Women navigate the world through relationships. The relationships that are built by bringing together Muslim and Jewish women, who share so many practices and beliefs, are life-changing and can help put an end to anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish sentiment. We influence family, friends and the general public about our strength in coming together to build bridges and fight hate, negative stereotyping and prejudice. We are changing the world, one Muslim and one Jewish woman at a time!
—Sheryl Olitzky, Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom
While individuals often inspire us to action, communities working together also serve as catalysts to transform hearts and cultural narratives. Activist Sandhya Jha describes the powerful example of a group of Muslim and Jewish women in the United States:
Another beautiful way … relationship building has emerged is through the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, originally a group of 12 women in New Jersey that now has local chapters all over the country.…
After a visit to Poland in 2010 when [founding member] Sheryl [Olitzky] was struck by what hate had wrought in relationship to her Jewish community, she came back to the U.S. determined to make a contribution to reducing hate. She contacted an imam she knew who introduced her to Atiya Aftab, and the two women invited an additional five Jewish and five Muslim women to meet monthly. They are now a national organization with local chapters all over the country. While they talk about ending hatred one Muslim and one Jewish woman at a time, they actually recognize the power of community in effecting change.
Organizations focused on peacemaking and healing can create a ripple effect in our communities.
The local Kansas City chapter’s social action was to step in and provide meals at a local cancer treatment center during Christmas so that the Christian volunteers could spend the holiday with their families, creating another relational bridge in the process. [SOSS board member Amber Khan] also said there was something really powerful in the fact that in order to deal with anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, the women needed to confront the “isms” they had internalized about each other in order to be in true relationship with each other, and that has been some of the most powerful work she has witnessed.
What Amber values is that the women of the local chapters “are not professional organizers; they’re women who said, ‘my community needs healing and I want to be a part of that.’” When white nationalists desecrated mosques, the Jewish community showed up in force, sometimes even sharing worship spaces.
“I think there’s more of a sense of urgency,” says Aftab at the Sisterhood. “We’ve heard from people all over the country, even all over the world, saying, ‘I need to reach out and do something constructive rather than be affected by this fear in a negative way.’”
Reference:
Sandhya Rani Jha, Transforming Communities: How People Like You Are Healing Their Neighborhoods (Chalice Press, 2017), 68–70.
Image Credit and inspiration: Gerson Pancorbo, Untitled (detail), 2021, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Musicians can be inspired by what they witness and then compose music that heals and creates change.
Story from Our Community:
When my ego consumes me, I find solace in knowing we all walk as wounded soldiers, and have experienced some form of loss, brokenness, trauma, and heartbreak. Some people I encounter openly share their feelings and the root cause of their pain, others are more stoic and take care to never disclose their feelings. Their brave faces act as a shield to hide their pain. Regardless, I know we are all still connected with grieving hearts. May I always lead with compassion and understanding in knowing this as truth. Compassion softens my ego.
—Cecilia C.
