JAM & All Women's Group

I just returned from a three-hour discussion with a group of about forty women-- Jews, Muslims, Christians, and a few who are hard to categorize. For example, Susan was born into a Jewish family, but for the past eight years she has attended an African American Baptist church on Sunday, in addition to attending shul on Friday night. And on Wednesday afternoon she studies Hinduism. Kathy was born into a Quaker family, then married a Jew and converted to Judaism, and is now a widow who attends Jewish services and studies Buddhism.

We met at a mosque, and there were a good number of Muslim women there, representing lots of different countries--Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, Jordan--as well as one American-born convert to Islam. I may have been the only protestant there, but at least four Catholics were in attendance, and more than ten Jews, many of whom were born in the northeast U.S.

We covered a wide range in our discussions, from the cartoon controversy in Denmark to the holocaust deniers, to the allegation that the Jews killed Christ and the implication of the Pope in anti-semitism.

And a good time was had by all.

It is just great to mingle with women who care enough to come out on a weekday evening for the purpose of promoting peace through individual friendship and community-building.