Pious Muslims and Orthodox Jews Have Much in Common

Imagine ancient history. 

The time is Oct. 6, 2023, and someone has come forward with a book in which two highly trained and distinguished sociologists, one an Orthodox Jew and the other an observant Muslim, explore how both of these traditions navigated their engagement with American culture and civilization. And the more they explain their own community, the more they and their readers can see both the parallels and the differences, the pace of the immigrant experience, the nature of leadership, and the reality of daily life in American society for observant Muslims and observant Jews. Undistracted by politics – remember pre-Oct. 7, 2023 — they are speaking to each other, learning from one another, and yet each remaining faithful to his own tradition.

Long the leading sociologist of Orthodox Judaism, Samuel Heilman, a distinguished professor emeritus at the CUNY Graduate Center and his younger colleague Muchait Bilici, an associate professor the CUNY Graduate Center have done just that. Each writes unapologetically, with pride and understanding of their own community, at home with its customs, well learned in its ways, believers in its teachings, and deeply enmeshed in its traditions. They are not seeking to convert the other. They are not playing a game of one-upmanship. They are who they are, and through engagement have come to see that they share much in common.

As they explore what it is like to be an Orthodox Jew and an observant Muslim in America, they explain their own tradition in a language that makes members of the other religious tradition capable of understanding the other so the book serves as a wonderful introduction to Muslims of what it means to be an Orthodox Jew and to Orthodox — and many non-Orthodox Jews fully at home in Jewish tradition such as this reviewer —  of what it means to be an observant Muslim in the United States.

The question is not the quality of what they wrote. Their writing is fluid, traditions are explained in terms that are nuanced, they deftly bridge between “insider language” and “outsider languages.”

The question is whether at this moment when the events of contemporary history are tearing us apart, at a time when the barricades are drawn and we want to build the walls higher, whether we can read what draws us together. Though they command the social scientific languages of sociologists, they don’t indulge in or lose the reader in technical jargon.

The arrangement of the work is clear. The chapter titles tell it all. Heilman writes first, his younger colleague second. Law: Halacha and Sharia; Diet: Kosher and Halal; Identity: Yarmulke and Hijab; Preachers; rabbi and imam; Study: Yeshiva and Madrasa; Prayer: Synagogue and Mosque; Prejudice: Antisemitism, and Islamophobia. The conclusion: family resemblances yet, as we know from Cain and Abel and the book of Genesis onwards, as all of us who live in families know there are tensions within the family that have to be negotiated.

Let’s pay attention to some parallels. The reader may choose to insert synagogue or mosque, Imam or Rabbi:

Immigration to the United States was opposed by traditional ______ overseas as a threat to religious observances. Freedom of religion, hallmark of the American experience, threatened the power of the ______.

 Many small _______ operate without a ______ relying on volunteers.

Most _______ were originally trained in the immigrant’s native land but as the immigrant generation increasingly made America  their home, they wanted locally trained _______ fluent in English as their native tongue fearing that the foreign-born _______ could not speak to the American- born generation. 

The participation of women in leadership has made considerable inroads in the life of the ______. Women are clamoring and whether the ________ like it or not they are succeeding in their efforts for greater participation.

Women leading services in -________ for the first time was a revolution. Will it or when will it become commonplace in the _______?

Women as _______ was a revolution. Will it too become commonplace?

There are clear differences. Orthodox Jewish men wear yarmulke visible to all. The type of yarmulke they wear speaks volumes about who they are to insiders. When I was studying at the most liberal Orthodox yeshiva on New York’s prestigious Upper East Side in the early 1960s we were taught the yalmulke was “an indoor garment. Hats were to be worn outdoors. That changed within the decade. Part of the freedom and security that Jews enjoyed beginning in the 1960s was the comfort in wearing the yarmulke outside instead of a hat. Many are now wondering if for safety’s sake they should again return to a hat.

For observant Muslims, it is the woman’s head cover, the hijab, that marks her identity as an observant Muslim. The type of hijab signifies much to the insider, much less to those unfamiliar with Muslim identity. Both Orthodox Jewish women and observant Muslim women have expectations of modesty. The degree of observance often reflects the nature of the modesty required.

Both communities face prejudice, antisemitism and Islamophobia are ripe and increasing. The more visible yarmulke-wearing Jewish man, especially with a beard and a kaftan, is more vulnerable than other Jews. So too, observant Muslim women, the more covered, the more they are subject to hate. Both are accused of dual loyalty, one of genocide, the other of terrorism.

“Following Similar Paths” allows Jews and Muslims to understand themselves and each other. It is a worthy contribution at any time, especially at this time. Its significance may well come to the fore at another time.

Michael Berenbaum is director of the Sigi Ziering Institute and a professor of Jewish Studies at American Jewish University.