Arab-Jewish Coalition Celebrates Peace in Our Time

Salaam Shalom Sisterhood schedules a conference, concert and hope

By Ed Goldman

Salaam Shalom” may be one of the world’s best-named nonprofits because just in pairing those two words it states its cause—and hope. Both, used as greetings and signoffs, mean “peace.” The first is Arabic, the second Hebrew. The expression, “Together again for the first time,” springs to mind. 

I sit down recently with Melanie Mages-Canale and Anne Kjemtrup. Mages-Canal is Jewish by birth and Kjemtrup is Muslim by marriage, and we’re in a midtown Sacramento coffee shop to discuss their local Salaam Shalom sisterhood and its national parent. The latter will bring a concert and conference to California’s capital later this month, on October 28 (the concert, from 7-9 p.m.) and 29 (the conference, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.). Details are here.

Conference attendees will be welcomed by Sacramento Mayor Darryl Steinberg, who’s Jewish, and Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a large US City. The keynoter is California State Senator Aisha Wahab, from Hayward, and workshops will include one by the thoughtfully named Combatants for Peace (former military personnel). The concert will feature performances by the Huyam Ensemble—Arab musicians and singers who’ll provide an evening of interfaith music at Congregation B’nai Israel.

Mages-Canale is a retired photographer and longtime friend. Her photo of Senator and then-Presidential Candidate Barak Obama and me might not have helped his campaign but certainly boosted my own stock for years. She’s been married for 28 years to Ed Canale, a retired (and creative) executive for the Sacramento Bee.

Kjemtrup is a veterinary epidemiologist at the University of California, Davis, who married Kamal Lemseffer, a Moroccan man, 32 years ago and converted to his Muslim faith.

The two met at a Salaam Shalom event some years ago and, as Mages-Canale explained to me in an email inviting me to this interview, decided to establish a local beachhead of the group “right after the Presidential election in 2016″—when a certain Muslim-phobic racist won the White House—”and have grown from one chapter with five Muslim and five Jewish women to six chapters with close to 100 women.”

“We bridge divides between our two groups,” she wrote, and “work towards facilitating dialogue over difficult conversations, and form friendships. That’s it in a nutshell.”

Yes, but it’s a meaty nut.

As for real world-relevance, not long after this interview Morocco was devastated by an earthquake that killed thousands and destroyed homes and significant buildings. I emailed Kjemtrup to see if she and her husband still had relatives in the country and asked whether they were affected by the calamity. She wrote back:

“Thank you … for asking about our family in Morocco. We have family in Casablanca and Agadir—both of those cities were definitely shaken and people, including my mother-in-law, feared being inside and spent much of the night outside in a car or in parks. 

“Now we watch with sadness as the death toll rises and we learn of the destruction of buildings, many important ones we have recently visited. The Sisterhood of Salaam-Shalom had a dual narrative tour of Morocco last February and we were in some of those villages that were at the center of the quake. That trip has brought the tragedy closer to home for many of the Sisters who were on the trip and the What’s App messages have been flying asking for information about some of the people, guides and villagers we met. Fortunately we have heard positive news from folks so far.”

Back to our coffee chat.