In my capacity of steering committee member of the [Jewish Federation’s] Community Relations Council, I went this morning, with two other CRC members, to the Moslem service celebrating the end of Ramadan. There are four “mosques” in the Greater Hartford area. The one we went to is a community almost entirely of blacks. The service was held in the gym of the Fox Middle School (corner of Albany and Blue Hills Ave.) and attended by about 130 men, 130 women and 40-80 children. I counted the men and women separately because they were sitting (or rather kneeling) separately, women in back of the men, children also separated by gender. We left our shoes at the door. The service lasted about an hour. The ritual part was mostly in Arabic. The homily by the imam was very low-key and in English and lasted about half an hour. By explaining several Moslem Arabic concepts, he spoke very movingly about the significance of fasting, of separating oneself from bad habits, bad behavior, pessimism, etc., and as a creation in Allah’s image, acting responsibly for oneself, for one’s community, with optimism.
… I sat in a chair in the very back, along with other older women who obviously couldn’t get down on the floor.
I was able to examine a copy of the Koran used by one of the worshippers. I felt like I was lokoing at a Hertz Chumash. Arabic was on the upper right side of the page, English on the upper left side, and both columns on the bottom half of the page were filled with notes and commentary.
When the service was over, we accepted the invitation to attend the “feast” in the cafeteria. not to have done so would have been an insult. Again, lines for male and female were separate. The food had been prepared by the women. It was normal American food, and very tasty.
I can tell you that I didn’t feel like I was having an alien experience!