Voice of the Jewish News: A succah for all

Nothing better symbolises ‘we’re all in this together’ than a succah. For the past week many of us have braved falling autumn temperatures to huddle with family and friends in temporary structures, recalling the time our ancestors endured in the wilderness after being freed from Egypt.

It seems particularly fitting that the festival of Succot brought Jewish and Muslim Londoners together for a historic breakfast at the Al-Khoei Foundation mosque in north-west London on Sunday.

This was a reminder of the commonality of family and food in both traditions and the shared challenges we face – not least the ongoing battle against hate crime. Amid rising Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, we are genuinely in this together.

Under the mosque’s succah roof, young people did what young people do, regardless where they’re from; playing, chatting, kicking a football or, in the case of older ones, discussing looming exams. They had the opportunity to see for themselves their many similarities.

As Rabbi Baruch Levin put it, it is with such initiatives that “the next generation will be equipped with more effective tools than our generation to deal with interfaith relations”.

We salute the Khoei Foundation, Brondesbury Park synagogue and the Three Faiths Forum for this much-needed  Jewish-Muslim initiative.

The warmth with which this story has been received – shared 2,500 times by Jewish News Online readers – shows the huge appetite for interfaith work.

We look forward to the day this sort of project is so commonplace it is longer newsworthy.