Suburban Philadelphia Synagogue and Mosque Get Along as Good Neighbors

The cars slowly turn onto the long driveway, their wheels occasionally crunching the adjacent ground frozen from the night before and speckled with the merest dusting of snow. Rabbi Yossi Kaplan and Mohammad Aziz walk side by side in the direction of the oncoming line of traffic. Several young, professional-looking Muslim men pass them in the opposite direction, pausing to shake the rabbi’s hand and wish him a hearty “Shabbat Shalom.”

It’s Friday, right before afternoon prayers, and hundreds of worshippers are making their way to the mosque on North Valley Forge Road, in Devon, Pa., Aziz soon turns to join them, and Kaplan heads next door to gather his van and pick his children up from school.

For a moment, the 15-vehicle-capacity lot in front of the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Center of Chester County sits empty. But not for long – within 10 minutes, nearly every spot is taken by those headed to the mosque next door.

The shul and the mosque not only share parking space, but a symbiotic relationship. It’s based on their proximity, of course – they are direct neighbors, land practically spilling upon land – but it also owes to the fact that the two men have forged an obvious respect for one another, as well as a solid friendship.

With mosque projects across the United States being confronted with hostility, the noncontroversial way that this Devon mosque came to be stands in stark contrast to other situations that have grabbed national headlines.

Article continued at Chabad.org – A ‘Tangible Place’