Eid al-Fitr, the day of celebration marking the end of Ramadan ascends on the evening of Saturday, March 29th for Muslims around the world. It will be marked by feasting, family, and friendship. But friendship has long been on the menu between Jewish and Muslim communities in Broward County – and have continued apace, even since October 7th. 

Evan Goldman, Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Broward County, attributes this to a sense of shared need and shared purpose. Goldman’s background has been in human services, so his focus in collaborations with the Muslim community has been on “safe neighborhoods, secure families… high quality education, and ensuring that pluralism is the law of the land.” Rooted in relationship with individual leaders, he works with them tirelessly to advance the policy needs of the Jewish community in diverse advocacy coalitions. 

Goldman reflects, “When I advocate to prevent cuts in Medicaid, when I advocate for enhanced SNAP benefits, I am more effective when I do this in a coalition” – one which often does include Muslim communities.

Yet many of these relationships transcend the transactional and are also personal in nature. Goldman attended an Iftar dinner to break the Ramadan fast with friends from the Muslim community. He also has had Muslim friends join the Jewish community for celebrations, comedy shows – and even acts of somber commemoration.

When the Nova exhibition came to Broward County, Goldman took a delegation of black and brown leaders to visit it and understand the depth of pain that the Jewish community has been feeling. A key Muslim leader also joined to bear witness to the atrocities that had befallen Israel. 

Goldman was profoundly moved. “That sole act meant so much to the Jewish community…. It’s one thing to talk about building bridges and quite another to listen and see what actually pains them.” Goldman believes that, while the Muslim community is “not a monolith,” most within it in Broward County understand that Israel has a right to exist and is “not going anywhere.” Whether or not they like its governmental policies does not impact work locally to make their part of southern Florida more vibrant. 

While many of the friendships that Goldman has formed have been enriching to his life, he sees bridge-building as essential to the work of community relations. When asked to impart advice about connecting with local Muslim communities in other cities, he says to “do it today” because “you can’t control what’s happening outside” your area – notably overseas – but you have great influence on what happens locally. "Your local Jewish community will benefit from the dialogue and friendship.” 

For Goldman, the initial way to friendship was Broward County’s Hate Crimes Task Force. Many of the people he served alongside became friends “organically” through a sense of shared purpose. He didn’t have to force conversation, because there was already so much to talk about. Over time, with consistency of relationship, he was able to talk about any number of topics – family, the community, religious practices, social interests. Trust begot trust as friendships deepened, and he began to work more actively on other issues of public concern.

In a county as diverse as Broward, diverse coalitions yielded the greatest results in public policy. Those, in turn, reaffirmed all that friendship could do, not only personally, but also in public life.