Muslim and Jewish women bonding in LA

To complete this Abrahamic trifecta, I offer a little “Kumbaya, My Lord.” Here’s the story from the LA Times about the Muslim and Jewish women who meet monthly at the West Los Angeles Country Club:

There are currently 15 active members who meet each month, alternating between Jewish and Muslim homes. At the January meeting, those attending ranged in age from Rabiya Yasmeen’s 7-month-old daughter, Aminah, to 81-year-old Qahira Santana.

“I pray to Allah, to God Almighty, to bless us all,” said Muzaffar “Bibi” Haleem, a Pakistan-born member of Culver City’s King Fahd Mosque and one of the more traditional of the Muslim women at the gathering.

Then Rachel Espana Landsman, the only Orthodox Jew in the group, recited the shehecheyanu, the Jewish prayer of thanks, for “bringing us to this moment,” she said.

Last August, several of Landsman’s Muslim friends attended her wedding, which was in the Hassidic tradition. “I’d never been to a Jewish ceremony before,” said Karima Kylberg, who was born and raised in Indonesia. “I was fascinated by the chanting, because I come from a branch of Islam that does chanting.”

This is sort of your typical interfaith story. The club is an interesting concept. It reminds me a little of “The Faith Club.”