We are a 501(c)3 organization aiming to bring peace between Jews and Muslims.
The Children of Abraham Project was founded by Jerry Katz in 2019 when his friend Paul unexpectedly sent him $1000. Initially not knowing what to do with the money, Jerry saw an ad for flight tickets to India for $450 and realized that he could send an Imam and a Rabbi to India for a project. Having found the Imam, the rabbi, and the organization to host them in India, the Children of Abraham Project was born.
What we do
Our idea is simple. We send a Jew and a Muslim 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 Muslim will, as part of their life, see working on a project with each other as a normal and anticipated part of their life. We have had projects in India, Uganda, Kenya, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia.
In Uganda, we brought Jewish and Muslim volunteers to work together in a rural school. In the Rohinya Refugee Camp in Bangladesh, we attempted to establish a project where Jews and Muslims would interview Rohingya whose family members had been murdered and woman who had been raped. The project did not go forward because of opposition by the Bangladesh government and because of the assassination of our contact in the refugee camp. In Ethiopia, we established two compounds for children orphaned by the Civil War—most of whose parents had been burned alive. Our compounds were destroyed by that war, and we have transitioned to supporting the children in boarding schools.
Our present focus is our project in Israel-Palestine led by Mohamad Jamous, the leader of our project. Our flagship project is the Iftar Meal of Reconciliation, where we bring Jews and Muslims together to break the fast near the end of Ramadan. This year, we were able to bring together around 1000 Jews and Muslims in Palestine, led by former enemies—a Palestinian who spent 15 years in an Israeli prison and an Israeli Settler—who now see that violence and hatred are a dead end and want to work together to go beyond their particular Palestinian and Jewish narratives of oppression. We believe that the Iftar meals provide the beginning of a way forward.
What you can do to help
Currently, our projects in Ethiopia and Israel and Palestine are impacted by conflicts in the regions. It has become exceedingly difficult to raise funds in situ to support our operations. In Ethiopia, this means to pay tuition for boarding school for children orphaned by previous ethnic conflicts. In Israel and Palestine, this would support our projects such as the Iftar Meal of Reconciliation.
In less extraordinary times, please consider volunteering for one of our projects, or help us find people who may want to volunteer. Please talk to people in your local community and to your friends, as well as any organization you participate in. We hope that each Synagogue, each Mosque, and each organization can find and sponsor a volunteer and pay for their travel expenses. We appreciate donation in money or in kind, such as frequent flier miles.
Please ask us any questions that you have with the “Contact Us” page, and please feel free to browse our catalogue of projects elsewhere on our website (currently under construction).