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| Arab group, Sharaka, with Israeli leader Noam Meirov on left, Rabbi Erez Sherman in center |
Bridges Built on Remembrance: Sharaka's Message of Middle Eastern Reconciliation on September 11th
On September 11, 2025—24 years after the terrorist attacks that transformed American consciousness about jihadist imperialism — Sinai Temple in Los Angeles hosted an evening that would have seemed inconceivable to many in 2001. The Conservative Jewish synagogue welcomed Sharaka, an initiative bringing together Arab Muslims, Christians, and Israeli Jews in dialogue about peace and cooperation in the Middle East.
The Context of September 11th Programming
Rabbi Erez Sherman opened the evening by acknowledging the significance of the date, recalling his experience as a Columbia University student watching ash-covered fire trucks return to their stations on that September day in 2001. The temple's annual tradition of honoring the Los Angeles Fire Department preceded the main program, creating a framework that explicitly connected American sacrifice with Middle Eastern reconciliation efforts.
The choice to host this particular dialogue on September 11th was deliberate. As Rabbi Sherman noted, the prospect of commemorating this date "with a dialogue and a panel of Muslims, Jews, and Christians from the Abraham Accords countries" would have seemed like fantasy two decades ago. The programming represented both remembrance of tragedy and a assertion that constructive engagement, rather than perpetual conflict, offers the path forward.
Sharaka's Mission and Methodology
Sharaka, meaning "partnership" in Arabic, emerged from the 2020 Abraham Accords with a specific theory: government-to-government peace agreements fail without people-to-people connections. Noam Meirov, the organization's managing director, explained that previous Arab-Israeli peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan had not translated into comfortable civilian interactions or genuine normalization.
The organization operates on multiple fronts: bringing impactful leaders from Abraham Accords countries to Israel, conducting Holocaust education programs in the Arab world, and engaging with university campuses where anti-Israel sentiment often flourishes. Their approach deliberately targets influential individuals—mayors, business leaders, academics—who can amplify moderate messages within their home communities.
Video of Sharaka Arab program at Sinai Temple on September 11, 2025
Personal Narratives of Transformation
Fatima Al-Harbi: From Curiosity to Advocacy
Fatima Al-Harbi's journey from Bahrain illustrates the complex dynamics Sharaka seeks to address. Raised in a relatively tolerant environment where Jews and Christians were indigenous community members, she nonetheless absorbed broader Arab media narratives portraying Israelis as enemies. Her first visit to Israel shattered these preconceptions when a Jewish stranger welcomed her warmly in Tel Aviv, recognizing her as being from an Abraham Accords country.
Her subsequent social media documentation of positive interactions—praying at Al-Aqsa Mosque without harassment, being welcomed at the Western Wall—generated significant backlash at home. However, it also enabled her to serve as what she calls "a bridge" between communities, ultimately leading her to publish a children's book promoting interfaith understanding.
Yousef's Moroccan Perspective
Youssef Elazhari, the representative from Morocco, described a different dynamic, noting that Morocco's Jewish history provided some immunity from "Arabic propaganda" that demonized Israel. However, his decision to visit Israel still resulted in accusations of being a "Mossad agent" upon his return.
Yousef's most significant contribution may be his theological reframing of Muslim-Jewish relations. He directly challenged hadith traditions that prophesy end-times warfare between Muslims and Jews, instead pointing to Quranic verses that promise the land of Israel to Jewish people. This approach—using Islamic scripture to support rather than oppose Jewish claims—represents a fundamental shift in religious argumentation.
The Egyptian Academic's Discovery
Hisam's story reflects the power of direct experience over media narratives. As an Egyptian studying in American universities, he encountered Jewish students who spoke Arabic, studied Islam, and traveled extensively in Arab countries—knowledge that contrasted sharply with his own ignorance about Jewish life and Israeli society.
His "secret" study year in Israel exposed him to the country's ethnic and religious diversity: Russian immigrants, Moroccan Jews, Egyptian Jews, Arab citizens, Christian Arabs, and American immigrants. This complexity challenged simplistic enemy narratives while his academic success there—becoming the first Egyptian valedictorian at Tel Aviv University—demonstrated possibilities for constructive engagement.
