Mission:
The Jewish-Muslim Community Building Initiative promotes education and understanding between the Jewish and Muslim communities, and addresses local and domestic issues affecting our communities and the broader society based on our shared interests and commitment to social justice.
Background:The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs established the Jewish-Muslim Community-Building Initiative (JMCBI) in 2001 in response to an increase in intolerance and hate crimes against Muslims following the attacks on 9/11. Since then, JMCBI has been fostering collaborations between Muslim and Jewish organizations and individuals in Chicago as well as nationally. These collaborations include cross-cultural engagements, building bridges among leaders and community members, joint advocacy, and solidarity in times of crisis.
Our Approach: |
About JMCBI: |
Unlike many interfaith organizations, JMCBI is not a dialogue group, or an Israel-Palestine peace effort organization. JMCBI is an initiative that brings about grassroots organizing of Jews and Muslim to participate in cultural programs and political advocacy. As JMCBI member Jonathan Berman describes, “We are attempting to go beyond dialogue groups and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. JCUA and our Muslim partners are forming a working alliance on domestic issues of shared concern: safeguarding our civil rights and civil liberties, and undoing bigotry and prejudice in our own communities.”
This is a unique initiative bringing Jews and Muslim to collaborate on domestic issues. Through the regular encounter of the two communities, there is a realization of their common interests, concerns and hopes. Both communities are grappling with the fact that they are non-Christians attempting to be embraced as part of the American fabric into American society, while holding on to their religious and cultural traditions. The initiative attempts at a true partnership, where Muslim and Jews explore together what it is to be a united community for social justice.
JCUA has a 45-year commitment to stand with communities under attack. The Jewish community’s commitment to stand in solidarity with minority groups stems from our own historical experience of being a minority under attack. If one minority group faces hate crimes, racial profiling, detentions, deportations, surveillance, employment discrimination, and media bias, the Jewish community is sensitive to the fact that all minority groups have the potential to undergo such treatment as well. A parable in Jewish text exemplifies that idea:
A man in a boat began to bore a hole under his seat. His fellow passengers protested. ‘What concern is it yours?’ He responded, ‘I am making a hole under my seat, not yours.’ They replied, ‘That is so, but when the water enters and the boat sinks, we too will drown.” (Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai, Leviticus Rabbah 4:6)
This is a unique initiative bringing Jews and Muslim to collaborate on domestic issues. Through the regular encounter of the two communities, there is a realization of their common interests, concerns and hopes. Both communities are grappling with the fact that they are non-Christians attempting to be embraced as part of the American fabric into American society, while holding on to their religious and cultural traditions. The initiative attempts at a true partnership, where Muslim and Jews explore together what it is to be a united community for social justice.
JCUA has a 45-year commitment to stand with communities under attack. The Jewish community’s commitment to stand in solidarity with minority groups stems from our own historical experience of being a minority under attack. If one minority group faces hate crimes, racial profiling, detentions, deportations, surveillance, employment discrimination, and media bias, the Jewish community is sensitive to the fact that all minority groups have the potential to undergo such treatment as well. A parable in Jewish text exemplifies that idea:
A man in a boat began to bore a hole under his seat. His fellow passengers protested. ‘What concern is it yours?’ He responded, ‘I am making a hole under my seat, not yours.’ They replied, ‘That is so, but when the water enters and the boat sinks, we too will drown.” (Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai, Leviticus Rabbah 4:6)
