Young Muslims and Jews share their common spiritual history
In Arabic, they spell it salaam. In Hebrew, they spell it shalom. But both words mean the same thing: peace.
With crayons in hand last week, Syifa Rahmanianputri and Naomi Eisenberg were scribbling the words on a piece of colored paper, learning that their cultures are not as different as events in the Middle East might lead them to believe.
Both second-graders, Rahmanianputri is a Muslim from the Islamic Al-Hamra Academy in Shrewsbury, while Eisenberg comes from Rashi School, a Jewish day school in Newton.
Over a half-hour period, both students, side by side, crafted a small ''dictionary" at Hamra, comparing the etymological similarities between their ancestral languages.
Part of a program designed to bridge racial divides between Muslims and Jews, second-graders from the schools have met each year for the last three years, swapping common traits between their ethnic groups through a pen pal system. At the end of the year, they finally meet their pen pals in person.
For the first two years, Hamra students have gone to Rashi. On June 15, for the first time, Rashi students went to Hamra.
The program was started by Rashi second-grade teacher Sara Ledewitz in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Ledewitz said she got the idea for the program a few weeks after the attacks as she watched some of her students reconstructing the Twin Towers with their play blocks.
At first, she wanted to establish a pen pal exchange with students in Palestine but decided on contacting an Islamic school in the area.
''I wanted to promote peace, but I wanted to create something real and tangible for [the children]," she said. ''And I thought: What better way to do that than to have them meet their neighbors?"
Dressed in a white head garment and a pink shawl, Hamra second-grade teacher Dena Elghazzawi watched with a pleased smile as two Rashi and Hamra students held hands during a noontime recess.
Young children often don't have the same prejudices as their parents, reflected Elghazzawi, and the aim of the program is to keep the children that way into their adulthood.
''We're really trying to keep that mindset and not let the people around them have that influence," she said.
On Tuesday of last week, Rashi and Hamra students joined in singing ethnic songs, and Ledewitz and other teachers talked about both religions, stressing their shared spiritual history.
Just before 1 p.m., with wide eyes and open mouths, Rashi students watched curiously as Hamra students, their heads covered in white shawls, kneeled and bowed toward Mecca, the Muslim holy city, during a daily prayer.
Rabbi Elaine Zecher, a Rashi parent, noticed that the Islamic prayer routine of kneeling and then rising to one's feet resembles a similar ritual in Judaism, when Jews rise to their toes as a symbol of their desire to become like God.
''I think it's important for children to learn about this at an impressionable age," Zecher said. ''It's important for them to see the similarities, so that becomes the lens through which they see the world as opposed to seeing it through all these differences."
Tayebeh Zadegan, a Hamra parent, said she thought the program was a good idea, helping to break down walls of conflict between Jews and Muslims.
''The religions aren't that different," she said. ''Islam accepts the same prophets. It's all the same."
Since Rashi initiated the program, Hamra has also reached out to other schools, said
Hamra school officials are also talking with the Jewish Community Day School in Watertown about a joint program.
''I think it gives us an opportunity to do something very positive between Muslim and Jewish schools," said Khan.
