March 26, 2004

Dear chevra,

Shalom uvracha to you! I am writing to share the very gratifying progress that Hila Russ, Alan Woodland and I have made on behalf of Ahavat Olam toward our goal of a Muslim-Jewish Peace Walk in the late spring or early summer.*

I truly believe that our work has been guided and blessed. This is one of those times when I know that we are working with God and God is working through us.

Vi-yhi no'am Adonai eloheinu aleinu,
U-ma'asei yadeinu konnena aleinu
U-ma'asei yadeinu konnehu.

May God's goodness be upon us,
May the work of our hands be established (by God) for us
and the work of our hands establish (God in this world).

Psalm 90

As we started this project a month ago, the first task was to find a partner in the Muslim community. Hila and I wanted to contact several branches of the Muslim community simultaneously.

I called the Imam—the spiritual leader—of a prominent Sunni mosque in the area. The Imam is well known as an open-minded and compassionate man. He and I spoke at the same Presbyterian church in West Van in the fall. I especially want to connect with religious leaders because of the bond of understanding that we share. Even so, I felt fear in calling him—fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of finding out that I was wrong, fear of being proven a fool. I left a message saying I am the rabbi of a synagogue in Vancouver and I am calling to see if he might be interested in exploring the possibility of a joint project with us.

I was disappointed not to get a return call and a few days later called again. I know the Imam is very busy—he teaches all day and has many demands on his time as the spiritual leader of a very large, active community. I couldn't read the meaning of his not calling back. Then, on Thursday two weeks ago, he did call me back and left a message to call him again. I was tremendously encouraged but never managed to reach him. It was Jewish-Muslim telephone tag.

Meanwhile, Hila opened a second line of inquiry and contacted the national office of the Canadian Islamic Congress with our idea. After a few days, Dr. Mohammed Elmasry, the national president in Ottawa, referred her to the local representatives of the organization. After a number of exchanges back and forth, Hila succeeded in setting up a meeting for us for today.

By the end of last week, it felt that my speaking with the Imam was not meant to be. I decided not to be defeated by circumstances and to take another tack. I’d “cold call” a mosque in Vancouver. I called last Thursday, leaving a similar message: I am a rabbi. My synagogue would like to create a cooperative project with a mosque. We have the idea of a Peace Walk. If the Imam would like to explore this, please give me a call.

I got a call back the very next morning, Friday last week. Very warmly, very enthusiastically, the secretary said the Imam would like to meet us. He is interested in building peace and very much wants relationships with Jews. Could we come to the mosque on Monday at 2 pm? Now, we had two openings in one week. Baruch ha-Shem!

Monday morning's headlines—the assassination of Sheikh Yassin—were a shock. How could we go to a mosque on that day? What could we say? But, all the more reason why we simply must go. We have to go ahead with this idea.

Hila and I arrived at the mosque, a modest building on a side street near Kingsway and Victoria. Imam Fu’ad and a devoted member of the mosque, Mr. Karim ul-Din, received us most graciously with sweet minty tea. What followed was a most amazing meeting of the hearts and minds. Imam Fu’ad strikes me as a gentle, thoughtful and brilliant man devoted to God. He is from Senegal and deeply learned. He even has studied Hebrew. He said that God chose Hebrew as the first medium for divine revelation and how much better for a seeker of truth to understand it directly and not through a translation. Mr. ul-Din is from Pakistan and has been active in the Muslim community here for some 35 years. He is proud that he has been a bridge-builder within the Muslim community and offered to take us to Shi’a mosques so that they would join us as well.

In the course of an hour, it became clear that we have found partners in a very real and deep way. It reminded me of the rabbis’ teaching that when two sit together and share words of Torah—ha-shechinah sheruyah beineihem—the God's presence abides with them. What greater words of Torah are there than seeking peace and pursuing it?

We decided to lead the Peace Walk ourselves instead of relying on Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb of Albuquerque and her friend and colleague, Muslim leader Abdul Rauf Campos-Marquetti,* which was our original plan. We also decided to re-set the date for Sunday, June 6. We now are thinking that we'd like to have Rabbi Lynn and Abdul Rauf come on May 10 as we'd planned but for them to teach about Judaism and Islam together and to lead discussions and dialogs. It will provide an opportunity for our two communities to come together, meet and talk with each other. It is a good first step. Then, a month later, be-ezrat ha-Shem, we will have our Peace Walk here in Vancouver. Hila and I came away from the meeting feeling very blessed.

Then, today we met with Daud Ismail, president of the BC Muslim Association, and Sikandar Khan, chairman of the Muslim Canadian Federation. They invited to the meeting Aziz Khaki, a well known, long-time interfaith leader in the Lower Mainland. Briefly, all three listened carefully to our ideas, asked a lot of questions and, in the end, agreed to support and join us. We set up another meeting for soon after the beginning of Pesah. We hope to come to that meeting with other leaders in the Jewish community. Now that, baruch ha-Shem, our Muslim partners have joined with us, we can turn to our own Jewish community and begin to build a deeply meaningful event as widely participatory as possible. It will lift the stones from our hearts. As soon as we can, we'll begin contacting other synagogues, rabbis, Jewish organizations and schools and ask them the same question I asked Imam Fu’ad—would you be open to exploring with us the possibility of joining a Jewish-Muslim Peace Walk?

I'm sharing this very hopeful development with you simply because it is so heartening. You who are Ahavat Olam have made it possible. You give me the position from which I speak. I am not myself alone, but speak and act as the leader and representative of a synagogue that is clearly committed to this kind of tikkun olam, to doing what we can as partners with the Holy One in repairing this sorely broken world. I thank you for being there with me in each of these meetings and for being my real partners in this journey.

Hila and Alan have been awesome to work with—clear, strong, faithful. If you would like to contribute in some way -- planning, publicizing, outreach, making it fun—please write back and let me know. I think soon we're going to be ready for some help!

B'Shalom,

David
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* see http://www.forusa.org/Fellowship/Nov-Dec-03/Gottlieb.html