In France, some Jewish and Muslim communal leaders have not been shirking their responsibility to educate youth about the importance of creating dialogue and understanding between human beings:
On a hot afternoon in early June, an unusual looking bus is parked in the central square of this historic city in eastern France.Passers-by cast sidelong glances at the brightly colored portraits on its side accompanied by such slogans as “Jews and Muslims say no to discrimination” and “We are more alike than you think.”It is the friendship bus, a project of the French Jewish-Muslim Friendship group, known by the acronym AJMF.Led by a rabbi and imam, the bus and its team spend five weeks every summer traveling through the French countryside hosting panel discussions, chatting with pedestrians, promoting dialogue, and holding out the hope of mutual respect and cooperation between two communities more often found at odds.“This is our sixth summer touring France,” said Rabbi Michel Serfaty, AJMF's founder and co-leader of the bus project with Imam Mohamed Azizi. “We fight discrimination and stereotypes, and try to break down the walls between our young people.”
Check out the Jewish Telegraph Agency for the full story.
(Hat-tip to Libby and Len Traubman)
