It was still pleasantly cool in the Holy Land, and I sat by the open door to my breezy balcony in Jerusalem, on the phone with a remarkable soul, a courageous Palestinian peacemaker from Jericho named Mohamed Jamous. I actually didn't know him well. We had actually met once before, briefly at an event of Praying Together in Jerusalem, where members of the 'Abrahamic faiths' pray in universal terms, in the same space, in this magical city. On Facebook, Mohamad had expressed his delight in the song that I had sung with guitar at that event: "Eyn od mi-Levado... La ilaha illa-Llah..."

As illumined Sufi Muslim teachers translate it, La ilaha illa-Llah means "There is no reality but the Supreme Reality." As illumined Chasidic Jewish teachers translate it, Eyn od mi-Levado means "There is nothing but Eternal Being." All things are ultimately a simple Oneness. When Jews and Muslims focus on the oneness of reality enshrined at the pinnacle of both traditions, perhaps we can perceive that oneness in each other. Perhaps we can laugh together and not shout. When the left hand knows that the right hand is another part of the one body, how can it attack, how can it actively retain anger and wounding?

According to Rabbinic tradition, Shalom, peace and wholeness, is defined by the uniting of opposites. Water and fire, generosity and withholding, can coexist when their hidden oneness is revealed. I hoped my song would enter someone's heart and we could eventually explore the effects of meditating on Simple Oneness across these sometimes 'opposite' traditions.

It is true that generational and personal trauma makes all sorts of relationships volatile or defensive and difficult to embrace in oneness. Victims become perpetrators. Spiritual by-passing of trauma is not the ultimate answer. We have to work on our own healing, then proceed with peacemaking our spouses and family, and then build steadily outward through our own communities before we can authentically heal larger groupings. Finger-wagging does not make others heal or change. However, the power of simple faith in the oneness of reality is a time-tested cure and empowerment, having brought countless individuals through unimaginable suffering into wholeness and non-violence.

As we were speaking, Mohamed kindly invited me to an iftar, a small Islamic fast-break meal, at his home in Jericho. I was drawn to get to know him better, and perhaps I could be of moral support to him. I had heard that the Palestinian Authority had thrown him in jail more than once for his friendly collaborations with Jews. Also, perhaps Mohamed could help me find others who would participate in a meditation retreat for spiritually engaged Palestinian Muslims and Israeli Jews, 'peace through conscious oneness'.

I accepted the invitation and he gave me precise instructions on how to get to his house; a public bus to a location where a trusted friend with a car service would pick me up and bring me into the Palestinian city. Apologetically, I offered to bring kosher pizza to share I only eat strictly kosher food. Mohamed accepted graciously, and then paused, and asked, "Do you have an American passport?"

"Yes, I have both American and Israeli..." I answered.

"Brother, please for your safety don't bring anything that would identify you as an Israeli citizen. Not even in your wallet or bag."

"My safety?" I was startled. Jericho is largely fed by tourism, streams of Christian internationals who visit their holy places there. The Palestinian Authority makes it as safe as possible for non-Muslims to visit this city, in order to preserve this vital livelihood.

"OK, thanks so much for the advice!" I laughed, but then became serious. "Brother, I look like a Jew, I have peiot (sidelocks) and tzitzit (fringes) and a kippah...."

"Oh... could you maybe tuck your peiot into a baseball hat? Tuck in the strings? Brother, I'm so sorry, if the Palestinian police stop you, I don't know... Please look like an American."

I was not going to back out, but I wasn't going to take any chances either. I couldn't find a baseball hat without Jewish inscriptions that would keep my peiot in place. This could be more like piku'ach nefesh (saving a life), I reasoned, reaching for the scissors. I left my peiot and tzitzit and kippah and ID cards in Jerusalem, removed Jewish apps from the screen of my phone, and ran for the bus. It was almost dusk, and I could already hear the Islamic call to prayer echoing from the taller buildings in Jerusalem; Muslims throughout the Land would soon break their fasts.

