M I n g S p I r E S .


at SynagoguE and MoSQuE togEthEr


“going to the Mosque was a profound experience. three of us, myself on the left, rukiyah in the middle and Sarah on the right, prayed together in synchronization and rukiyah came out holding our hands and saying she had ‘experienced Jumma (worship) with one Jewish sister on either side of me’. It was fantastic” (valerie)


“What I loved about the Shabbat ceremony was that it was conducted by the fellows themselves. they got together and said we need to do this service. It was led by them - that spoke to me because they took the initiative.”. (Shawiqar)


“I had been to mosques before but never through the entire service with my Muslim colleagues. the revelation for both of us in a kind of parallel way was the ability to pray with someone whom, for all intents and purposes, society or politics would set up as an adversary – in fact I found many similarities between the service and what I’m familiar with in an orthodox Jewish service.” (daniel)


“Shabbat service got into me. that philosophy that you have to find the time to wind down, take the time to reflect. I was trying to hide my tears because what I was reading when I was chanting and singing with them it was amazing how much I understood from the hebrew – I realized how similar it is to arabic as much as we are linked racially, both Semites. It’s so close to where my roots come from. this will always be inside me.” (amira)


thinking of how Israel was created – we had to find a homeland, a safe place for the Jewish people but there is another part of the story, which humanity must also address.We must also find a homeland for the Palestinian people who have been uprooted and scattered round theMiddle East.” Her use of ‘we’ is heart-warming as she admits that “as a Lebanese child who grew up in the civil war, I did have some resentment in me – I can’t deny it”. Daniel also found the lectures eye-


opening. “Most of us are very aware of the history of conflict.Alot of these humanities presentations focused on the history of coexistence between Jews andMuslims. In the period when Jews andMuslims were allies, both oppressed peoples – there were actuallymoments of complete harmony. That was a real revelation forme. It was really exciting to be in each other’s presence, learning about the history of our harmony. That was an important lesson I’ll take away for future teaching and consulting, to encourage people to focus on the history of our harmony – it’s longer than the history of the discord and it’s important that we know it’s our birthright.” So what did the Fellows take away in


the way of practical skills? They had given Dragon’s Den-style


eight-minute presentations on their enterprises.Valerie found some of the suggestions fromthe four-strong panel of judges especially helpful on “how to address


the corporatemarket, for example new tools, pricing, relationships and creating a business plan. Helping our organisationmeasure its impact, quantify, basic business things, doingmore with our database”. Says Shawiqar: “On finishing the


Fellowship I hadmany differentMuslim organisations aware of the Fellowship knocking on the door, saying, ‘Shah, help us out, what did you learn?’ I think essentially that’s the heart of the Fellowship. Entrepreneurship is not to just look after oneself, but to look out for the welfare of other organsations, other communities. But at the same time I’ve got to be in control,” he admits, “so there is this leadership training that the Fellowship gave as well”. Daniel is also eager to share his newly-


learnt business skills. “I learned a tremendous amount about what I do and also about whatmy colleagues and students graduating into the world of art need to know and I feel impassioned to bring this information to communities that have not had access to it.What’s wonderful about this burgeoning field of social entrepreneurismis that it’s saying we live in amarket economy, a global capitalistic world. In order to survive people need certain tools and it shouldn’t only be people in that ‘business class’who have access to these tools. It felt very gratifying to finally be at the table. It had never occurred tome to read the Harvard Business Review and yet there were such incredible articles in it – I want to get a


subscription. Somany of the articles have to do with humanity, how to create better leadershipmodels.” Amira too was fired up by what she’d


learned. “When I finished the programme I was just dying to come back to start knocking on doors, working on the marketing, specially buildingmy network. Brussels is a great place for using all the tools we got in the seminars. I wasmore focused on the educational aspect, how to make themost unforgettable accelerated language immersion workshop, knowing how important it is to look out of the box and spend time networking and talking about my projectmore in the purpose of peace- building and countering stereotypes.” Daniel is eloquent about the equally


important legacy of deep, new-found friendships. “The entire cohort of 23 people


developed tremendous respect and affection and love for eachmember, no cliques, no outsiders – one very healthy big family. I’ve done a lot of group work and I’ve never seen anything like this happen before. Part of it was that we got to know each other really well, where we struggle and where we excel, our strengths and weaknesses, and there was a level of acceptance for each individual and their complexity.We weren’t talking about broad demographics, target groups – we were talking about people in the room together as people. I feel that everybody came away changed.”


JEWISh rEnaISSancE octoBEr 2011 11


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