While Israel is under attack one UK Rabbi “engages Ramadan as a committed Jew”

Trafalgar square: "Interfaith Dialog 101.

While Israel is under attack one UK Rabbi “engages Ramadan as a committed Jew” HT: Forward.

London — A few hours into the 10th day of Ramadan, Rabbi Natan Levy was swapping fasting tips with a Muslim fellow passenger aboard the London Northern train line.

Specifically, they were debating the merits of having a very large meal before sunrise — a technique adopted by many observant Muslims who are trying to cope with a whole month of daytime fasts on a continent whose summers afford more than 14 hours of sunlight every day.

“We agreed better to eat less,” said Levy, 40, who is the interfaith and social action consultant of Britain’s Jewish Board of Deputies.

Like the Muslim passenger, Levy was speaking out of experience: This year, Levy joined Muslims around the world in their fast.

Levy told JTA that he decided to “engage Ramadan as a committed Jew” to promote “a deeper conversation within the Jewish community on how we move beyond demonization of Islam.”

The decision to fast, he said, was partly born of frustration at how “the Anglo-Jewish community appears to live in a state I could only call deeply distrustful of anything Islamic.”

Last week, a congregant in Levy’s local shul ran home in fear because she found herself sitting next to a Muslim guest for the Kabbalat Shabbat service, he recalled.

“This was a shameful moment for us, but not a surprising one,” he said. “My daughter has not been taught a single fact about Ramadan at her Jewish School. The fasting is simply a touchstone toward a deeper conversation.”

But at a time when Islamist militants are emerging as a serious threat to the physical safety of European Jews, Levy says that he does not want to appear naïve.

“There are elephants in the room between Jews and Muslim, scary ones,” he said. “But I don’t think that we can start discussing elephants, until we realize there is more that unites Jews and Muslims than divides us.”

Some of the fear, however, is rooted in reality, Levy wrote in an email answering JTA’s questions.

“Rockets are now falling upon my family in Israel as I write this, launched by a terrorist organization whose manifesto justifies its actions with hateful and violent quotes from the Quran,” Levy wrote.

“But the more time I spend in conversation with Muslims, and the deeper I engage with Ramadan, the clearer it becomes that Islam cannot be reduced to the twisted form espoused by Hamas: That it contains a deeper truth and a grander vision of compassion and peace.”Hmmm......'Lord forgive them for they do not know what they do' Read the full 'story' here.