Last month in Los Angeles, two communities that have long lived alongside one another chose, deliberately, to step into each other’s space.

At Sinai Temple on Shabbat, April 18, and the following day at BAPS Hindu Temple, Jewish and Indian community leaders met with a seriousness that went beyond courtesy. They were not there to observe. They came to begin building something that, until now, had largely existed only as a possibility.

The differences in ritual were obvious. The ease of conversation was less expected.

The relationship between India and Israel has expanded rapidly in recent years across diplomacy, security and innovation. What has been missing is a parallel development within the diaspora. A lived relationship between communities that already share much of the same civic and cultural ground.

This is where the Jewish Indian Alliance begins.

This is not happening in a vacuum. On campuses, in public discourse and across social media, identity has become sharper and often more adversarial. Communities are more visible, but not always more connected.

What matters is not only what these communities share, but whether they choose to build something with it.

There is much to build on. Both communities are shaped by deep civilizational roots and modern national experience. Both place unusual weight on family, education and communal responsibility. Both have learned how to sustain identity while contributing outward, often at scale, to the societies in which they live.

But this initiative does not rest on similarity alone.

It is designed to move beyond the language of interfaith symbolism and into the places where relationships become durable: campuses, where Jewish and Indian students are navigating increasingly complex environments; professional networks, where both communities are deeply present in fields such as medicine, technology and entrepreneurship; and cultural spaces from entertainment to sport, where narratives are shaped and identities are projected.

The conversations that began that weekend reflected that breadth. They moved between faith and practice, between tradition and innovation and between the moral languages of both communities and the practical question of what those values demand in a rapidly changing world.

That range is essential.

Too often, interfaith efforts remain confined to dialogue alone. Dialogue matters, but it is not sufficient. Relationships deepen when they are lived, when they take on form through shared work, shared institutions and shared responsibility.

There is also something distinctive about this partnership. Jewish communities have long built important interfaith relationships, particularly with Christian and Muslim communities, and within the United States through enduring Black-Jewish partnerships. These relationships carry history, structure and, in many cases, political urgency.

The Jewish Indian connection operates differently. It is less pre-defined and less mediated by existing frameworks. That gives it a certain openness. It allows the relationship to develop across multiple domains at once, without being confined to a single track.

It also allows for a more expansive understanding of what partnership can mean.

Both Jewish and Indian traditions carry, in different forms, the idea that the world is unfinished, and that human beings are responsible for shaping what comes next. In Jewish thought, this is expressed through tikkun olam. In Indian traditions, parallel ideas emerge through different languages and frameworks, but with a similar insistence on responsibility beyond the self.

When these traditions meet, the question is not only what they believe, but what they can do together.

That is the horizon this initiative begins to open.

Supported by Voice of the People, the Jewish Indian Alliance is still in its early stages. Its direction, however, is already clear. It seeks to create a network of relationships that is sustained, practical and rooted in real communities rather than symbolic moments.

There is no need to overstate what has been achieved. This was a first gathering, not a culmination.

But what began this weekend is unlikely to remain local. The conditions that made it necessary are not unique to one city, and the opportunity it presents extends well beyond it.

What took place was not a statement. It was the start of a relationship. And that is where the real work begins.

Rabbi Erez Sherman is the senior rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and a member of the Voice of the People (VoP) Council. Rabbi Sherman leads the Sinai Temple Israel Center, advancing Israel education and engagement within the community. He is also the founder of a rabbinical fellowship focused on Israel discourse, and directs a youth leadership program.