As 2023 comes to a close, the war in Gaza continues raging.

The Israeli military is targeting the central region of the strip and warning residents, including those at the Al-Bureij refugee camp, to evacuate to shelters.

This after an Israeli airstrike targeting Hamas militants killed dozens of Palestinians sheltering near one of the last functioning hospitals in southern Gaza.

According to a Palestinian medical group.

The World Health Organization says efforts to deliver medical supplies and fuel to the hospitals have been difficult, with starving, displaced and desperate Palestinians stopping the convoys in search of food.

Here in New Jersey, home to large populations of Jewish and Palestinian Americans, communities are figuring out how to confront the peril of this war.

And we've launched a different kind of conversation looking at the issues.

Matter of Faith is part of a podcast project aiming to better understand how faith intersects with and influences our world.

In our pilot episode, which drops today.

I spoke with Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz, and Imam Deen Shariff about how the rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic threats since October 7th are impacting their houses of worship and their advice to the faithful.

Here's a clip.

You touched on something, Rabbi, that I did want to get to, so let's just go there now, which is we have seen a rise in hate, violence, threats against both Muslims, Jews in America, in New Jersey, So if your worshipers aren't feeling safe to come together and practice their faith.

And a lot of us really rely on that community and being together in person, how are you helping them to navigate that if if they don't feel comfortable coming to synagogue?

It's the one place I would say they do feel comfortable that one hour a week we meet Friday nights at five 30.

We have had we used to get people thought, oh, you're doing really well Gewirtz.

You have 182 to 20 every Friday night.

And in suburban Jewish arenas, that's considered a good amount of people.

But I have 1300 families.

So I know that if you know, I was selling salami for a living, I would never be effective.

Only, you know, having 30% of you.

My point is that since the war we have 800 people come every Friday night and they're not all with gray hair.

Meaning that people in the thirties and forties and fifties and they tell me that the one place they know that they're not going to be attacked is in the synagogue.

And that doesn't necessarily mean physically.

I mean they're not going to walk around having names called.

No one's going to question their faith, their their ability to exist.

It's true.

We have security and security costs have gone up exponentially.

And we were I'm not even sure if I told you this thing the night before, the holiest day, not the holiest day, but rush of the new year.

We were swatted.

We had a bomb threat, and we all had to leave 8 minutes into services So are we safe?

Probably not completely, but existentially, emotionally, spiritually.

No one feels safer than they do in the synagogue with other Jews right now.

I think there may be a false sense sometimes of safety and in the house of worship.

And like Matthew, the people feel more comfortable in the house of worship because they have a sense that the people that are there are not going to harm them.

However, when you when you're when you're when you're in this city and you're traveling in the city, I even had to think about, you know, whether I wanted to wear this kufi or, you know, today in light of the fact, of course, that the three Muslim men that were two was shot at in Vermont were wearing keffiyehs.

Right.

Which is a Palestinian scarf.

Right.

And they were identified as as a result of wearing this scarf.

The same thing is true with the yamaka as well.

So for the first time, I had to think about, you know, whether or not I was going to wear the kuffi.

I said, I'm going to wear the kuffi because that's just something that I traditionally wear.

And he knows that I wear the kufi.

Most of the time.

However, I do warn women that they have to be very careful because if they're wearing a hijab or if they're wearing it hard and you know this the traditional dress of women, it's very easy for someone to spot them as Muslim women.

So they have to be very cautious.

And it doesn't means and sometimes that you dress a modesty modestly, but you don't have to always dress in a way that is obviously a Muslim garb.

Right.

It can be something that is modest and at the same time contemporary.

So I tell the women that they have to sometimes be they have to adjust their garments so that they can dress according to Islamic principles, but it doesn't necessarily have to be cultural.

So asking them to scale back almost so as not to be a target.

Yes.

Is that what you're saying?

Yes.

Isn't that amazing?

Yes.

This is not 1933.

This is 20.

23.

Right.

And the idea that and it makes me we're not the same really to think that we have to tell our congregants.

And by the way, I've been telling mine the same thing I used to say.

Show it with all pride, loud and proud.

But now I say, well, if you go into the city, perhaps you should be a little bit more careful.

And I cannot even believe I'm uttering those words to you right now, especially if they're by themself.

For sure.

But you're right.

And so, you know, my, my, my parents who are both gone.

The only time I'd ever say thank God they're not here is now, because my father was barely born in this country and he didn't speak English till he was four, was made fun of because he had a European acts until he was seven.

And but all of it his parents did to fight for the right to not have this kind of behavior exist in America.

They came here to run away from that.

And look what it is that we're facing.

And and what you just said before your America in some ways has still not been the place where it needs to be.

Right.

You can find the full matter of faith conversation wherever you download our NJ Spotlight News podcast available.

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