Over the past few decades, a new initiative toward peace has emerged — Jewish-Christian interfaith pilgrimages to the Holy Land. These inclusive visits to sites holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims lay the groundwork for understanding and acceptance among the travelers and, in a way, serve as test cases for peace in a controlled environment. Pilgrims extending their hands to others can help to turn swords into plowshares.

The Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) acknowledged its role in spreading antisemitic rhetoric that may have fueled the resulting Holocaust. The ratification of the “Nostra Aetate” document was the church’s way of extending its hand in peace to Judaism. This resulted in a spirit of reconciliation between Jews and Catholics around the world. The message that emerged from the Catholic leadership in Rome spread to other Christian denominations in communities around the world, including the Evangelical Movement here in America.

As Vatican II was wrapping up in Rome, America was dealing with its own racial soul searching. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who locked arms with Dr. King, was asked upon his return from Selma whether he had found much time to pray. He responded, “I prayed with my feet.” Being an active pilgrim in a common march, Heschel believed, was the most important prayer of all.

To extend a hand or to walk together — each is an expansion of the mind, from narrow to wide, opening oneself to learning from others and respecting them. To illustrate, consider the first step in a pilgrimage: agreeing on the itinerary — deciding which Christian sites to visit, which Jewish and which Muslim. In doing so, we begin to discover that we share more than we thought, and we learn from our debates.

Christians occupy an essential place in the Middle East. But it is challenging to transfer the cooperation between Christians and Jews in America into interfaith relations with Christians in the Holy Land, largely because Christians in the Holy Land are Arab Palestinian. However, I see an opening here, a way to start a conversation — to extend a hand. In the Middle East, many Christian clergy have a privileged freedom to circulate where average citizens cannot. Traveling with these clerics grants access to otherwise restricted sites — holy sites — that reveal other cultures.

The ongoing conflicts in the Middle East show that the pursuit of peace remains elusive and a most compelling issue. In fact, in an effort to change the paradigm of discussion, my own Project Genesis Interfaith group presented a peace proposal in New York and Jerusalem, in 2019 and 2020. We believed then as we do now that to attain peace in the Middle East, there must first be peace among the religions. Holy sites should remain open and accessible, serving as quiet sanctuaries and religious embassies.

In the face of continuing Middle Eastern strife, this effort may seem like grasping at straws. But it is essential to recognize that some important perspectives often are excluded from the mainstream conversation and, in some cases, are consciously ignored. By offering an alternative — extending a hand — we give peace another chance.

A happy and peaceful Shavuot to all…

—Rabbi Gadi Capela