In very little time, I was in the lowest altitude city in the world, and its oldest. No sooner had I wondered where the walls were that Joshua had lowered by means of faith in Oneness alone, than I was at Mohamed's open gate.

Two other Jewish guests were already there, drinking sweet tea in the courtyard. One of whom was finishing his PhD in Middle Eastern studies while heading the Brazilian chapter of StandwithUs, an Israel advocacy organization. We all sat outside the house Mohamed had grown up in, and which still housed several members of his extended family. I offered lukewarm pizza, and we joked and swatted mosquitos and swapped stories, knowing that in only an hour later I would need to catch a ride back to Jerusalem with the Jews. We discussed ideas of how Mohamed might attract and host Christian tourists and tell his story of being a peacemaker. We discussed how a meditation meeting between Muslims and Jews might look. We discussed the seeming maze of obstacles.

"Maybe simple oneness is not so simple," I reflected, as my fingers reached to twist my non-existent peiot. "For example why should I have to give up my outer spiritual identity, not look like a Jew, in order to demonstrate a deeper oneness or bring peace? Can we not be 'one' without erasing our diversity?" The path of apology and assimilation has not produced peace better than 'standing with' our religious uniqueness.

Shouldn't unapologetically orthodox Jews and unapologetically orthodox Muslims be able to meet in a way where no one has to give up their cherished modes of living with the Creator? Can we experience oneness, while at the same time housing diverse, sometimes opposite, ways of thinking? Is not the One Source alone behind this universe of diversity? These inquiries only strengthened my drive. The Children of Abraham must go forward.

Perhaps this day was one of the longest days of my life, I felt that every passing minute was a year! Every time I watched the clock, I saw it moving very slowly. You may wonder why I felt that this day so slow? Why all this wait? Actually, the answer is because I was waiting for a person to arrive at my house that I had already invited to Ramadan breakfast and this person was Rabbi Mattisyahu Brown.

They say "happiness comes after a long wait," and here for me this was a very long day and already happiness had come after this wait.

Tuesday, May 14. We are on this blessed day in this holy month of Ramadan, and for those who do not know much about Ramadan month, Ramadan month is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and the month in which the Quran was revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Fasting during the month of Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The month is spent by Muslims fasting during the daylight hours from dawn to sunset. According to Islam, the Quran was sent down to the lowest heaven during this month, thus being prepared for gradual revelation by Jibreel (Gabriel) to Muhammad. Therefore, Muhammad told his followers that the gates of Heaven would be open for the entire month and the gates of Hell (Jahannam) would be closed.The first day of the next month, Shawwal, is spent in celebration and is observed as the "Festival of Breaking Fast" or Eid al-Fitr.

The hour is approaching 7:00 pm and I'm sitting in my house waiting for Rabbi Mattisyahu Brown which i could consider him as a friend, a brother or even a partner, a partner in hope, a partner in meditation, a partner in peace!

Rabbi Mattisyahu Brown, I met him once in one of the interfaith meetings in Jerusalem. On that day I saw in his eyes the meaning of love, hope, happiness and peace that filled our hearts with all of us through his song "Eyn od mi-Levado... La ilaha illa-Llah..."

Hours before our meeting, I called Brown and I told him the details of the way to my house in Jericho, and asked him to leave any documents proving that he is a Jew at his home and to bring his US passport in anticipation of any circumstance beyond our control.

By the way, on that day I also invited some of the Brazilian friends who support peace work in the Holy Land and who work at the Brazilian Consulate in Tel Aviv. My Brazilian friends arrived before Brown arrived, we all sat discussing and talking as we waited for Brown's arrival.

Actually I was sitting with my guests but mentally with Brown, I was scared for him and I was calling him every minute to know where he is and where he had arrived. And then, after nearly an hour of time, Brown arrived and arrived with happiness, I welcomed him into my house and we all sat talking.

