The OU Hillel Foundation, a Jewish student center, hosted a Ramadan breakfast meal Tuesday night, to cross religious boundaries while breaking bread.

The Jewish foundation hosted an Iftar, to break the daily Muslim fast during Ramadan, and communicate with followers of different religions.

The event was sponsored by Hillel, the Institute of Interfaith Dialog and Raindrop Turkish House, which seeks to incorporate Turkish culture into American society. The event was an effort to promote communication between different religious groups.

“America needs to understand the relationships with other people. If we can’t do it in Oklahoma, how can we do it in the rest of the world?” said Vahap Uysal, adviser of the Interfaith Dialog Student Association.

Jews and Muslims are key players in disputes in the Middle East, but there is no fighting on campus, said Jeremy Cassius, executive director of the foundation, a Jewish center.

“It proves that things aren’t like you see on the news, which isn’t usually good,” Cassius said.

Civil engineering junior Yonathan Reches said at the surface there is unity between Muslims and Jews at OU, but because of international politics there is still underlying tension.

Reches, who described himself as “super Jewish” for spending the evening reading Exodus in Hebrew, said he wants to broaden his understanding of the ethnic dynamic between Jews and Muslims. He said from talks he has had with a Palestinian family that lives in Nazareth, he is shocked by the common ground the two share, despite rumblings in the rest of the world.

Uysal said that Judaism and Islam come from the same source and that both care about similar issues like family, education and health care.

Cassius and Uysal spent the evening noting commonalities between the two religions like their reasons for fasting.

Sept. 2 marked the beginning of Ramadan, a month-long celebration where Muslims fast from sunup to sundown, abstaining from food, drink and other pleasures.

Uysal said fasting is a way for Muslims to remove themselves from the material possessions of the world and become closer to God.

“God created this whole world as a table of food for us. But during Ramadan, when I feel thirsty is when I feel the bounties of God,” Uysal said.

He said fasting helps him understand the value of what he has now. He said there is no equivalent to fasting.

Cassius said Jews fast during Yom Kippur, a day of atonement commanded in the Torah, the Jewish holy book.

Cassius said Jews also have five rabbinical fasting days, which were enacted by the rabbinical authority after the destruction of the second Jewish temple in A.D. 69. Cassius said the rabbinical fasts are based on a time when Jews faced danger or destruction.

Unlike Muslims, Jews abstain from food, drink, bathing, wearing leather shoes and marital relations for 24 hours during Yom Kippur, not just during the daylight hours.

Cassius said for Jews, fasting during Yom Kippur is a spiritually uplifting event to break down the material barriers that separate Jews from God. He compared fasting to a prayer and said it is a way for Jews to grow closer to God.

“We remove one of our greatest pleasures, eating,” Cassius said. “By tearing away our pleasures, it is easier to pray.”

Hamid Farzaneh, English literature senior, said he thinks fasting for an entire day would be difficult, since he is used to fasting from sunup to sundown. He said until the discussion, he didn’t know Jews fasted during Yom Kippur.

“You tend to forget about other religions. You just get so caught up in your religion and your group,” Farzaneh said.

The night ended when the Jews broke fast with the Muslims over a dinner of salmon, asparagus, pita bread, hummus and baklava.

Before the meal, Muslims removed their shoes and gathered on patterned sheets for their evening prayer, the fourth prayer of the day, toward Mecca. Jews were invited to participate and watch the prayer.

Reches said for him, kneeling with the Muslims and participating was the best way to understand Islam, even though the prayer was in Arabic.

“The words aren’t so important. What’s important is the action and the atmosphere,” Reches said. “It was more important, from my perspective, to be there. Heck, I want to do it again.”