He ESCAPED Yemen to Pursue Interfaith Friendship in the USA - Mohammed Al Samawi’s Incredible Story

Mohammed Al-Samawi grew up in Sanaa, Yemen, where "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" weren't just slogans — they were the air he breathed. He internalized violent antisemitic ideas before he ever met a Jewish person. Then everything changed. Jonah travels to Washington D.C. to visit Abrahamic House — a townhouse unlike any other in America, where Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Bahá'í fellows live together, share Shabbat dinners, host Ramadan gatherings, and ask the questions most people are too afraid to raise in public. The man who built it is a Yemeni Muslim refugee whose life was saved by Jewish friends when the Houthis closed in. Al-Samawi takes Jonah through the journey — from reading the Torah in secret and messaging Israelis on Facebook, to attending his first Muslim-Jewish conference in Bosnia, to the moment three Jewish friends coordinated his evacuation across the Red Sea as Yemen collapsed around him. He talks about what it actually took to unlearn a lifetime of hatred, why October 7th made the work of Abrahamic House more necessary than ever, and what hospitality has to do with telling the truth. This is not a conversation about abstract interfaith idealism. It's about what happens when one person decides to ask a forbidden question — and keeps asking. 00:00 - Welcome to Abrahamic House 03:32 - Growing Up in Yemen 07:48 - Antisemitic Propaganda & Early Beliefs 11:05 - Reading the Torah in Secret 18:33 - Learning English & Asking Forbidden Questions 22:04 - Messaging Israelis on Facebook 29:12 - The Houthis Take Over Yemen 33:05 - Trapped & Hunted in Aden 36:53 - Jewish Friends Save His Life 41:51 - Building Abrahamic House 44:21 - After October 7th 50:00 - How to Actually Build Interfaith Connection 59:05 - What Each Faith Has Taught Him Learn more about Mohammed Al Samawi and the Abrahamic House - Website - https://www.abrahamichouse.org Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/alsamawi/ Order Mohammed's Book - https://a.co/d/0ddlUdFO If you want to go deeper beyond the podcast, join the Being Jewish Kehillah -- our subscriber community that gives you access to exclusive bonus content, merch discounts, live office hours with Jonah, special community events, and more. Join the Kehillah today at http://beingjewishpodcast.com/join #BeingJewish #JonahPlatt #AbrahamicHouse #MohammedAlSamawi #Interfaith #JewishMuslim #Yemen #Antisemitism #JewishIdentity #IslamAndJudaism