Jews and Muslims in the Middle East

Guest speakers are great learning experiences and opportunities for students to hear real-world information from credible sources. Every Wednesday in Gittinger Hall, the University of Oklahoma has Just For Lunch lectures, which is a program that hosts lectures by guest speakers. On Wednesday September 7, the guest speaker had a lot of interesting information on the history of the relationship between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East. He has traveled to many places to give speeches, and in fact, was headed to Britain in the next few days after this lecture for a television interview with the British media. At this particular event, he began with his lecture, which described the Jews’ relationship with the Muslims and some of the events that led to their separation, and then allowed questions towards the end.
In his lecture, the speaker began by clarifying to us that Jews and Muslims have parted ways in a very physical sense. He informed us that there used to be over 1 million Jews living in the Muslim world, and that only about 5% are left from a century ago.
Jews did not have much economic freedom in pre-modern Europe. They were limited to jobs such as tax collectors, innkeepers, etc. However, that was not the case in the Muslim world. Nevertheless, the Jews began to look for something better, something outside the traditional Muslim social system. They were eventually able to have European privileges; they were protected subjects. Furthermore, these privileges increased in the 18th and 19th centuries. By 1900, they had 26,000 pupils attending schools, and Muslims viewed this western education with suspicion and hostility.
The lecture concluded stating that there has in fact been a parting of the ways between Jews and Muslims, but the destiny of both groups is bound up – they will converge again. This was an interesting way to end the lecture because it left it open-ended to have the audience thinking.
There people of all ages at this event, which makes one think that this subject interests all different types of people. Joe Jankowsky came to hear this speaker with his wife for the first time. He said he came because he is interested in the subject. “This lecture gives us new knowledge of the situation, and it is very topical,” he said.
“The world is a very tenuous place for Jewish faith,” says Valarie Harshaw, one of the people who helped put on the event. “Israel is caught in the middle of a scary conflict, and it is important to get an idea of who the Jews are.” She said she helped put on this particular Just For Lunch lecture to help students understand the Middle East conflict. “As someone who has been a Christian their whole life, Jews have always been ‘out there’, not close to home,” she said. She wants to see them become more politically involved as well.
Just For Lunch lectures are held on the first Wednesday of every month. Next month’s lecture will be from a rabbi from Oklahoma City about Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism.