Online Iftar: “Breaking the Fast For Peace”

Sunday, April 7th

11:15am EDT – 12:15pm EDT (6:15pm – 7:15pm Holy Land Time)

Online Iftar Featuring the Peacemakers, a Multifaith Discussion of Fasting, Ramadan, the AR’s Iftar Events, and Fasting together in Solidarity

• Sheikh Ghassan Manasra
• David Less
• Abdelsalam Manasra
• Chris Miller
• Religious Leaders from all 3 faiths discussing Fasting (Speakers TBA)
• Photos & stories from the AR’s 2024 Multifaith Iftar Events in the Holy Land!
• Breaking the Fast together — bring dates & water

Breaking the Fast of Separation — Fasting 

We invite you to join in fasting – for however long is right for you. Fasting is a sacred practice in the Abrahamic Faith traditions, which will be explored and discussed at our online program. In the Holy Land, the Ramadan fast is 14 hrs long, so, after dinner in the US, if you refrain from eating or drinking, and skip breakfast, you can break the fast with us having fasted about the same amount of time.

• Ramadan Fast Times:
  • Jerusalem: 4:51am – 7:10pm (14hrs, 19min)
  • Sarasota: 6:07am – 7:52pm (13hrs, 45min)
  • 14hrs prior to 12:10pm EDT = 10:10pm EDT.

What to bring: Dates & Water

Whether or not you are fasting, you are invited to bring water and dried dates for the symbolic breaking of the fast, together. Dates and water are commonly the first items consumed to break the fast in the Holy Land, providing much needed hydration, and a burst of sugars to reanimate the organs of the body.

Fasting is a way to be in connection with the Abrahamic connections to fasting, and to be in connection with those who don’t have enough food to eat, who are fasting because of famine, starvation, lack of aid, etc, as in Gaza and in many places around the world.

The practice of fasting is traditionally seen as a way of becoming closer to God, to the spirit, and further from materiality, corporeality. It is a practice seen in many traditions outside the Abrahamic Faiths as well, a a means of purification of body, mind, and heart.

(Muslims outside the Holy Land – we will be symbolically breaking the fast at the Iftar time in the Holy Land, so of course, we understand you won’t break fast with us together.)