A personal lesson from Sept. 11: Good people of different faiths can build community

Twenty years ago, the world watched the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, trying to grasp the enormity of that apocalyptic moment in American history. But the memory more ingrained in my mind is a phone call I received from a friend the next day, and what happened the day after that.

I was rabbi of a congregation in Sacramento, California, and president of the local interfaith clergy council. The call came from the Imam (Islamic religious leader) of the Salaam (peace) mosque. He had invited me to join him and speak to his community. Over the years we had become good friends and worked for the same causes. He was a Sunni Muslim and an Egyptian who had retired as a professor of accounting at Cal State-Sacramento. As different as we were in our religious traditions, we shared common values and developed a nice personal friendship over the years. I still have a framed picture of the two of us.

His community, he said, was frightened, given the possibilities of revenge from Americans that could be exacted upon the members of his mosque. My impression was that he was scared, too. Did I have words of hope for his beleaguered and vulnerable religious community? Would I speak to them?

I agreed to his invitation.

That night the mosque was packed. What was I to say? What could I say that would make a difference to these mostly Arab immigrant American citizens from the Middle East? I remembered staring at them before I could speak, feeling intimidated. Instead of feeling compassion and understanding, instead of rising to the occasion, I initially scanned the crowd and thought to myself that the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack probably looked a lot like these innocent congregants who were scared out of their minds.

I made two points in my remarks that have stayed with me. As a Jew, I respected their feeling of being under attack by the country that might turn its wrath against its own citizens. I explained the history of the Jewish people in Europe during the Holocaust and what the Germans and many other nations did to the Jewish communities during World War II. I tried to validate their fears, not because something was going to happen, but because I understood how easy it was to assume the worst.

The second point was my belief that America would not devolve into a revenge-seeking state and attack its own citizens like the Nazis and their allies did against the Jews and other minorities of that era. I tried to express my hope that America was a great nation because it would not attack its own citizens.

In my final point I told them that people of faith on all sides should unite to seek the moral high ground. I advised them to have faith in their new country, that America would not betray them.

I admit that I felt fear when I addressed them. Was it based upon a stereotypical fear of Arabs in those insane first days, making me question whether being there was safe? I shared that feeling a few weeks later with my friend the Imam, and I could see the disappointment in his face. I had traveled to the Middle East several times and lived in Israel during my seminary days. The old conflicts between Arabs and Jews no doubt came to mind as I faced his congregants.

Even though the words I spoke were comforting and reflected my hope and fervent belief that America would not attack them, I cannot forget my own trepidation as I ascended his pulpit.

Twenty years later those memories remain. I am not proud of having those fears, but I suppose many of us had conflicting feelings in those initial days and weeks after 9/11.

I learned it is not wrong to have emotions. What’s important is how we act in tense situations. I felt honored that my friend trusted me enough to ask his community to hear my words. The synagogue and the mosque grew closer as a community. The Imam accepted my invitation to be a guest at our daughter’s Bat Mitzvah. Personal relationships make a difference and reinforce faith in tough times.

Cultivating interfaith relations is an ongoing mission. It is part of the greatness of America that enemies in other lands can become allies and friends in America. That is not always so, but in my case, I overcame my prejudices and fears, and our disparate faith communities enjoyed many more years of friendship and cooperation. That is a lesson that Sept. 11 bequeathed to me.