More than 60 people attended the launch of the Leeds branch of Nisa Nashim Muslim-Jewish Women’s Network at The Shine Centre, Harehills.
Nisa-Nashim National co-chairs Laura Marks and Julie Siddiqi spoke about Nisa-Nashim at the event, which was hosted by regional co-chairs Hilary Curwen and Salma Arif. There was also an opportunity for women to introduce themselves to women of the other faith, and to discuss future ideas for future meetings. These include friendship walks, picnics and halal-kosher food evenings, with a focus on celebrating the many similarities between their faiths.
Co-organiser councillor Salma said she was ”thrilled” at the turnout for the launch, adding that there was an “amazing atmosphere and a real appetite for dialogue within the Muslim and Jewish communities”.
Laura Marks said: “The need to bring the Jewish and Muslim communities together has never been greater. What is so wonderful about Nisa-Nashim is that the women simply love getting to know each other, building trust and solid friendships so that politics, suspicion and bad feelings simply curl up and leave the room. The Leeds event reinforced our belief that this approach can really work and challenged the traditional ways in which both communities have operated in the past.”