Rosh Hashanah, 9/11, and missing opportunities

A Jew and a Muslim walk into a creative meeting...and a podcast episode is born! On Rosh Hashanah eve and the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Layma Murtaza and I were in an unrelated work meeting, and found ourselves discussing how sad we were to have missed such an obvious opportunity for deep reflection, renewal, sharing, and sardonic exploration of what the heck we're doing with our lives--all of us. Spurred by one of her characteristically simple and suddenly obvious insights, it seemed like the right time to take what small action we could. What action was that you say? Well, talking, of course. Layma is a creator, traveler, lifelong student, activist, and Afghan American. I connected with her through my work at Their Story is our Story, (shout out to MPAC and their rich engagement with interfaith work, although that wasn't actually part of this connection) and we immediately connected over our love of travel, humans, history and dark humor. Lots of that shows up here as we explore a strangely shared legacy we discovered around her experience after 9/11, and what I think so many American Jews felt after October 7. For updates, deep dives, glossaries and more, sign up for the newsletter, and join our growing Jew-ish Community! No need to be a Member of the Tribe to belong here.