This spring break, a dozen students, led by Rabbi David Leipziger and former Muslim Chaplain Abdullah Antepli, embarked on the Jewish-Muslim dialogue trip to Jerusalem and Istanbul. The ten-day long trip included three and a half days in Turkey followed by six and a half days in Israel.
True to its name, the trip was organized so students could interact with, and not just observe, people in their host countries. The trip’s itinerary included speakers, religious services, dinners with local families, and visits to popular tourist destinations, such as the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and the old city in Jerusalem.
“The trip was inspiring,” said Rabbi David Leipziger Teva, who goes by Rabbi David. “It is also, to the best of my knowledge, the first time in history that Jews and Muslim students traveled together to Jerusalem. Wesleyan is truly an amazing university.”
Of the dozens of destinations they visited in Istanbul and Jerusalem, it was the Israeli-Palestinian school that remained fixed in the students’ minds.
“It was inspiring to see kids together, just being themselves,” said Aaron Tabak ’08 of the school, where Hebrew and Arabic are taught side by side. “That made me feel a lot more optimistic [amid] all the tension that we know is there.”
Although not all the students are religiously active, all were interested in Middle Eastern politics before embarking on the trip. With its emphasis on dialogue, the trip provided a unique opportunity to learn about the two religions in a bipartisan environment.
“I’m Jewish, and have always wanted to go to Israel,” said Phil Zegelbone ’08. “I hardly knew anything about Islam, or Palestine for that matter, when I left, so I figured this was the only way I could really learn anything.”
For Maggie Mitchell ’08, who recently converted to Islam, the trip was an opportunity to observe a society in which Muslims comprise the majority.
“For me, going to Turkey was pretty exciting because I wanted to see how an almost-completely Muslim society functioned,” Mitchell said. “They have a very peaceful coexistence with the other faiths, which is why I went there. Israel is the opposite.”
On the whole, the students said they were impressed by the coexistence amongst different religious groups in Turkey, as well as the eagerness of their hosts in both countries to engage with them.
“The people from each country surprised me, in good ways and in bad ways, but mostly in very good ways,” said Jamal Ahmed ’09. “The hospitality of our Turkish hosts and student tour guides was incredible—they were so happy to have us spend time with them and they loved showing us around the beautiful city. Seeing just how similar we were to everyone we visited was certainly refreshing.”
In Mitchell’s case, the hospitality, sometimes tinged with curiosity, was a relief. While praying on the Mount in Jerusalem one afternoon, Mitchell was approached by a group of Arab-speaking women. They were surprised, she said, that Mitchell was Muslim but did not speak Arabic.
“I didn’t worry about which way I was perceived,” Mitchell said. “People in Turkey found it interesting that I was an American Muslim who didn’t look Arab.”
There was, however, some disturbing evidence of interfaith tension.
“We were leaving the synagogue the first night in Istanbul and because of bombings in the past, security was ridiculously tight,” Tabak said. “You had to leave your passport. And when we were leaving, we had to take off our kipa so as not to attract attention.”
Mitchell, conversely, said that as a Muslim she felt less comfortable in Israel.
“I was comfortable in Turkey being a Muslim,” Mitchell said. “I wanted to wear a headscarf because it identified me more. I wasn’t as comfortable in Israel for the same reason. If someone found out I was a Muslim they might hate me for that.”
Despite their intention to engage in interfaith dialogue, many of the students found that the people they met perceived them not as Jewish or Muslim, but as American.
“[I was most impressed by] the genuine desire of the Turkish and other Middle Eastern people that I met to understand my method of framing ideas,” Zegelbone said. “Everyone I met wanted to know not just what but how I thought about everything from U.S. foreign policy to cooking. There was a genuine desire that came through to me from everyone I met to actually find out how ‘Americans’ think, to see if we thought like our government and soldiers. [We were] the only exposure that they’ve had to Western mentality outside of the media.”
Although the students embarked on the trip because they were interested in Middle Eastern politics, they ultimately came away feeling struck by how little they knew.
“We don’t know how the Arabs really feel or how complex the situation is,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell cited the Separation Law, which divides Jerusalem into a Jewish and Muslim section, as an example. In describing the argument against the law, she said that part of the Palestinian section actually lies in the Israeli zone.
“Our tour guide in Israel was in favor of the Separation Law,” Mitchell said. “A lot of us were against it because it was causing more problems for the Palestinians. She said she understood but she felt more protected with the separation. We don’t know what it’s like to be her.”
According to Zegelbone, the students he met in Turkey were similarly sensitive to their limitations in understanding. When asked by a group of students what the average U.S. citizen thinks about the American occupation of Afghanistan, he initially felt embarrassed to report that many Americans had come to associate Islam, jihad, and Afghanistan with the Sept. 11 attacks.
“When I finished with all of this, I studied the faces of the crowd really intently, looking for signs of disgust, but I saw none,” Zegelbone said. “’It’s pretty much the same here’ was the general response I got. The Afghani [student] responded, ‘All governments use terrorism to govern, yours, mine. Sometimes it’s easy to forget.’”
Thanks to this self-awareness, students were able to realize their original goal: learning through dialogue.
“Students were able to grow not only in their religious and spiritual paths but also gain a greater understanding of the other’s religion,” Rabbi David said. “Some students had many of their political beliefs challenged and altered because of the trip.”
Leave a Reply