By Talia Ben-Ami ~
In the hills of Galilee, a muezzin’s call to prayer across a minaret becomes mixed with the chime of a local church bell, and a block or so down the way, a synagogue throws open its doors in welcome to Shabbat. It’s not quite so much utopian fairyland as all that, but it’s an introduction to the Israel mundanity—a country long stereotyped as being torn asunder, yet possessing one of the most delicate and richest religion mosaics of the Middle East.
From Jewish, Muslim intercity communities in Haifa to Jerusalem’s interfaith coexistence development initiatives, Israel is not merely building stealthily into existence spaces of coexistence for Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, Baha’is, Circassians, and the like but also cultivating them into a dialogue beyond tolerance—toward common cause and understanding one another.
A Nation of Many Voices
Their population, by the way, includes nearly 21% Arab citizens who are predominantly Muslim, Christian Arabs, Druze, and other minorities. They even have universities, hospitals, high-tech companies, and government ministries they share with the Jewish citizens.
There is the Holiday of Holidays festival, celebrated together as Christmas, Hanukkah, and Ramadan in the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood of the city—to bring tens of thousands of visitors from around the country.
Places like The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development brings together Jewish, Muslim, and Christian leadership to co-work on environment solutions through work from commonality. Their “Eco Peace Pilgrimage” features pilgrimages to holy sites and climate stewardship dialogue, earth held together by shared spirituality.
Again, an exemplary organization, Kids4Peace, brings together groups of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian teens from Jerusalem and from the world at large for year-round activities that are all dialogue, leadership, and peacemaking. Teens shed stereotypes and develop life-long friendships on service activities, forums of discussion, and summer camps.
Druze and Jewish Links: A Special Connection
Of all publicly visible Israeli interfaith encounters, most probably most universally known is that between the Jewish majority and the Druze, the exemplar Arab-language religious minority group with two-century religious loyalty tradition. The Druze have been disproportionately faithful to the state of Israel, with mass military induction, including prestigious IDF units.
In the Galilee town of Daliyat al-Karmel, Jewish and Druze neighbors coexist in civic life, shared tourism, and education. Decades have passed since schools like the Leo Baeck Education Center have operated alongside the Druze schools in working toward hosting co-activities and bilingual books in order to advance civic life and religious tolerance between the two communities.
Shared Healing in the Hospital Ward
Perhaps one of the most compelling symbols of interfaith harmony is found not in houses of worship, but in Israel’s hospitals. Walk into Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa or Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, and you’ll see Jewish, Muslim, and Christian doctors working shoulder to shoulder—treating patients of every background.
Arab and Jewish doctors have one sacred mess of Hadassah Hospital’s cancer and emergency rooms with one thing in common: a will to cure. Initiatives such as “Hand in Hand in Medicine” newly begun provide the chance for medical students of different religions to learn and train together—emphasis on the universal tongue that all human beings can speak: empathy.
During the era of the pandemic of COVID-19, these hospitals were sites of shared endeavor where close living quarters were not some abstract idea—existing to stay alive.
Faith in the Future
Though the path to peace in the area is still precarious, such citizen endeavor—tempered—is demonstrating that living together is not a fantasy, but already in progress. Such multifaith endeavour’s success is not extinguishing difference, but accepting it.
From rock music and school rumor to hospital halls and schoolrooms, Israel is showing the world that religion and freedom are allies, not enemies, the children of diversity.
At the world’s corner too often seen through the prismatic lens of strife, Israel’s bridges of faith are quiet affirmations of a broad truth: that mankind, respect, and dignity can—and do—triumph over religion.
