I Celebrate Ramadan! on My Own. In My Backyard.

Let me start out by stating that I am not a Muslim. I was born and circumcised after eight days on the planet; I read the Haftarah at my Bar Mitzvah; I was married under a chuppah in Israel - my home and homeland; and I completed the circle by seeing my own son become a Jewish man.

That said, I have always shown an openness to other religions. I have eagerly explored the Catholic cathedrals of Spain; I have visited the Vatican; and here in Israel, I am fascinated, but do not understand the Bahais. Last December, my wife and I spent a weekend in the Druze town Daliat al-Carmel, where the best part of the visit was eating the local hummus, the tasty tehina.

So you see - a lot of my appreciation of other religions is my thirst and hunger to taste their special foods, and to learn about their history, culture, and even their traditions! Do Muslim men circumcise their sons while saying some sort of blessing? Is the hunt for Easter eggs a religious, traditional or cultural happening for kids? Who exactly are the Bahais?

My wife and I recently attended a get-together of Jerusalem Jews and Palestinian Muslims from the neighboring villages. Thank you David Brinn for inviting me to what is a regular interfaith gathering that meets a bit irregularly. Both my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it.


Read the rest of this article on The Huffington Post.

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