The Children of Abraham

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common ancestor. It's the beginning of a startling, searing, tear-brimming hour of theater called the Children of Abraham Project. It has the power to move mountains.

This work is the result of a passionate collaboration between Mosaic Youth Theater of Detroit; Brenda Naomi Rosenberg, a Bloomfield Hills interfaith activist; imam Abdullah El-Amin, executive director of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan; Ann Arbor playwright Rachel Urist; and the National Conference for Community and Justice. In the aftermath of the attacks on America on September 11, 2001, Rosenberg, the program explains, "decided to dedicate her life to building bridges of understanding between Detroit's diverse communities." In a quest for new ways to view and understand the kaleidoscope of issues, conflicts, and prejudices that have defined world politics for too many years, she went to visit El- Amin. He told her, "If everyone would remember we had the same father, Father Abraham, and that both his sons, Isaac and Ishmael, came together to bury their father, it would go a long way to bringing our estranged families back together. It might even help end the bloodshed." The conversation led to a dream: of a play that would examine the conflicts between the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian faiths by focusing on their common elements.