Conventional wisdom has it that Jews and Muslims areimplacable foes. But this pastweekend, in Minnesota and around the country, mosques and synagogues were writinga very different story.

Four pairs of synagogues and mosques in our communityparticipated in joint programming this weekend, honoring the national effort, "Muslim-JewishWeekend of Twinning™," sponsored by the New York-based Foundation for EthnicUnderstanding. When the FFEUhad its first Muslim-Jewish Weekend of Twinning in 2008, 50 pairs of mosquesand synagogues participated. Thisyear, over one hundred pairs joined the effort. Of those one hundred, four were here in the Twin Cities.

Each program was different, each one created uniquelyby the leaders of the two participating congregations. In two cases, theprogram was part of an ongoing Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue program:

Adath Jeshurun of Minnetonka and the Islamic Center of Minnesota inFridley, together with Pax Christi Catholic Community in Eden Prairie exploredthe topic, "How does our belief in the afterlife affect our life in this world?"Sunday evening at Pax Christi. This joint event was part of theInterfaith Conversations Project, a program of the Jay Phillips Center forInterfaith Learning, now in its third year. (Full disclosure:I direct this project.)

In downtown Minneapolis, Temple Israel participated in Friday prayerat Masjid An-Nur, along with members of downtown Christian congregations, aspart of the fall series, "Come Pray with Us: An Interfaith Experience inWorship." This series is a projectof the Minneapolis Interfaith Forum, still going strong after 15 years ofcollaborative interfaith programming.

In the East Metro area, Beth JacobCongregation of Mendota Heights and the Muslim American Society of Inver GroveHeights co-created the program, "Rabbi and Imam Read Scripture Together." Arabbi (i.e. me) and Imam Asad Zaman discussed parallel texts on thenear-sacrifice of Abraham's son in the Torah and the Qur'an on Saturday at thesynagogue and on Sunday at the mosque, to enthusiastic and overflowing crowds.

In the Western suburbs, members of Anjuman E-Asghari Islamic Center ofBrooklyn Park came toBeth El Synagogue of St.Louis Park for a Sabbath dinner program, "Dine and Dialogue about Faith andDaily Life," on Friday evening at the synagogue.

Will theseefforts mark the end of tensions between Jews and Muslims around theworld? I wish it were thatsimple. But with such humanencounters, in which Muslims and Jews (and others) come to know one another asneighbors and human beings, as fellow people of faith in a troubled world, allof us are one step closer to a world of peace for all people.