Fighting the good fight against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, NYU, through its new "experiment" at interfaith coexistence, is doing a wonderful job, according to the Jewish Week:

In the kosher cafeteria at New York University, a Jewish student holds up a piece of pepper steak from his lunch, displaying it to his friends.

“What does this look like?” he asks.

The friends stop chatting for a moment to train their eyes on his fork. They are dressed for a warm spring day, some in sweatpants, others in jeans, a few wearing yarmulkes and one young woman in a hijab, a traditional Muslim head covering.

They laugh. “Israel,” someone shouts, and it is true, the piece of steak looks just like the Jewish state. “I’m going to eat Israel!” says Jonathan Einalhori, holding the steak aloft. “No, wait,” someone else says. “Have one of the Muslims eat Israel.”

They laugh again, and Einalhori eats his lunch.

In many environments, this would have caused a food fight, or better yet, a food intifada. Not here.

Two weeks earlier, these students had barely met, before a spring break trip to New Orleans, to volunteer after the devastating Hurricane Katrina, brought the 15 Jewish and 15 Muslim students together to work on building new homes and new friendships.

Gutting houses and helping to build new ones in the Chalmette neighborhood of New Orleans, far from the frenzied, academic environment of NYU, the students were taken out of their usual roles and free to explore each others’ cultures and traditions. Though they expected to find many places of divergence in their beliefs, experiences and lifestyles, they were surprised to find as well how much they have in common.

“It wasn’t like we came to some brilliant conclusion that will bring world peace,” said Kate Gribetz, a freshman from Manhattan. “But we found we had so many commonalities, it’s not worth it to dwell on one difference.”

In New Orleans, when their work on the houses was complete, the students attended a Jumu’ah service, Islam’s Friday afternoon prayers, and a Shabbat service on Friday night. Each group learned about the others’ prayers and traditions, while at the same time, they say, deepening their own faith.

“Seeing the passion Muslims had toward their religion inspired me to have more toward mine,” says Gribetz, who was raised Modern Orthodox.

Granted, according to many religious authorities, for the Jewish kids to take part in the Jumu'ah service could have been problematic, but the sentiments of peace and unity are clear.

The students who traveled to New Orleans, and many in the community, attribute the warm feelings between Muslims and Jews to the sincere friendship that has developed between two men who, not long ago, were students themselves: Rabbi Yehuda Sarna and Brother Khalid Latif, the rabbi and imam at NYU.

Rabbi Sarna, 28, and Brother Latif, 24, began as coworkers but soon became friends. When the controversy over the anti-Muslim Danish cartoons arose in 2005, Rabbi Sarna supported sit-ins and protests by Muslim student groups. When former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to speak at NYU last fall, Brother Latif helped lead a post-speech discussion on relations between Israel and Lebanon. When the war broke out last summer, both men called each other, not only to plan how to deal with the fallout on campus, but simply to check in.

“We are able to model the kind of relationship which people should have,” says Rabbi Sarna. “We’re not just politically correct, but friends with mutual respect about each others’ religion.”

Rabbi Sarna concedes that because both men are traditional on their respective religious spectrums, the students in New Orleans felt comfortable taking part in unfamiliar worship services, flirting with each others’ stereotypes and becoming genuinely close.

“It wasn’t a hippie, ‘Kumbaya’ feeling that people should lay down their guns,” says Rabbi Sarna. “By the end of the trip the Jewish students [saw the Muslims] as cousins, people worshipping the same God in a different way.”

Young, traditional clergy building bridges and decreasing prejudice and increasing unity. Ken yirbu. May the unity only increase.