Unity Program: Shma/Istima’a Program

To implement, in conjunction with the Al-Iman school, two complementary programs to expose Jewish and Muslim high school students to one another, train students in dialogue facilitation and conflict resolution, and expose school educators to the pedagogy of interfaith studies and conflict resolution facilitation.

The Unity Program is a course designed to educate high school students about Muslims, Jews, Islam, and Judaism while strengthening the relationships students have to their own communities and religious traditions. The program examines issues within North American Jewish and Muslim communities, the historical relationship between Muslims and Jews, and the relationship between Judaism and Islam. Each of these components deepens students’ understandings of their individual and group identities in the contemporary world as well as the textual, ideological, and historical relationship between and within each community.