The other side: A 30-minute train conversation

I had a conversation about ‘the situation’ with a Muslim friend today. It was a hard conversation, but one that was had with love, care, compassion, and wanting to understand.

I was surprised (although maybe I shouldn’t be) to learn that although she has friends from lots of places she had no idea what I was hearing. Her social media and news is not flooded by the hostage pictures, she did not know that the Red Cross hasn’t been in to check on them, from what she has seen is that the antisemitic remarks at the rallies are the minority. She didn’t know about the antisemitic events in universities. She was unaware of the deep fear that many in the Jewish community are feeling and how they might not be doing the things they normally do because of it.

She and her community feel hurt and also persecuted. She feels that people see her community as rats that deserve to be exterminated. That watching the children in Gaza be murdered is heartbreaking and it seems like no one cares and nothing will stop till they are all gone. That Gazans are being left with no choice but to be killed.

We sat and spoke and cried. We spoke horribleness that is happening to humans. We spoke about the lack of shared experiences and the silos we live in. We spoke about the hurt and trauma that we are all holding, which makes all of this so much harder. We spoke about fear of what will be.

We left each other saying you and your people deserve to be here and deserve to feel safe.

Praying for safety. Praying for the return of hostages. Praying for the healing of all who are injured, physically and mentally. Praying and praying and praying.