Source: The Boston Globe
Local Jews and Muslims are working hard to keep their interfaith groups alive and communications open as the Middle East conflict deepens.
So far, leaders say, they are succeeding -- partly by concentrating on long-term, local goals rather than reacting to day-to-day developments in the region, and partly by keeping a low profile.
``From the Muslim side, the whole reason to establish a dialogue group was to . . . prevent hostilities and misunderstandings locally, at the grass-roots level," said Mahmoud Jafri , cochairman of the Muslim-Jewish Dialogue of Greater Boston , in a telephone interview yesterday. ``There are people coming out on the streets, demonstrating, taking positions, of course. . . . It would be a travesty for the dialogue to stop."