Local Muslim and Jewish children recently added a fourth “R” to the traditional “reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic” — respect.
On Sunday, March 18, children and parents from the Dor Hadash school at Cotati’s Congregation Ner Shalom and the Sunday school at the Islamic Society of Santa Rosa met for a day of play, prayer, food and the great uniter, basketball.
“Thanks to God, it turned into a great event,” said Aisha Morgan, the head of the Islamic Society’s school.
The get-together was the idea of Leslie Gattmann, Morgan’s counterpart at Dor Hadash. Around 100 children and parents joined together for activities emphasizing the many similarities between Jews and Muslims.
Many words in Hebrew and Arabic are virtually identical; beyond “shalom” and “salaam,” the children learned that the words for “home” (bayit) and “prayer” (brachah) nearly carry over in both languages.
The Muslim and Jewish children were given flash cards with Arabic and Hebrew words and sent to find the kid with the word similar to theirs.
“It was a scramble, they didn’t know who had what word. It helped get the kids together,” recalled Ner Shalom board member Ariana Elster.
The children, who ranged in age from grade school to high school, then decorated a pair of banners, one of which now hangs in the Islamic center with the other adorning Ner Shalom’s sanctuary.
Older children watched the Israeli film “Promises” — which features interviews with Israeli and Palestinian children — with Ner Shalom’s Rabbi Elisheva Salamo, while younger kids played basketball and exchanged email addresses.
After that came food (naturally) and finally an impromptu prayer circle.
When the Islamic center’s Mohammed Ali chanted the Athan, the Muslim call to prayer, Salamo thought it sounded so much like the Hebrew exclamation uttered at the end of Yom Kippur, that she joined in. The group chanted each phrase four times.
“Everybody said it and it didn’t matter which language you spoke,” said the rabbi.
“Everyone went away feeling very comfortable and warm. It was a very beautiful event.”
And it wasn’t just a feel-good day for the kids. Yarmulke-wearing men and women in hijab kibitzed over hamantasch and crayons and enjoyed watching their kids run around together. Ali said the Islamic Society and the synagogue plan on making the get-together a twice-yearly event.
“I think the adults were very touched. Some of the adults in the community may have come in skeptically and that feeling has been softened,” said Morgan.
“That was certainly my hope, that people would back off any prejudices or artificial biases.”
Added Elster, “The parents were mingling while the kids were doing their thing. I thought it was a very good way to get the parents together, through the children.”