What do you love about your religion?  That's what friends asked one another when students from Madison Jewish Community Day School spent an afternoon with students from the Madinah Academy of Madison, a local Islamic elementary school. 
Students wrote and illustrated booklets featuring five things each student loves about his or her own tradition and five things that a friend from the other school loves about his or her religion. Students, wrote, decorated and shared with one another, as faculty from both schools assisted and looked on.
 
This is the third year that MJCDS has partnered with Madinah Academy of Madison and with Edgewood Campus School, a Catholic school, to build bridges of friendship between students and faculty through shared learning.  The initiative gives students the opportunity to study and play with children of a different faith.

MJCDS extends warm thanks to the faculty, students and community of MAM, including school director Seema Tahir, for an afternoon that left us filled with hope.  We look forward to seeing our friends again this spring!

Excerpts from the books students created are below:

I love to pray!

I like Rosh Hashana because it is the starting of the New Year.

I love Allah because when I am ill, he cures me.   He is my God.  He loves children more better than adults.

I like to go to shul.

I love the Quran because if we read it we go to Paradise. I love reading it.  It has meaning.

I like to read the Torah!

I love Eid because you get candy and presents and go to your friends' houses.

I like Hanukkah and getting presents!

I like to eat yummy food on Eid day.

I love to light Shabbat candles.

MJCDS, a pluralistic Jewish elementary school serving the Madison community, is a proud to receive the support of the Jewish Federation of Madison, the Irwin A. and Robert D. Goodman Foundation and the Jim Joseph Foundation. 
Through an integrated, dynamic, and enriching dual curriculum, the Madison Jewish Community Day School works with students to develop a capacity for critical thinking, a connection to their Jewish heritage through engagement with Jewish life and text, and a profound sense of community and responsibility.  Challenging and supporting students academically and intellectually, MJCDS is committed to fostering a lifelong love of learning.
To learn more about the Madison Jewish Community Day School, please contact Rabbi Rebecca Ben-Gideon at rabbi@madisonjewishdayschool.com, or call 608-204-9900.