Painting over differences

Early Sunday morning at a house on 55th Street in West Philadelphia, the students of JAM for Philly - a community service and religious group comprised of Muslim and Jewish students - put aside their differences and picked up paint brushes to renovate the home for a family in need.

For the second time this year, JAM for Philly partnered with ACHIEVEability, an organization that provides housing to low-income and formerly homeless single parents who commit to working 25 hours per week and enrolling their children in postsecondary schools.

According to JAM co-founder and College sophomore Ariel Fisher, the idea for these seemingly divided groups to come together stemmed from a trip sponsored by Fox Leadership, called MAJIC, that took place over spring break last year.

The 22 students who participated in MAJIC went to New Orleans to perform similar types of repairs and restorations in the wake of hurricane Katrina, Fisher explained.

"Community service is a vital part of both of our religions, so we are collectively acting on our religions and being proud members of our faith," Fisher explained.

Amanda El-Dakhakhni, who went on the MAJIC trip and co-founded JAM for Philly with Fisher, said, "We all thought it was a good experience and that we needed to get involved and help in the West Philadelphia community."

"We also wanted to foster the kinds of friendships we made across religious groups with people who couldn't go on the trip," she said.

With this goal in mind, Fisher and El-Dakhakhni enlisted the help of several friends and put together a board last spring.

"It took us a while to get things started," El-Dakhakhni said. "We had to decide which West Philadelphia organization we wanted to work with, where to get funding, just lots of details."

Since they figured out the logistics - receiving funding from Fox Leadership and partnering with ACHIEVEability - the group has grown to about 60 students, Fisher estimated. They participate in both community-service outings and monthly meetings.

In addition to working to refurbish homes in the community, JAM for Philly holds monthly text studies in which both Muslim and Jewish students can talk about the similarities and differences between their faiths.

"It's a good way to get the answers to questions that we had," El-Dakhakhni said. "Even though we believe in different religions, we deal with a lot of the same issues."

Fisher said he hopes that having groups from both faiths come together for service under JAM for Philly will create what he calls an "umbrella organization" that is able to deal with Muslim and Jewish issues on campus and form strong personal connections between the two groups.

"Yes, we're Muslims. Yes, we're Jews," El-Dakhakhni added. "But at the end of the day, we're building friendships. The level of comfort you gain from spending four hours painting together is different. You can't get that from a lecture or a meeting."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.