Published: 27 September 2015
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Thankfully, this is starting to happen, as the Peace Building Committee of the Rotary Club of Sydney has recognised the grassroots Shared Table Project for their peace building efforts by awarding them its inaugural Community Peace Prize.
The award was humbly accepted by two of the founding members of the project, Lynda Ben-Menashe, of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, and Maha Krayem Abdo OAM, of the Muslim Women’s Association, two women filled with so much passion and determination to achieve a common goal, Peace.
“The work we do, we do not do in order to be recognised, but rather because the work needs to be done,” said Lynda in her acceptance speech.
The project began three years ago with a discussion between some Jewish women about how to address antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism.
They approached the Muslim Women’s Association with their ideas of getting together to form a grassroots peace project, and were welcomed with wide-open arms.
The women hit it off immediately with each other, having long and deep discussions about what they have in common, how so many conceptions out there were myths and about how their communities need to be better informed.
“We agree to disagree on some things,” says Maha “but we also agree on a lot of things, the majority of things, as Australian women of faith.”
What they have in common and their shared Australian identity, has enabled these women of varying cultural and religious backgrounds to come together, sharing traditional meals around family tables from Bondi to Punchbowl.
Besides, you’d be surprised how much Jews and Muslims have in common. “In cooking, the use of spices, stuffing foods and the methods of cooking are all very similar,” says Lynda, “so too are our festivals and having to fast.”
The women considered many possible projects, but ultimately decided that bonding and communicating over a shared meal was most fitting as, for both religions, the heart of the home is where the kitchen is and food represents family, peace, happiness and health.
“While this project revolves around food, it is so much more than that,” says Maha , who is also the current NSW Human Rights Ambassador, mother to four and grandmother to nine.
For these women it’s about education, awareness, real action and getting together to break down prejudices and barriers between their communities.
Most of the conflicts occurring around the world today are based on perceptions of historical wrongs and stereotypes of ‘the other.’
“Today, misperceptions of Jews and Muslims are both of tremendous concern, for they are the cause of not only communal disharmony but also much violence and death,” said Lynda in her speech.
“What we wanted with this project was to think globally but act locally,” says Lynda, “but unfortunately what hits the news isn’t this kind of thing”; the media are more concerned about stories that bleed.
And it's true, the media seldom sheds light on grassroots projects like Shared Table or on the thousands of Jews and Muslims working together in the Middle East on projects in education, agriculture, business, medicine and sport. “We can’t change the world but what we can change is what we have control over and that is our own selves and our perceptions of one another,” says Maha.
These women are not just physically involved in the project, they have their hearts and souls invested in it. “They [Muslim women] are really sincere about getting to know Jewish women, and Jewish women are wanting to know about Muslim women and it’s not just a talk fest,” says Maha.
The Shared Table Project is as grassroots as it gets. “It’s a real people to people thing,” says Lynda.
When they’re not cooking together, from July to November, the women are constantly communicating with each other, whether it is through social media or by phone, to wish one another the best for their festivities, or asking questions to better understand each other’s customs and traditions.
They are on a mission to maintain a successful channel that allows for growth, amendment, the formation of resilient and lasting relationships and real, genuine peace.
“Building peace is not easy, it’s so much easier not to talk to one another,” says Maha.
They provide incredible role models on how to break the ice between the two communities, knock down high walls that often separate them, and demystify myths that perpetuate division.
“It's a grain of sand on a big mountain, but unless we bring those grains of sand together, we won't be able to build that strength,” says Maha.
And these women do have strength. Set aside the archaic domestic stereotypes that women and cooking sometimes evoke; these women are lawyers, doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, businesswomen and teachers, you name it.
They are also high-level opinion leaders in their own communities, with voices people listen to. They could be the catalysts to opening minds of many. As one of the founding members of the Rotary Club of Sydney, Clyde McConaghy, said: “If you educate the women, you educate the entire family and a whole generation.”
And as Maha beautifully put it, “to be able to be that agent of change you have to start within yourself.” It is never too late to help pave paths to peace.
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