NEWS FEATURE: Abrahamic roots focus of Muslim-Jewish program for young people

c. 1999 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _ Seen through the prism of biblical history, the whole Israel-Arab conflict can be blamed on an ancient story of sibling rivalry. For centuries, Jews have traced their lineage _ and their claims to the Promised Land _ through Isaac, son of the biblical patriarch Abraham and his first […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

JERUSALEM _ Seen through the prism of biblical history, the whole Israel-Arab conflict can be blamed on an ancient story of sibling rivalry.

For centuries, Jews have traced their lineage _ and their claims to the Promised Land _ through Isaac, son of the biblical patriarch Abraham and his first wife Sarah. Arabs, meanwhile, claim the lineage of Ishmael, son of Abraham and his second wife, or concubine, Hagar.


Now, Israeli educators are trying to use the Abraham story to generate a new kind of dialogue between Muslim and Jewish children about their common religious heritage in a new project entitled”In the Image of Abraham.””Abraham is someone that both religions honor and claim. But usually, it is the different Muslim and Jewish interpretations of the story that are stressed. We’re trying to show the similarities,”said Rachel Shilo, executive director of the Abraham Fund, co-sponsor of the project along with Jerusalem’s new Bible Lands Museum.

The pilot project brings primary school-aged Jewish and Muslim Arab children to the museum’s expansive campus here to study ancient artifacts that hopefully will provide them with insight into the Abrahamic saga from the perspectives of biblical and their own family history. “The basic idea is that the two peoples have a common father, and by stressing that common legacy we learn that we must be partners in the land and live together in coexistence,”said Ummaya Al Khatib, an Arab educator who helped design the project.”We stress values that are spoken about in both traditions, such as Abraham’s hospitality, his good heart, good nature, and his patience,”said Shilo.

Children learn about the dilemmas of childbearing, marriage and inheritance in ancient families and compare those families to their own. And they learn about the differing Muslim and Jewish interpretations of the Abraham story _ the Muslim version that regards Ishmael as Abraham’s true heir and the Jewish version that accords that honor to Isaac.

The painful story of Hagar and Ishmael’s expulsion from Abraham’s family tent due to Sarah’s jealousy is examined in the light of similar modern-day dilemmas, noted Nurit Gerstein, a museum guide working with the project.”Today, after all, we have problems of divorce and single parent families,”she said.”The story is not so remote.” Those who examine both Jewish and Islamic traditions also find that the differing Muslim and Jewish interpretations of the biblical story are not as diametrically opposed as might be assumed.

Muslims, for instance, still revere Isaac as a prophet even if they regard Ishmael as the key heir to Abraham, said Ibrahim Fawzi, another museum guide.

Muslims also avoid laying any blame on Sarah and Isaac for the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael from Abraham’s home. They see the story of familial jealousy not as a reflection of a flaw in Sarah, but as an expression of God’s will. “The problems between Hagar and Sarah are divinely ordered in order to bring about a separation between them and their descendents. That way, another new people arises from the seed of Ishmael, who is an ancestor of the Prophet Mohammed, and the land is filled up with more residents,”explained Fawzi.

In Koranic commentaries on the story, the pain of the expulsion is softened by reports that Abraham continued to visit Hagar in her new home. Similarly, Jewish versions of the story do not unilaterally condone Sarah’s jealousy and her expulsion of Hagar.


Some biblical commentators even believe that another wife of Abraham named Keturah is actually Hagar, renamed after Abraham”remarries”her following Sarah’s death.

For primary school children, the esoteric details of the story are difficult to absorb, said Shilo. But in a region where continuing Abraham’s legacy is a fact of life, the shared Jewish-Muslim bond with the patriarch can be a powerful catalyst to co-existence. “You could say that the Jews picked Isaac and the Arabs picked Ishmael. But both are still Abraham’s sons, and both should have a share in his inheritance,”said 10-year-old student Adi Bin Nun, who lives in the Jewish village of Har Adar on the outskirts of Jerusalem. She had just spent a day at the museum learning about Abraham in ancient art and history with a group of Arab children from the nearby village of Abu Ghosh.

Added Ruhia Jabar, an Arab girl:”We have to strive to make the children of Ishmael and the children of Isaac friends, like they were in the time of Abraham.”

IR END FLETCHER

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!