As the conflict in the Israel-Palestine region continues, committed friends and interfaith relationships have been severely strained across the globe, and the past two years have been catastrophic for many of the friendships forged between Jews and Muslims in the UK.
Nevertheless, despite the polarised voices and radical opinions, some friendships have flourished. Through auto-ethnography and more recent anthropological work on friendship, this session will work to disentangle the complications of a robust friendship across religious belief, political affiliation, and the expectations and allegiances of a person’s own faith community.
Dr. Lindsay Simmonds is a Research Fellow at the London School of Jewish Studies (LSJS) where she has lectured, written and convened courses for over 20 years, focussing on women in Biblical narrative, the Talmud and Jewish Law. In 2024, she completed a three year project at the Religion and Global Society Unit at the London School of Economics (LSE), UK, where she led research on Women of Faith and Peacebuilding examining the work of Israeli and Palestinian women peacebuilders. In addition to her academic research and lecturing, Lindsay is co-chair of her local Jewish-Muslim Women’s Network Nisa-Nashim, Vice-Chair of trustees for the Abraham Initiatives UK and Jewish Scholar-in-Residence for the Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ). Her PhD (Department of Gender, LSE) is entitled, ‘Generating Piety: Agency in the Lives of British Orthodox Jewish Women’, and she is involved in several UK projects promoting orthodox Jewish women’s Torah study, ritual participation and leadership.
Julie Siddiqi MBE is a UK based trainer, consultant and grassroots campaigner who has worked in communities for more than 25 years. As a Muslim, she believes her faith encourages her to be passionate about finding ways to bring people together through social action and she is a regular commentator on TV and radio. Julie is co-founder of Nisa-Nashim, the largest Jewish and Women's Network in Europe and believes that building friendship and trust are key to bringing people from different backgrounds together in a rich and meaningful way.
In 2024, Lindsay and Julie were awarded a joint Honorary Doctorate from Middlesex University in recognition of their “contributions and commitment to promoting interfaith understanding and engagement”.