A Muslim student from the Johanna Eck School is sitting on the handlebars, behind them a Jewish student from the Moses Mendelssohn Gymnasium is sitting in a tandem. Or the other way around. The order is completely irrelevant, what is decisive is that symbolically two religions are traveling together and in unison.
That’s the point of the “ride2respect” Jewish-Muslim tandem tour on Sunday, September 4th in Berlin. The tour aims to reflect the diversity of Jewish and Muslim life in the capital. Johanna-Eck-School and Moses-Mendelssohn-Gymnasium have been selected on behalf of other schools and organizations, around a dozen students from each school will take part.
However, the tour is open to all interested parties who are committed to diversity and to civil society’s commitment to combating anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. They can ride along on their bikes. The tour is mainly organized by the organization “meet2respect”.
The tour begins at 2 p.m. at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (corner of Hannah Arendt-Strasse/Cora-Berliner-Strasse), passing the Brandenburg Gate, Grosse Hamburger Strasse and the Jewish Cemetery. It ends at Bebel Platz. The journey time will be around one hour.
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At 4 p.m., the final rally begins at Bebelplatz with live music, a stage program and kosher and halal food. Rabbi Elias Dray from “meet2respect” says: “I think it’s important that Jews and Muslims set an example for respect and tolerance together, because we can only break down prejudices through dialogue.” For seven years, “meet2respect” has been campaigning for Jewish Muslim understanding and works a lot in schools. Representatives of the Jewish religion and Islam always appear.
