The following was published in Time Out Chicago, March 12-18, 2009:

Midwest Peace Agreement

As tensions between Jews and Muslims continue to run high in the Middle East, a group of young adults in the Chicago area hopes to foster a different kind of relationship between the two communities in their part of the world.

On Sunday, a handful of Jewish and Muslim artists and performers will come together to present their work at Café Finjan. That’s not an actual café; the name represents a biannual event of stage entertainment—and this year, an art gallery and film screenings— meant to offer a forum for expressing spiritual identity and mutual learning. (The word finjan, according to Irene Lehrer Sandalow, a co-organizer of the event, is both Arabic and Hebrew for a metal pot for brewing coffee in the traditional Middle Eastern style, around which friends gather for warmth.)

“With the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that’s largely been the thing that kind of weighs on everybody’s mind between those two communities,” says Tamim Chowdhury, another co-organizer of the event. “But now, in creating something like Café Finjan, it’s basically finding those common threads, finding those common interests, and then having an event where everybody’s having a good time, everybody’s communicating, everybody’s engaging.”

To do that, the four-hour event will offer a diverse lineup: DJ music to start, followed by short films— including the award-winning documentary “The Tribe”— alternating with gallery presentations by artists; and finally, a performance by Lamajamal, an interfaith band that plays multi-cultural music using a variety of styles.

Both Sandalow and Chowdhury (who are only two of some 20 Jews and Muslims taking part in the planning) wanted to put on something that didn’t lecture about the two faiths, but instead, allowed attendees to talk with, and learn from, one another. Neither knows of a similar event in the Chicago area.

Julie Hochstadter, a 30-year-old real estate agent in the city, grew up going to Jewish schools and summer camp and now considers herself more culturally than religiously Jewish. Her sister, niece, and nephew live in Israel, and she’s done an environmental bike ride in the country. But she preaches tolerance through pointing out similarities between the two cultures. She’s even hosted Israeli-Arab and Jordanian students in her house.

“I love these cultural ways, these non-political ways, of bridging the gap between our two cultures,” she explains.

As concerns bridging the gap, Hochstadter is doing her part: She’s invited a Muslim coworker to go with her to Café Finjan.

Here’s raising a cup of finjan to that. ◼