Daily Podcasts Video Research

At this interfaith calligraphy class, the lines between Jew and Muslim blur

JL;DR SUMMARY An interfaith calligraphy class in New York City is fostering connections between Jewish and Muslim participants through the shared artistic practice of Arabic and Hebrew calligraphy. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

IdentityHebrewCommunitySephardicCalligraphyMiddle EasternArabicLanguageInterfaithMizrahi

Places mentioned

New York City, New York, United States
"I had just walked into the American Sephardi Federation office in lower Manhattan, where 20 Muslim and Jewish young people gather twice a month to learn Arabic and Hebrew calligraphy together."
Saudi Arabia
"Mohamed from Saudi Arabia had effortlessly filled the page with elegant Hebrew letters."
Uzbekistan
"Shimonov was born in Uzbekistan, a Muslim-majority country."
Izmir, Turkey
"Ali Saracoglu, a Muslim participant in the fellowship and an artist from Izmir, Turkey, said Sacred Scripts reshaped his understanding of Jewish identity."
Iran
"I gave my usual spiel, explaining my Iraqi and Iranian background."
Iraq
"...how Iraq not Europe was the worlds foremost hub of Jewish life for centuries,..."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 81980
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-05-11 05:31:01 UTC
Curated 2026-05-11 08:30:47 UTC