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Monday 18 Jan 2016 - 13:32 Makkah mean time-8-4-1437
Rabbi Melody Davis will host an interfaith dinner at Temple Covenant of Peace at Northampton St. in Easton. Pic from Lehigh Valley Live
Pennsylvania, USA (IINA) - Rabbi Melody Davis at Temple Covenant of Peace in Easton, Pennsylvania is organizing a multicultural dinner and discussion at her synagogue to show that Jews, Christians and Muslims have more in common than they think, Lehigh Valley Live online news reported.
She said no one should allow the Nov. 13 Paris attacks to reflect negatively on all Muslims.
"With what's going on in Paris, Muslims are having a very, very tough time," Davis said. "As a Jew, I understand people having a tough time."
Davis said she was embarrassed at how little she knew about Islam when she conversed with Muslim women last May at a National Day of Prayer Event at St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Plainfield Township.
So she followed up the event by dining repeatedly with Mehriban Ulas, a Muslim. Ulas will attend the interfaith dinner.
"Such social gatherings are ways that communities of different backgrounds and beliefs can get together and form connections," Ulas said. "This is an open way that people can welcome different faiths and respect others without prejudice."
The Jan. 30 event starts with an exchange of ethnic recipes. Davis' husband will discuss how to make challah, the traditional bread for the Jewish Sabbath. There will also be a recipe for tabouleh discussed.
Then there will be a potluck dinner of dairy and vegetarian foods followed by a discussion.
"Gatherings such as this interfaith dinner provide a low-key opportunity to share our ideas, likes and concerns and begin to build relationships," said Deborah Lonergan, a member of Christ Church UCC in Bethlehem.
"Formal dialogue sessions are useful in giving us intellectual understanding of another point of view, but breaking bread allows us to get to know individuals, not concepts," Lonergan said.
A dinnertime discussion can in some ways go further than a lecture to bring cultures and religions together.
"I really think peace begins in small increments," Davis said. "If we can do this together as people rather than relying on politicians, it will be a better world."
She said it's dangerous to allow policies of exclusion to take hold, policies such as a proposed moratorium on Muslim immigration into the United States.
SM/IINA
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