Most of our talk was about the peace work in the Holy Land, and how to build programs through our reflection and our unity as one body. Peacemaking here is very difficult, especially in the Palestinian territories. I have been building peace for more than fifteen years, since I was a young child and I have experienced many difficulties and obstacles in this work.

In fact, many people in Israel and Palestine are interested in a Jewish-Muslim meetings, but it is difficult for them to find the means, and it is difficult for them to find the right people for these meetings. We are here to be this means and this way.

The convening of these meetings, the exchange of cultures and the exchange of talk and opinions are very important and it will work to find solutions between the two peoples.

All the people here, they just need a way and support to hold such meetings and programs in the holy-land and then the solutions will be on their way to us!

I and my guests talked a lot and in many things that would really work to find such solutions through the establishment of programs and meetings.

After a while, talking and before my guests left, we took a memorial photo with each other.

Then they left my house in love and peace, hoping to meet again.

An American-Israeli rabbi and an African-American Muslim imam were like fish out of water during a special trip to a Hindu ashram in India.

Like a reality TV show, two people from two different communities were recently thrown together in a challenging environment. Pesach Stadlin, an Israeli-based rabbi in his 30s, and Abdullah Faaruuq, a 71-year-old American-based imam, became roommates for a month at the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, India.

The two became fast friends, bonding over the cultural differences in their new temporary home and documenting their experiences on Facebook and Instagram.

Born Jeremy David Stadlin in Philadelphia, the young rabbi traveled through several dozen countries around the globe before settling in Israel where we was ordained by the late Rabbi Sholom Brodt of Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo in Jerusalem. He chronicled his journeys and lessons learned in his 2016 book Sustainable Bliss.

Faaruuq was born Jeconiah Barrow to a Jamaican immigrant mother in the rough streets of Boston. Growing up in the civil rights era, he gravitated to Islam, eventually becoming active at the Mosque for the Praising of Allah in Bostons Roxbury neighborhood that he has led for the past 20 years.

Their similarities include having been born and raised in the United States, having musical backgrounds, and both being monotheists who had never before visited the mostly Hindu country of India.

They spoke to The Jerusalem Post via phone from Ahmedabad.

This is neutral ground, stated Faaruuq, noting that although there is a strong Muslim minority, the history of the region is far from the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The two bonded over their newfound challenges, such as shopping for kosher and halal food or attempting to walk across a busy street. There are very few traffic lights and people drive fast, noted Stadlin. You have to edge your body into traffic, and the cars hopefully see you and slow down or go around you. Otherwise you end up standing on the side of the road for 20 minutes waiting for your lucky break.

Their daily duties included teaching about their respective religions in various locations, such as at a leprosy camp, a school for the blind, a Zoroastrian temple, a Sufi mosque and the citys only remaining synagogue.

Stadlin noted the novelty of leading Hebrew songs for people who told him they had never met a Jew before and asked, What is a Jew?

Every day at the ashram and all of its centers throughout India they have interfaith prayer services, where they recite the Shema Yisrael, Stadlin explained, We showed up at a school and as soon as we walked in the door they happened to be in the middle of reciting the Shema Yisrael prayer. He related that the students and teachers were excited to have a rabbi explain the further depth of the centerpiece prayer in Jewish liturgy.

Faaruuq and Stadlin were chosen for the unique mission by a group calling itself Children of Abraham, in conjunction with Manav Sadhna, a non-profit organization based at the ashram. Founded in 1951 as the Sabarmati Ashram, the site is where the Indian leader Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi studied and from where he led the famous Salt March, also known as the March to Dandi, in 1930.

It was a Jewish friend from Boston, Jerry Katz, who led Faaruuq to the project. The two would often share a falafel together as a local kosher restaurant. Katz explained that he was given a donation to fund a special interfaith project and he was looking for a Jewish and a Muslim volunteer to participate. Stadlin was recruited by Katzs cousin Tobie Weisman, who was a long-time friend of the Rabbi Brodt, Stadlins mentor.

This experience has been so rich, Faaruuq said. Im not saying its going to solve the problems of the world, but certainly it is a glowing example of whats possible in humanity, he stated.

