Faith unites Jewish, Muslim students
They bond while planning U-M spring break trip to help New Orleans rebuild
Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News
ANN ARBOR -- Even on this famously liberal campus, some University of Michigan students wonder what Muslims wearing head scarves and beards are doing hanging out with some of the Jews wearing yarmulkes. Why are they spending so much time together? Are they supposed to be doing that?
I mean, like, is it even allowed by your religions, the students say they have been asked.
The group of 16 Muslims and Jews says it has been an object of curiosity on campus, as members have met together for months to plan their spring break together, beginning Sunday, to help rebuild New Orleans. But they say that what unites them is the very thing that might appear, to some, to divide them: their faiths.
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"Giving of yourself to others is one of the Five Pillars of Islam," said Afrah Raza, a 19-year-old freshman from Sterling Heights. "I feel like, as a Muslim, whatever is in my capability to do good, will help others. So, there is a Jewish community on campus and Muslim community on campus, but we don't interact at all. This is just a way to get to know each other."
Miriam Liebman, 21, of Farmington Hills says she was driven by her faith to be active in community groups."It's just something I have thought about, as part of me being Jewish, since high school," said Liebman, a senior, who has taken Arabic classes, spent a semester in Egypt and joined the Union of Progressive Zionists, a student group that seeks peace and justice in the Middle East.
"It's all culminated in the point that I feel the need to do something like this," Liebman said, "to make those things be more a part of my own Jewish community, to do something within that framework of cooperation with Muslims."
These have not been the best years for relations between Jews and Muslims in Metro Detroit, as generations-long disputes and new spasms of war wracking the Middle East emphasize the divisions between the two large religious communities. But the New Orleans-bound students say that is all about politics and international affairs. What they are about is religion.
For a journey inspired by faith, they have been planning the intimate necessities of life together for six days. They will live, eat and travel with each other, visit a mosque and synagogues, and spend several days working on reconstruction and reclamation projects still under way after Hurricane Katrina. They will even abide by Jewish dietary restrictions, keeping Kosher, part of the time -- a new experience for the Muslims and some of the Jews.
The Muslim and Jewish students began approaching each other on the basis of their faith last year and earlier this academic year. Their willingness to eschew the divisive politics and cling to their shared values led to thoughts of memorializing the effort by leaving some physical legacy -- the work they intend to do in New Orleans. The months-long planning efforts have drawn notice on campus, where fellow students are curious and perhaps concerned that Jews and Muslims are meeting.
While volunteerism has increasingly been part of spring break on campuses for a decade or more, this is believed to be the first formal group of Muslims and Jews from U-M uniting to do the work.
Along the way, they are trying to raise money for the trip. They have received support from the Jewish Federation of Detroit, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Muslim Student Association, the Jewish student organization Hillel and the American Muslim Center in Dearborn.
Rabbi Nathan Martin of Hillel in Ann Arbor strongly encouraged the students to participate in work in New Orleans, and Imam Mohamad Mardini of the American Muslim Center, a mosque in Dearborn, also will travel with the students and participate.
"We started meeting as a group in October, when we sort of had a meet and greet," said senior Sakina Al-Amin, 22, of Ypsilanti. "From then, we probably have been meeting biweekly and doing little icebreakers and things to get to know each other more on an individual level, to get people to be more comfortable around Muslims or Jews, if they have never done it before."
The students often pray together, and they will visit two synagogues and a mosque in New Orleans, and witness a bar mitzvah and Shabbat (Sabbath) services. They often begin meetings by gathering in pairs, a Muslim with a Jew, to talk and reflect about events in their lives since their last meeting.
There is no talk about things like the Second Lebanon War of 2006, or the siege of Gaza. And the students explain it simply: There are a myriad of other forums to delve into the roiling political milieu of the Middle East.
These students say they are about faith.
"In Islam, I learn that Jews, along with Christians, are what Muslims refer to in our holy book as 'People of the Book,' " Al-Amin said. "This is the status they are given, an honorable and notable title that we use to refer to them."
Lizzie Lovinger, a 19-year-old sophomore from Farmington Hills, says the motivation from her faith is clear.
"There is a pretty big idea in Judaism: You should love your neighbor as you love yourself," Lovinger said, first using the Yiddish words for the phrase and then translating. "In the Detroit area and in Ann Arbor, Muslims are definitely our neighbors, in every sense of the word and it is important that we remember that it is our duty in life to be treating people as we would want to be treated."
The students say they also have found they learn nearly as much about their own faith as the other.
"Someone will ask me a question, like, why do you guys do that?" Raza said. "And sometimes I say, 'Oh, I never thought of why we do it that way.' So, you sort of explore your own faith, as well as other traditions."
The preparations have been intense, and scholarly -- right down to the computerized print-out of their meals cross-referenced by ingredients, so that all will be comfortable with any dietary restrictions.
"This is not the norm," Mardini said, watching students interact at a meeting. "You don't normally see these things. But it is going to be the norm, one day. We really will do away with some of these obstacles that keep us apart."
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