c. 2006 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ Shlomo Gronich can take a shofar, a traditional Jewish instrument fashioned from a ram’s horn, and play an extraordinary range of notes.

Lubna Salame’s voice can rise and fall in energetic Arab rhythms and melodies in her emotional tributes to the legendary Egyptian diva Oum Kolthoum. Her range is so impressive that she has performed with musical groups like Radiohead.

Gronich is an Israeli Jew, Salame an Israeli Arab Christian. Together, as musicians in a group called Adamai, they are working to foster a more open dialogue on how Jews and Arabs can coexist in their native land, a place ravaged by religious and ethnic conflict.

Adamai, a conglomeration of Arabic and Hebrew words meaning mankind, earth, blood, and water, recently performed in New York as the featured entertainment at the annual meeting of the Abraham Fund, a nonprofit organization based in Jerusalem and New York with a mission to improve Jewish-Arab relations worldwide.

The group’s often high-paced rhythmic set _ sung in Hebrew, Arabic and English _ brought Jews, Arabs, and others to their feet, clapping to the beat, their sounds breathing life into a cavernous ballroom in downtown Manhattan.

“Your children won’t be sent again to war,“ sang Gronich in English, on the anthem “Mother Earth.” “Use your heart, forgive, that’s what it’s for.”

The Abraham Fund has been supporting coexistence projects in Israel since its founding in 1989, and Gronich and Salame have collaborated with the group for five years. They formed Adamai in May 2005, and continue their mission at a critical time as Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip and Hamas assumes leadership of the Palestinian territories.

“Coexistence would be a dream come true,“ Gronich said in an interview before the benefit concert, “but I wish it would not be a dream. … What we are trying to do is not easy.”

“We hope to make connections and build bridges,” he said. “But I don’t think about it too much. I do what I have to do, and I hope that the music speaks for itself.”

Recently, the group pushed “Mother Earth” for entry into the Eurovision pop music contest. Salame was hoping to be the first Arab-Israeli musician to represent Israel at Eurovision. But the song lost _ and lost badly _ in early voting by the viewing public.

Gronich laments the fact that “Mother Earth” is getting little to no air play on Israeli radio. “Mother Earth is the sound of hope, so why not listen?” he asked. “This is the bitterness of reality in our country.”

Gronich has spent much of his career as a well-known musician in Israel preaching the ideals of coexistence _ not just among Jews and Arabs, but among all peoples living in Israel. His resume boasts 18 albums and three Israeli Oscars for music composition.

Salame grew up in the port city of Haifa, known as the most forward- thinking city in Israel, a place where its hilly streets are lined with art exhibitions celebrating the diversity of its population.

“My neighbors growing up were from everywhere,” she said. “And in school I learned to love other people. This pushed me to want to do something more.”

Adamai’s mission of interfaith understanding fits well with the Abraham Fund, which has tried to foster better relations between Israeli Arabs and Jews.

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In a nation where everyone must know Hebrew, and Arabic is mostly optional, the Fund has launched a nationwide program in 39 schools teaching Arabic to both children of Jewish and Arab descent. Other programs include a model coexistence zone in Galilee and a police-community initiative aimed at improving relations between Israeli police and Arab residents.

“The way to foster better dialogue is to create spaces where people can begin to talk about what is important to them as citizens in Israeli society,” said Victor Friedman, a professor who attended the concert hoping to garner support for a business development project in Nazareth.

“It’s not a question of agreement, but finding a forum where everyone can sit together and talk.”

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Adamai’s members think their medium _ music _ can be instrumental providing this sort of forum. The group itself is made up of Jewish, Arab Christian, and Arab Muslim musicians. Their sound is a blend of Jewish tradition, classical jazz and pop from Gronich’s roots and the Oum Kolthoum-inspired voice of Salame.

“Our collaboration is religious, (in that) I believe in music as a way to bring about love and peace,” said Gronich, who is not a practicing Jew.

“Religion, itself, is a tool to sometimes to do other things. … I become Jewish when I am onstage, as I bring different religions together. Each one has his own God, but he is only one God, and he belongs to all of us. Jerusalem belongs to all of us.”

KRE/JL END HERPICH