Translated from Hebrew by Orna Raz
About two years ago, following Operation protective Edge, my partner Sana Ahmed and I felt the need to do something. Thus we started a special group in the spirit of Women Wage Peace in our city Firenze . Our goal was to create a dialogue between local women of all religions and nationalities. It was intended especially, but not exclusively, to promote understanding between Muslim and Jews in light of the intolerance and racism, which has surfaced recently in Europe. We take advantage of the opportunities of lovely Firenze to promote gatherings, which deal with culture, art and tradition. We organize guided tours in museums, baking workshop and picnics for the entire family. We collaborate with other peace organizations like Rondine Citadella Della Pace, which was nominated for the Nobel prize last year, and with Biblioteca Di Pace. Our current project is starting a joint choir. The meetings are open to women and men of all religions and nationalities.
This year the Jewish community invited us to hold the vigil Look Us in the Eyes created by the artists Basma Abu Huti and Moran Asraf, at the synagogue. On that day ten Muslim women and ten Jewish women sat across from each other and looked silently at each other’s eyes with no explanation or introduction. Later some chairs were left open for the audience to take their seat and eventually people got the idea and took part.
The connection between the Jewish and Muslim communities in Firenze is good and well established. Rabbi Joseph Levy, Firenze chief Rabbi, and Imam Az Adin Al Wazirwork well together. But this was the first time that Muslim families actually came to the synagogue and took part in an activity. When the Muslim guests started arriving to the courtyard of the synagogue, we felt that it was a very special moment, that something else was taking place.
As the performance was starting there was some commotion and a crowd gathered around the women. The audience didn’t understand what was going on and what was expected of them. Some people sat on the empty chairs and started chatting: that’s Italy after all. But at the end of the activity many hugged each other with a lot of emotion. It was a moving experience and it was very well received.
Afterward we held a short discussion and introduced Women wage Peace and its goals in Israel and in Florence. We explained the idea behind the vigil and stressed the fact that many of us are immigrant. Although Firenze has an ancient Jewish community, most of the members in the group have come here from Israel and from the Arab countries. We are immigrants but our children were already born in Florence.
Many joined our mailing list, we made connections with people and organizations and made plan to continue working together. The day was a big success, but, more than everything, we were moved by the sight of the Muslim families coming to the synagogue, for the first time.
