Collaboration Despite Disagreement

Some months ago, while providing proponent testimony for a bill to create religious accommodations for K-12 students (SB 49), I had a special experience. What I said that day really didn’t matter; however, after I spoke, a member of Columbus’ Muslim leadership explained to the legislators why this same bill was such a high priority to his community too. In that moment, I felt the sanctity of having a Jewish and Muslim leader each advocate for their community, both working toward the same goal.

Fast forward to February: When it comes to matters related to the war between Israel and Hamas, the majority of Jews and Muslims are unlikely to come to complete agreement. This might feel tragic—to me, it certainly does—but it’s not the end of the road. We don’t have to agree about everything to come together and collaborate.

Recently, I was able to experience this firsthand as I joined Shabana Shakir and Dr. Samina Sohail (both of the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati) to present to a group of educators on how antisemitism and Islamophobia affect our communities. I’m sure there were little things about each other’s respective presentations we’d have wanted framed differently. But, in the moment, such disagreements were trivial when compared to the fact that we were there together, with the mutual objective of combating hate in Cincinnati.

It’s more important now than ever to remember that collaboration builds bridges to meaningful relationship. Not only is it a means to an end, but it is an end unto itself. More than that, the beauty of collaboration is that it doesn’t always have to start with fixing our world’s most intractable problems. Instead, more often, it’s just about coming together to make a safer community for our peoples right here at home.