Shalom/Salaam
Shalom/Salaam is a one-day Muslim-Jewish creative retreat, offered in collaboration with the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee. If you would like us to bring this retreat to your office or team, contact us through our partnership form.
This retreat is a creative exploration around the shared history of Muslim and Jewish cultural, artistic, and spiritual interactions. We feature everything from hands-on poetry workshops to Jewish and Muslim comedians, musicians, belly dancers, thinkers, and any other manner of intellectual or artistic exploration to open a space for conversation, reflection, healing and enjoyment.
What can I expect from this workshop?
Conversations around cultural, spiritual and historical themes
Workshops on poetry, music, meditation and other subjects
Book talks about unique and less commonly known topics
Explorations of shared spirituality and traditions
Performances including music, dance, theatre, spoken word, storytelling and more
Shared halal and kosher meals
This full day of activity will highlight the strong and positive relationship between Muslims and Jews throughout history, challenging and dismantling stereotypes about Muslims and Jews as political, social, cultural and religious enemies.
We will work with partner organizations to identify local artists, academics and like-minded organizations; build a schedule of events appropriate to your audience; outreach into the local community for participants; find the best hosting site; undertake press outreach; concentrate on issues of local concern and all other aspects of the event.
“This day-long event softened the earth of history and offered an opening to a new contemporary relationship.”
— Rabbi Abraham Ingber
“This kind of event is an eye-opener for peace activists and politicians who are in search for genuine peace built on mutual respect.”
— Sallama Shaker, Egyptian Ambassador to Canada
During this retreat, Jewish spiritual bellydancing troupe Shayna Maydela had the audience on their feet and dancing! Video by Mollie Block.
At a previous retreat day, Samuel Torjman Thomas led a music workshop, introducing the Jewish-Muslim sounds of Morocco, on his oud.
What does the day look like?
Here’s an example event schedule, taken from a Shalom/Salaam retreat we organized at the Actors Theatre Workshop in New York City.
1:15-1:45pm Introductions to the work of the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee and the International Human Rights Art Festival, followed by a meditation niggun (chant) led by Jewish spiritual practitioner Eliezer Sobel.
2:00-3:00pm A reading and discussion of medieval Muslim-Jewish poetry, which often used extremely sensual imagery to describe the spiritual path. This was followed by a writing workshop to create our own poems, led by Monna Sabouri of the Muslim Writers Collective.
3:00-3:45pm Shalom/Salaam book talk and discussion, based on Tom Block's groundbreaking study of the influence of Sufism on medieval Jewish mysticism, Shalom/Salaam: A Story of a Mystical Fraternity.
4:00-5:00pm Widad Hassan, Lead Advisor for Muslim, Arab, South Asian Communities and Beth Miller, Liaison to Jewish Communities, both for the NYC Commission on Human Rights, led a workshop and conversation exploring how Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and other forms of religious discrimination impact the lives of New Yorkers and shared how we can build welcoming, affirming and multi-faith spaces to build community. The NYC Commission on Human Rights is the city agency charged with enforcing the NYC Human Rights Law, one of the most protective anti-discrimination laws in the country.
5:00-5:45pm Muslim-Jewish Songlines: A Tradition of Musical Dialogue. Samuel Torjman Thomas, PhD (of NY Andalus Ensemble) led a workshop focusing on shared song traditions in the Middle East and North Africa, highlighting instances of Judeo-Islamic intercultural exchange, musical dialects and textual traditions in Hebrew, Arabic and Ladino.
6:00-7:00pm A Jewish-Muslim dinner, featuring shared dishes from our long and often positive history. Don't forget: a medieval Jewish practitioner once described Islam as "God's gift to the Jews." And the food is good, too!
7:00-8:30pm Performance! Featuring: Shayna Maydela Project (dance about untold Sephardic histories, where music connects Jews & Muslims); Amin Sarshar (Persian setar music and mystical poetry); Bukharian Jewish storyteller Ruben Shimonov; Gilad Barakan (played with Parham Haghighi Persian and Israeli songs with modern interpretations) and Samuel Torjman Thomas, Director and Bandleader of the NY Andalus Ensemble and ASEFA.