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USA – Despite 9/11 and the increasing tensions in the Middle East - or perhaps because of them - some ethnic and religious groups are making an extended effort to reach out to one another; to bridge the walls that separate them even when they share the same neighborhood. Midwood neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. is an example. Midwood is a ten square bock neighborhood with one of the highest concentrations of both Orthodox Jews & Muslims than anywhere else in the USA. Jewish and Muslim women shop side by side, wearing slightly different head coverings but often pushing the same brand of strollers. No one denies that tension sometimes exists in Midwood, but through work, dedication, and a tacit agreement to disagree, it has remained relatively peaceful and productive.

Ghassan Daoud, outreach coordinator for the Arab American Family Support Center, believes that Midwood can provide a model for a workable peace in the Middle East. "This could really be a good example for coexistence between the Palestinians and Jews back home," says Mr. Daoud. "I'm not suggesting they have to live in one state – there can be two states. But we need peace. We need to talk to each other. We need to learn about each other and really understand each other's needs and respect them." He says he does the kind of work he does because he and his family back in Nablus "are starving for peace." He hopes his outreach work here – he tries to create an understanding of who the Palestinian people are among policymakers – will help the Palestinian community in the Middle East.

Mehrba Kahn, a Jewish barber with a shop on Coney Island Avenue, demonstrates the situaiton graphically. "See these hands?" "The Jews, the Christians, the Muslims here, they're like these fingers: They work together because they have to. We're all connected."

The cooperation that sowed the seeds of respect among the neighborhood's well-tended rows of single-family homes started in earnest two years ago, when the current unrest in the Middle East first kicked up. Several attacks, clearly related to the other side of the world, sent a chill through both Jewish and Muslim leaders in the community. They decided they needed to keep the violence in the Middle East from spilling into their own neighborhood. So they held a meeting, which spurred several more, and eventually the process grew into a series of ongoing joint projects – from educational outreach to healthcare initiatives.

"It's by these modalities that the long-term trust and relationships are clearly defined and maintained," says Rabbi Bob Kaplan, the director of intergroup relations and community concerns at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. "We talk to each other on a constant basis, so it doesn't fall into complacency. It has real substance to it."

Elana Grossman, an Orthodox Jew standing in line with her young daughter at the post office, believes that civility and simple courtesy also play an important role in making Midwood work. "I see people all of the time giving information, opening the door for someone. That really helps a lot," she says. "Of course, we don't have the warlike conditions that are over in the Middle East, which makes it easier. And we're financially better off, and that contributes to less tension as well."

But when strife did come to New York's shores on Sept. 11, the community responded by intensifying the outreach between followers of its two faiths. Jews were encouraged to visit mosques, and Muslims were invited to drop by the nearby synagogue.

In the third week of September, Naji and Debbie Almontaser went to the Mormon Church on their corner for a neighborhood meeting. They decided to invite everyone there for refreshments in their yard. They put out coffee and tea and sweets, and made sure to have a separate kosher table so their Orthodox neighbors would feel comfortable. They expected maybe 20 or 30 people to come. More than 150 showed up, including some of their Hasidic neighbors they'd never met. "We pull together on the things that concern us here. We don't try to change ideas and perspectives," says Mr. Almontaser. "But of course nobody agrees, whether they're Christians, Jews, or Muslims, with the violence going on there on either side."

But even among these peacemakers, the strains from overseas are sometimes evident. Kaplan notes that even as he reaches out, it's important to "fully defend the Jewish community." Almontaser says that if the Palestinian people had all of the rights and freedoms they have here, maybe there wouldn't be so much trouble over there. But on streets and shops of Midwood, those stronger feelings are kept in abeyance. That's something that Rabbi Jacob Savitsky, who's lived in Midwood for 15 years, wishes could be translated overseas. "We have to go on and live together," he says. "They could take a good example from here in the Middle East – that we can get along, all of us, even from the different segments."

(Adapted from an article By Alexandra Marks, the Christian Science Monitor: www.csm.com)

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