4. The New York synagogue inside a mosque
In Parkchester, New York there is a small orthodox Jewish congregation that worship in the Islamic Cultural Center of North America (home of the Al-Iman mosque).
The relationship between Jews and Muslims in Parkchester began when the Young Israel Congregation were running clothing drives for needy families. One of the recipients of their charity was Sheikh Moussa Drammeh, the founder of the Al-Iman Mosque, who was collecting for some of his poorer congregants.
Through that initial meeting, a relationship developed between the two communities and the synagogue continued to donate to the Islamic center. But in 2003, after years of declining membership, Young Israel was forced to sell its building (some of its chairs and tables were given to the mosque).
The remaining congregants were left without a place to pray and unable to pay for religious faculty. Rabbis from the Chabad of East Bronx (a pious congregation several miles away) volunteered to lead the religious services, but they were still without a building. When Drammeh learned of their plight, he offered to accommodate their congregation in the Muslim center, “They don’t pay anything, because these are old folks whose income are very limited now,” said Drammeh. “Not every Muslim likes us, because not every Muslim believes that Muslims and Jews should be like this,” he said. But “there’s no reason why we should hate each other, why we cannot be families”.
He went on to say how he admired the dedication of the Chabad rabbis, who walk 15 miles every Saturday to run the prayer services for this ailing community.
