Local Jews, Muslims continue volunteer tradition

By Jeff Karoub

Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) -- Jews and Muslims in the Detroit area united last Christmas Day to serve the community while Christian neighbors celebrated their holiday.

This year, the volunteer effort was modified to accommodate Jews' and Muslims' own holy days.

The event traditionally known as Mitzvah Day was held last Friday across southeast Michigan, since Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath.

About 50 Muslims were joining several hundred Jews at sites serving food to the homeless, sorting used books for a sale to benefit literacy education and taking the elderly to a Christmas Eve service.

The interfaith sites concluded by noon to accommodate Muslims' Friday prayers, and other sites were scheduled to wrap up by 3 p.m. to avoid any conflict with the Jewish Sabbath, which begins at sundown.

Observant Jews don't work from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday.

A few hundred Muslims filled the gap Saturday, providing meals for seniors and toys for needy children at a Detroit center.

Victor Begg, who leads the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan, said the creative scheduling allows Muslims to help both Christians and Jews.

"We didn't want to lose the spirit," Begg said of the cooperation between the area's historically large Muslim and Jewish populations. "It's a dual purpose as far as we're concerned: Serving the people and . . . building relationships."

The service included working together at Oak Park's Congregation Beth Shalom, which is housing the homeless this week. It's part of an ongoing hospitality program for suburban Detroit homeless people run by religious institutions.

The Islamic council and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit, which has sponsored Mitzvah Day for 20 years, used last year's successful collaboration as a springboard to last month's Interfaith Health Fair, in which Muslim and Jewish doctors offered free medical screenings for Detroit's working poor.

The annual Christmastime volunteer effort is part of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's Mitzvah Month, which seeks to log 1,800 hours of community service during December.

Mitzvah means "commandment" in Hebrew and is generally translated as a good deed.

Robert Cohen, executive director of the Jewish council, said he's heartened by the continuing efforts with the Muslim community, particularly when followers of the two faiths often find themselves at odds over the Arab-Israeli conflict and other issues.

"We're not going to solve the Middle East conflict here," he said. "We need to do what we can to promote peace and harmony in our communities.

"These kinds of projects move us in that direction. We reinforce the values we share -- for charity and repairing the world," he said.

Published: Tue, Dec 28, 2010