Gaza violence chills U.S. Muslim-Jewish dialogue

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Gaza Strip violence has chilled a promising interfaith dialogue between Jews and Muslims in the United States, activists said on Wednesday.

But Israel's 19-day-old offensive against Hamas that has taken more than 900 Palestinian lives has not triggered attacks on synagogues or other Jewish institutions in the United States at the level seen in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

While Jews and Muslims make up a sliver of the U.S. population, efforts at dialogue based on common themes in the two ancient religions had been on the rise in recent years in the United States, an effort billed as perhaps a world model.

Matthew Weiner, director of programs for the Interfaith Center of New York, which has tried to foster such interreligious dialogue, said the damage from Gaza means "less talking and less trust. There will continue to be less."

"There is a sense within the Muslim community that they cannot 'defend their side' without being accused of being terrorists," he added.

He said this "creates serious resentment, and cynicism" that does not wipe out the positive steps that have been made, but "it damages what they built."

Rabbi Marc Schneier, founder of the New York Synagogue in Manhattan and the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, said the "budding effort" at dialogue will continue.

"It's a process, but the conflict has brought about tensions and feelings of anger on both sides, Jews and Muslims," he said.

Schneier, who led a national summit of rabbis and imams and who has tried to pair up mosques and synagogues to open dialogue over the past two years, said the Mideast "is very difficult to address.

"You can't ignore the 800-pound gorilla in the room ... but thank God we have opened communication between American Muslims and Jews," he said. "It's a very, very long process."

In spite of the passions stirred up, Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders in the Boston area issued a joint declaration for peace earlier this week, saying they were "anguished by the events unfolding in Israel and Gaza."

They said the conflict can be resolved only through a political and diplomatic solution and not a military one.

UNABLE TO SPEAK WITH ONE VOICE

But the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace was unable to draft a national statement on the situation, according to Ron Young who coordinates that group.

"Fortunately, there are many statements coming separately from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities, all calling for urgent U.S. efforts to achieve a ceasefire," he told those involved in the initiative.

"While these separate statements tend to view the context of the crisis very differently, all are concerned to halt the escalation of violence between Hamas and Israel, restore a ceasefire and renew efforts for a negotiated two-state solution," Young said.

Sarah Sayeed, a program associate at New York's Interfaith Center, said there have been almost no interfaith statements on Gaza.

"The inability of interfaith leaders to speak in one voice on the situation ... is deeply and morally troubling," she said. "Religious leaders speaking together here could make a huge difference."

A spokesman for the Jewish Anti-Defamation League said that group had tracked several Gaza-related incidents involving U.S. Jewish institutions since December 28 but does not believe they constitute a spike in violence or vandalism.

(Editing by Andrew Stern and Cynthia Osterman)