Reps. Dan Frankel and Tarik Khan: The Jewish-Muslim connection

For decades, Jewish and Muslim Pennsylvanians have inched closer to one another. With each interfaith marriage officiated and each community event stage shared, connections between these two great faiths have multiplied and strengthened.

Then came Oct. 7.

Since that terrible day and the many terrible days after, our commonwealth’s Jews and Muslims might at times feel themselves being pitted against one another. Six thousand miles from Gaza, the raging war and tragic loss of life have tested our bonds.

That’s why we two state lawmakers, one Jewish and one Muslim, came together earlier this month to introduce twin resolutions to name May as Jewish American Heritage Month and July as Muslim American Heritage Month.

As legislators, we each represent 65,000 Pennsylvanians, and we work alongside faith-based organizations to help ensure our residents’ needs are met.

That work repeatedly shows us how important it is to honor our shared values during time when some would seek to divide us.

Jews and Muslims are both called by their holy texts to serve those most in need.

Just ask Pennsylvania’s refugee population.

When refugees arrive in Pennsylvania, a Jewish organization often starts to connect them to their new home and community.

Whether it’s the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society or Jewish Family and Community Services, there is staff that spend all day, every day helping new immigrants from all over the world register their children for school, make a health care appointment and get a driver’s license. And for a large proportion of recent arrivals, these Jewish organizations do something else — connect them to a mosque.

Because, for so many, finding a spiritual home is at least as important as finding an apartment.

Through Pennsylvania’s 132 mosques, refugees can gain access to a halal food pantry, a cheerful iftar to break their fasts during Ramadan, and playmates and study partners for their children.

Hand in hand, our Jewish and Muslim organizations are easing often traumatized families through the incredibly challenging process of putting down roots in their new homes.

Our faiths have long been connected by another similarity here in Pennsylvania and throughout the world.

Sadly, they are both too often the subjects of hatred.

When you make your way in the world wearing a hijab or a yarmulka, you know well that cruel tropes, stereotypes and suspicion against Muslims and Jews persist. Organizations that track hate incidents have warned for years that bias crimes against these populations are on the rise — and that was before the war enflamed hostilities at home.

A Palestinian little boy in Chicago was murdered and his mother injured by their landlord, who was reportedly motivated by the war.

Squirrel Hill, the same neighborhood where an antisemitic gunman murdered 11 people in their synagogues FIVE years ago, has been hit by a rash of harassment and vandalism incidents in recent months.

And lately, Islamophobic and antisemitic messages have been used to deface mosques and synagogues in the Philadelphia area.

As lawmakers who are proud of their faiths and who value the bonds between them, we are unwilling to allow our mutual connection to be another casualty in the war abroad.

More than a dozen diverse colleagues joined us in introducing our resolutions. Both measures easily passed.

We hope Pennsylvanians will take notice and will find their own ways to honor the contributions of Jews and Muslims to our commonwealth and work to strengthen our community’s mutual bonds.

This is not a call against activism; it’s a call for empathy and understanding.

As President Kennedy once said, “Let us not be blind to our differences, but … direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved.”

Amid the collective trauma both communities have experienced and are facing, we believe there is hope.

Our bipartisan companion resolutions, passed and adopted by the Pennsylvania House, may be one tiny step toward bolstering those bonds.

But we must continue to work together to renew our partnerships and embrace our vast and precious common ground.

Because if we abandon this work, all is truly lost.

State Rep. Dan Frankel is a Jewish Democrat representing parts of Allegheny County. State Rep. Tarik Khan is a Muslim Democrat representing parts of Philadelphia County.