the Muslim participants Islam is the source of guidance in all domains of life. When I asked one of the Muslim participants: "Do you have anything to learn from the western culture?" the answer was very simple and came in one word: "No". It is very likely that other Muslims – in the Palestinian Authority, in Israel or in other places – think differently, but this is the message I got from the members of our group from Hebron. It should be noted that perhaps this is a result of the political objection in the Muslim world to American activities in Afghanistan, Iraq etc.

I would like to take this opportunity in order to briefly complete the updating about previous encounters. In the two encounters prior to this one we dealt with biblical figures. In one of them we spoke about Moses – especially the story of his childhood in Egypt, and in the other we talked about David. While in the Bible these people are widely described, their references are short and sometimes enigmatic. Still, we managed to find parallels between their Koranic and Biblical descriptions. Sometimes the Jewish parallels were not from the Bible but from later sources like the Talmud and Midrash. Although the goal of the group is to study together and not to discuss politics, the conversation in the second encounter went also into the political sphere but was conducted – despite the differences and thanks to the relations growing in the group – in a respectful way and without harsh words.

Reported by Dotan Arad
Group's Coordinators: Dotan Arad & Imad Abu Hassan


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