Both described seeing Hindu and Muslim children living side-by-side in abject poverty without complaint.

Ill be 72 in a few months, and Ive never seen anything like this, he said. Im not a baby. Ive had all kinds of experiences, and Ive been to several countries, but this is different. I want you to tell the world, theyre doing something different over here and we dont know what it might blossom into.

Although Faaruuqs Roxbury neighborhood has been described as rough, he said its nothing compared to the urban villages of Ahmedabad. Too many of the people in the United States have no understanding of whats going on over on the other side of the world, he said. They laugh and joke, drink Pepsi and eat popcorn. But if they were to just come here and live, and not just as tourists, they would have a different view of life and be appreciative of America.

Stadlin echoed the sentiment, noting that the two had been sent on various teaching assignments throughout the city, but didnt have any standard tourist experiences such as dining at restaurants. This is the first time for both of us in India. We got off the plane and had to go food shopping, he said. We are immersed in the society, basking in both the blessing and beauty, as well as some of the very harsh realities and challenges that this community is facing.

The two also visited the only synagogue in town, where Stadlin led Torah study sessions. Built in 1934, the once thriving Magen Abraham Synagogue today only has Shabbat and holiday services. But the still-active community of about 150 Indian Jews keeps the community alive.

The odd couple roaming through the urban blight of India was a novelty to locals who, according to the pair, have accepted them with warm smiles and open arms. Stadlin noted that Friendships between Muslims and Jews happens all the time back in Jerusalem. It just doesnt make the cover of the newspaper.

Energy flows were attention goes, he said, adding the hope that their trips will create positive repercussions for their respective communities upon their return.

Its the possibility of a Jew and a Muslim working together for a common cause. Were just two people meeting each other as humans, Faaruuq stated. A spark in a new direction will turn into a bigger light.

Our idea is simple. We send a Jew and a Moslem to work on a humanitarian project for 30 days and during the 30 days, they live together and work together. We want to change the perception of Jews and Moslems as communities in conflict to a perception of Jews and Moslems as communities who work together to help others. Our hope is that every Jew and every Moslem will, as part of their life, see working on a project with each other as a normal and anticipated part of their life.

We invite you to volunteer to become a part of our Jewish-Moslem reconciliation project. We have projects in India, Uganda, and Bangladesh. We are also trying to create a project in Israel/West Bank.

No one is excluded. We do not care if you are a left wing peacenik or a right wing rejectionist. We do not care if you are a Jew who mistrusts Moslems or a Moslem who mistrusts Jews. We ask only that you are willing to live and work together on a common project for 30 days and be open to the possibility that, during this period, as a result of living and working together, you will see the other in a new and deeper way.

Recently, we sent Rabbi Pesach - an Orthodox Rabbi from Israel with Tzizit worn outside - and Imam Abdullah an Islamic Cleric - to work at our project in the slums of Ahmedabad, India in an area where 2,000 people had been killed in Hindu-Moslem communal violence. Until this project, it is almost impossible to imagine that a very Orthodox Rabbi (Rabbi Pesach] and a conservative Moslem cleric (Imam Abdullah] would ever have had an opportunity to work together and live together in the same space for 30 days.

Imam Abdullah and Rabbi Pesach told us that living and working together was a profound transformative experience. What Imam Abdullah and Rabbi Pesach accomplished with love and respect for each other and love and respect for the communities in which they worked can be seen in the attached photos and videos. Because of Imam Abdullah and Rabbi Pesach, Hindu children visited a Mosque for the first time and Moslem children, for the first time, visited a Hindu temple. Imam Abdullah and Rabbi Pesach organized a peace and harmony march through the streets of Ahmedabad and - to the astonishment of onlookers - Hindus and Moslems carried banners and signs and sang songs about peace and harmony in both Gujarati and English. The Jerusalem Post became interested in the project and wrote an article and made a video, both of which you can visit on this website.

We ask you to follow in the path of Imam Abdullah and Rabbi Pesach and be open to their experience.