Addressing Religious and Ideological Dimensions
The evening's most substantive discussion occurred when audience members raised questions about Islamic texts and their relationship to Jewish-Muslim relations. Yousef acknowledged that certain hadith traditions do contain problematic content about Jewish-Muslim conflict, but he argued for distinguishing between Quranic authority and later traditions.
His theological position—that the Quran itself supports Jewish claims to the land of Israel and that Muslim recognition of this represents fulfillment of prophecy—directly challenges both traditional Islamic anti-Zionism and assumptions about inherent religious conflict. However, he also admitted that advancing such arguments publicly in Morocco nearly resulted in imprisonment, illustrating the risks these moderate voices face.
The Question of Authenticity and Representation
Critical observers might question whether Sharaka's speakers represent genuine grassroots sentiment or merely exceptional individuals whose views don't reflect broader Arab and Muslim populations. The speakers themselves addressed this concern directly, with Fatima asserting that "the majority of Muslims and Arabs living in our countries are like us" but remain silent due to social and political pressures.
The organization's methodology of targeting influential individuals rather than conducting mass outreach suggests recognition that changing elite opinion may be more effective than attempting to shift popular sentiment directly. Their success in bringing hundreds of Moroccans to Holocaust education programs and their social media reach to "tens of thousands" of regional followers indicates some broader resonance.
Security and Strategic Considerations
The presentation occurred against the backdrop of ongoing regional conflicts, including the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and subsequent warfare. Israeli speaker Noam, who responded to those attacks as a reservist, framed Sharaka's work explicitly as strategic response to terrorism: "the only real revenge or real victory" against Hamas's goal of canceling the Abraham Accords' expansion would be achieving more peace agreements.
This framing positions moderate Arab voices not as naive peaceniks but as strategic partners in confronting shared enemies. The speakers consistently characterized groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis as obstacles to both Israeli security and Arab progress, suggesting alignment rather than contradiction between security concerns and peace-building efforts.
Historical Context and September 11th Connections
The timing of this dialogue on September 11th raises questions about appropriateness and messaging. The speakers explicitly connected their Middle Eastern experiences to American trauma, with Noam Meirov noting that 9/11 showed Americans "something that is very similar to what we have to like this eternal war that we are feeling" in the Middle East.
This framing positions the attacks as part of broader extremist ideology that threatens both American and moderate Middle Eastern interests. The speakers argued that the same terrorist mindset that attacked America continues to impede regional progress, making American-Middle Eastern cooperation essential for confronting shared threats.
Challenges and Limitations
Several limitations emerge from this presentation. First, the speakers' safety concerns—with some facing imprisonment or death threats—highlight how exceptional their positions may be within their home societies. Second, their focus on elite outreach may not address deeper popular sentiments that fuel conflict. Third, the Abraham Accords' limited scope (excluding Palestinians) means their model may not address the core issues that generate regional tension.
Additionally, the speakers' emphasis on ignorance rather than ideology as the root of anti-Israel sentiment may underestimate more fundamental religious and political disagreements. While ignorance certainly plays a role, attributing all hostility to misunderstanding may oversimplify complex historical grievances and competing national narratives.
Conclusion: Promise and Peril of People-to-People Peace
The Sharaka presentation at Sinai Temple represented both remarkable progress and persistent challenges in Middle Eastern relations. The very existence of Arab Muslims and Christians willing to publicly advocate for Jewish-Muslim cooperation, particularly on September 11th, demonstrates significant shifts since 2001.
However, the speakers' acknowledgment of personal risks, government constraints, and popular resistance illustrates how fragile these developments remain. Their work represents a crucial test case for whether people-to-people connections can indeed create sustainable peace where government agreements have previously failed.
The September 11th timing, rather than being inappropriate, may actually highlight the stakes involved. If moderate voices like those in Sharaka can build bridges across the religious and ethnic divides that extremists seek to exploit, their success could honor the memory of 9/11 victims by demonstrating that dialogue and cooperation offer better paths forward than perpetual conflict and suspicion.
Whether such efforts can scale beyond exceptional individuals to broader populations remains the crucial question for Middle Eastern peace and non-Muslim security interests alike.
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