Nashville Rabbi Invites Muslim Neighbors To Break Ramadan Fast In Synagogue

Rabbi Joshua Kullock
A Nashville rabbi invited the Muslim community to his synagogue on Wednesday to break their daily Ramadan fast, The Tennessean reported.
Rabbi Joshua Kullock offered to host an iftar, the group meal eaten after sunset during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, at West End Synagogue. Dozens of Muslims ended their fast alongside synagogue members, where everyone ate dates, drank water and enjoyed an evening of shared prayers and rituals.
Kullock told The Tennessean that he was inspired to bring everyone together in unity following the recent attacks on Muslim and Jewish communities.
“We are very good at reacting when something bad happens,” he said. “Part of the challenge that we face is related to our ability to be proactive in building the bridges and building relationships that will allow us to share the bread, to break the bread, to be together to create these friendships that will be beneficial as we continue to create a better society, the Nashville that we are all very proud of.”
The mixed crowd filed into the synagogue about an hour before sunset, many of them wearing traditional clothes and accessories, according to The Tennessean. They took turns praying and asking Kullock and Imam Ossama Bahloul, the resident scholar at the Islamic Center of Nashville, questions about Judaism and Islam.
Conversations continued throughout the night.
“This is what our religions expect from us,” Bahloul said. “We believe that the religious community can be a part of the solution.”
Alyssa Fisher is a writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 2
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 3
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 4
Fast Forward Columbia staff receive texts asking if they’re Jewish, as government hunts antisemitic harassment on campus
In Case You Missed It
-
Yiddish מחשבֿות פֿון אַן אַהיים־געקומענעם (אַ מלחמה־טאָגגבוך)Reflections of a soldier after returning home (a wartime diary)
דער מחבר איז אַ סטודענט אינעם ירושלימער העברעיִשן אוניווערסיטעט, אינעם צווייטן יאָר ייִדיש־לימוד
-
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
-
News At Harvard, reports on antisemitism and anti-Palestinian bias reflect campus conflict over Israel
-
Opinion Is JB Pritzker’s very Jewish toughness the key to fighting Trump?
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.