Abraham's children

[13 Jul 2004] JERUSALEM - A Jerusalem museum brought together 400 Jewish and Muslim children to learn more about their common patriarch Abraham and each other.

Organizers of the Image of Abraham project, which recently finished its sixth year, invited fourth graders from two Jerusalem Jewish schools and one larger Arab school to participate in the four-session program at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem.

The program attempts to promote co-existence between the children by focusing on their cultural heritage and their shared progenitor Abraham in the unique setting of the museum, which houses artifacts illustrating biblical civilizations.

"What we deal with is the cultural heritage that we...bring with us to the project," said Amanda Weiss, deputy director of the Bible Lands Museum, who initiated the project.

"Who was Abraham in the Bible and who was Ibrahim in the Koran? How were they similar? How were they different? How are our lives similar and how are our lives different -- from a knowledge base, from an understanding of our heritage and our [traditions] as Jews and as Muslims, because it's the religious background that is the guiding force here," Weiss said.

Although most of the children cannot speak with each other because of the Hebrew-Arabic language barrier, they learned to play and work together and discovered that they are very much alike, with the help of Hebrew- and Arabic-speaking guid