Reshaping reality through prayer

Rabba Tamar Elad-Abblebaum leads an Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem. Last year she and Muslim Sufi Sheikh Ihab Balah transformed a music school in the Holy City for one week into a communal house of prayer called "Amen." The congregation was unlike any other in Jerusalem. Orthodox Jews wore modest dress and a kippah. But next to them, other worshippers had crosses hanging around their necks. Others wore the traditional black robe of Copts. Others wore the Muslim hijab and several nuns wore full habits. It was not your typical church service, but they prayed together.

                                                                                                                             Photo by Mical Fattal
Rabba Elad-Abblebaum looked at the congregation and said, "Today we all do something very brave. I never believed something like this would be possible in my lifetime. Jews who live in the territories publicly praying together with Palestinians. But this is not a political project. We wanted people to come from the right and from the left and to show that faith is beyond ideology. Here we are reshaping reality and we are doing it through prayer."