NIF Supporting Efforts to Reduce Tensions on Yom Kippur / Eid al-Adha

17 September 2015

For the second successive year Yom Kippur will coincide with the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. Eid al-Adha is a joyous holiday commemorating Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son as God commanded, in contrast to the solemnity of Yom Kippur. Once again, NIF is supporting efforts to reduce likely tensions arising from this clash of traditions.

Supported by NIF, the Abraham Fund has been running an extensive campaign in the Israeli media, aimed at raising awareness of the different traditions in order to reduce potential hostilities. At the heart of this campaign is a specially produced video which has been broadcast on Israel’s leading television channels and distributed on social media. The video was created by collage artist Hanoch Piven, and narrated by Israeli-Jewish actor Alon Neuman and Israeli-Arab singer, actress, and songwriter Mira Awad. Piven said he hoped that the video would “increase at least one millimeter . . . tolerance between Jews and Arabs in Israel.”

NIF is supporting efforts to distribute posters about the two holidays in Hebrew and Arabic throughout Israel, with a focus on the mixed Jewish-Arab cities. Last year, this was extremely effective in preventing tensions between Jews and Arabs on Yom Kippur / Eid al-Adha, and we hope that the new campaign will be just as successful, especially as this is the last time the two festivals will clash for hundreds of years.