Let me tell you more about our projects. I hope that you will consider volunteering for one of the them.

First, we have been asked to send additional Rabbis and Imams to continue our work in India. Also, for any of your friends or family who are not Rabbis (or Imams), we have an education project in Ahmedabad that they can participate in.

Second, we have a project in the refugee camps in Bangladesh to help Rohingyan Moslem refugees who have fled the genocide in neighboring Mynmar. This project is being facilitated by the BTF (Burma Task Force] who work on the ground at the Coxs Bazaar refugee camp. We are asking people to consider this project first because we have been contacted by a Bangladeshi woman who speaks Rohingya, the language of the people in the refugee camps and who is enthusiastic about working for 30 days with Jewish partners in the camps. Her time constraint is that she has to return to graduate school by September 1st which means that she must leave for Bangladesh not later than mid July.

Third, we have an education project in rural Uganda, Beginning in the 5th grade , all instruction in the school is in English instead of the local tribal languages. There are usually 140 children in each classroom. Our project is to send Jewish and Moslem volunteers to work at the school so that the school can divide the 140 students into groups of 15 and 20 which will greatly facilitate their ability to learn English in time for the 5th grade.

Fourth, we are hoping to establish a Daven/Salat project and, perhaps, other projects in Israel/West Bank. The idea of the Davening/Salat Project is not interfaith prayers but Jews and Moslem separately observing their traditional evening prayers [Mariv and evening Salat] but in the same extended space and then sharing a common kosher/halal vegetarian meal with each other and talking to each other.

Reb Matisyahu, who works with our project, went to Jerico on the West Bank for Iftar (the breaking of the fast at the end of each day of Ramadam) at the invitation of Mohamad Jamous, a courageous witness to Jewish-Moslem reconciliation. The event was covered by the Israeli online press.

We know that our task is not easy. Every Jew and every Moslem - including every person who volunteers to participate in our project - can tell us about the evil that the other community has done to his or her community. The reality is that evil has been done. Even though we are volunteers with a good heart, we can not forget this reality. However, there is a reality that is deeper and more powerful than the evil that has been done. When the disciples of Rabbi Wolfe of Zbarazh, a follower of the Maggid of Mesrich - came to him and asked him to exclude all those who had done evil, he responded, "Do you think that I love them any less than I love you?"

The deepest reality is the reality of a common holiness that unites Jews and Moslems and which unites all people everywhere. Every person - and every Jew and Moslem - knows this but this deep knowledge is easily forgotten. Therefore, in Judaism Zachar and in Islam Zikhr - to remember our deep holy nature - is a central term. By remembering who we are, we can break through to see the holiness of the other.

Please consider volunteering for one of our projects. Although there many people who think that there is no way forward in Jewish-Moslem relations, the truth is that we have an opportunity to do something good and important.

Please ask us any questions that you have. You can contact us by using the 'Contact' link and we will respond as soon as possible.

WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO TO HELP

If you can not personally volunteer, please help us locate people who may want to volunteer. Please talk to people in your local community and to your friends. Please talk to your Synagogue, Mosque, or to any organization that you participate in. We hope that each Synagogue, each Mosque, and each Organization can find and sponsor a volunteer and pay for his or her travel expenses.

Our only real expense is paying for airplane tickets to fly our volunteers to their project. The host for each project generally provides a free place to stay and vegetarian meals. Each ticket costs approximately "Chai" - i.e $1,800. We ask people to donate Chai ($1,800) half Chai ($900), one quarter Chai ($450) or whatever a person can afford. All donations - even one dollar - are gratefully accepted Also, there are people who are not able to donate money but have accumulated a large amount of frequent flier miles. These people, if they want to, can use some of their frequent flier miles to pay for a ticket for one of our volunteers.

You can donate money by pressing the 'Donate' button of our website.

If you are interested in working on a project, participating in any way, or if you just have questions, please send us an email. We have attached a 'Subscribe' button by which you can communicate with us.