MJF member Tamim Shaker with Jordan Weiss, co-chair of AJC’s ACCESS-Detroit.

DETROIT — Talk of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict often conjures unfavorable perceptions within many Arab and Jewish households – populations with a considerable presence in Metro Detroit.

However, with large populations of both Arab Americans and Jews in the Detroit area, both socially and economically established groups have forged close ties for decades.

As more than 300 incidents of harassment or intimidation of minorities have been reported following President-elect Donald Trump’s winning bid for the White House, many of Southeast Michigan’s Arabs and Jews are reaffirming their alliance to stand against hate crimes and promote solidarity.

Breaking bread

Organized by advocacy organizations from both communities, young Arab, Muslim and Jewish professionals gathered in Midtown Detroit. They told stories of shared strives and discussed the effectiveness in united activism to solve local and international problems.

As they snacked on hummus amid laughter and dialogue, it was difficult to tell many individuals apart.

Alicia Chandler, an event organizer and vice president of the now-partnered Jewish Community Relations Council and American Jewish Committee (JCRC/AJC), said they have acknowledged for a decade a hunger for both communities to better understand each other.

She stressed that it would be a mistake to define their relationship by Middle East politics.

“We really need to learn to live together, to work together in Detroit, now more than ever, to bring our communities to focus on the positive we can do right here,” Chandler said.

The JCRC/AJC has coordinated with various Arab and Muslim outreach groups to host events like educational lectures, discussion and community service programs, she said.

Giving Arabs and Jews an opportunity to pick up a brush and paint together during community service opens doors to find insight into their lives and creates useful ways to discuss issues like the Palestinian conflict, Chandler added.

For the span of five years, hundreds of volunteers participated in delivering presents on the Jewish Mitzvah Holiday, which fell on Dec. 25 last year. They delivered meals to the needy, helped in soup kitchens and senior living facilities in 40 different sites, so Christians could stay home with their families.

Mutual-felt bigotry

In the wake of learning that a Muslim University of Michigan student had been threatened with being set on fire unless she removed her hijab, Chandler condemned anti-Muslim bigotry and emphasized Muslim-Jewish
solidarity.

“We have a lot of educating to do and to act out against hate to bring peace in times where people are feeling especially unpeaceful,” Chandler said. “If each community stands on its own, we will be weaker than if we band together.”

Razi Jafri, co-chair of the Muslim Jewish Forum of Detroit (MJF), said much of their efforts similarly focuses on building bridges through social gatherings, potlucks and events around faith.

Inspired by a trip he took to Israel and the West Bank in Jan. 2015, Jafri witnessed the effects of the occupation. What he saw was “horrifying”, but he said he felt he could not have much influence over a resolution there.

Today, the MJF aims to connect young Muslims and Jews, when it might be difficult to form those partnerships alone.

“I think building the bonds of friendship and fraternity is a huge first step in breaking down stereotypes and helping people connect with each other,” Jafri said. “Historically, Muslims and Jews have been very much aligned.”

He added that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a very new one. However, there is a perception of a historical clash between Muslims and Jews.

Erika Bocknek, a Farmington Hills resident involved with ACCESS-Detroit, a young adult offshoot of the AJC (not to be confused with the Arab-run service center), said local Jews should be the first to support targeted Arabs and Muslims, as the community is all too familiar with the consequences of ethnic discrimination.

Although both communities have achieved much upper mobility and success, Jews share similar concerns about living as cultural minorities in the United States, she added.

“Silver lining”

Amidst the recent troubling rise of incidents against Muslims and Arabs, Bocknek said organizations like JCRC/AJC and MJF could offer a glimmer of hope.

“The silver lining of this tumultuous political context this week is that we are trying to think of ways to have more local conversations with other groups or communities that we don’t get together with,” she said.

At Wayne State University, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish and African American advocacy organizations are doing their part to spread awareness about their struggles as minorities.

Students for Justice in Palestine President Summer Baraka said they held the first ever Palestine Awareness Week on campus.

For a full week, they organized events ranging from cultural displays of food, dance, art and poetry to Black/Palestinian solidarity events.

Baraka said the club puts on educational panels and documentary screenings to educate those new to the issues. They also invite organizers from both communities to speak about the parallels between both their struggles for justice.

They even set up a mock apartheid wall on campus, evoking the Israeli-Gaza barrier.

She said it was a great way to interactively spread education and awareness. The response was mostly positive, although many students had no idea a wall exited in the region.

Tamim Shaker, a long-time member of the MJF of Detroit, spoke of the “magic” of open mindedness that occurs when putting individuals of different cultures in a room and creating a comfortable environment where they are willing to engage with each other.

He recognized the prejudices many Arabs might hold toward Jews that could erect obstacles to dialogue, especially among Arab and Jewish grandparents, but said the degree to which prejudice exists is not as profound as widely believed.

Even older generation Arabs who were raised in war-torn counties are beginning to understand the “wisdom” of their cultural cousins when comparing ethics, beliefs, texts and traditions, he added.

One cannot forget that Muslim and Jews similarly practice purifying meat to make it kosher or halal before consumption.

“We come from different traditions, but at the end of the day, the core ideals are very unanimous,” Shaker said.