By Nate Feldman
The last couple of months have seen the worst fighting in the Middle East in decades, the result of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, which killed up to 1,200 Israelis and led to air strikes and an invasion of Gaza which has claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives.
The result of this has been protests and counter-protests throughout the world in support of either Israel or Palestine and extreme tensions between supporters of both sides, most notably in the Jewish and Muslim communities.
In spite of the current fraught situation, efforts to maintain dialogue between the Jewish and Muslim communities has continued, albeit often under very contentious situations.
One organization that advocates strong Jewish and Muslim relations is NewGround. This Los Angeles based group says on its website that since 2006 it "has reached tens of thousands of people with (their) leadership trainings, public programs, and private lectures and discussions."
The organization has been able to continue dialogue groups between local Jews and Muslims since the fighting in the Middle East began.
At the Israeli Opera, 60 Jewish and Arab musicians gathered together to sing a rendition of West Side Story's classic song Somewhere. According to the Israeli news site, ynetnews.com, the event was a collaboration between the Israeli Opera, the Galilee Chamber Orchestra, the Jerusalem Academy of Music, and the School of Music at Tel Aviv University.
