It’s an intense time of political polarization in the United States. With wars taking place across the Middle East and Arab World, many Jewish and Muslim Americans are feeling those tensions especially strong.

Reports of antisemitism and islamophobia are on the rise, including a recent attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield by a man who had family members killed in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon.

Just yesterday, Rabbi Aaron Bergman of Adat Shalom told The Metro his temple has pretty much stopped its interfaith dialogue work.

Interfaith groups that include Jewish, Muslim and Christian community leaders are present in metro Detroit and the United States, but how effective are they? How do you talk about hard things during tense, divisive times?

Ben Ginsburg is part of an organization with a response to those questions. He’s the communications director for NewGround, which is a Muslim-Jewish interfaith group in Los Angeles. He spoke with Sam Corey on The Metro about how to have difficult conversations in divisive times.

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This episode of Big Sonic Heaven featured three tracks with proceeds going toward helping people in war-stricken areas. First up, an unexpected new release from Dead Can Dance, their first new single in five years, “Our Day Will Come.” For every purchase of “Our Day Will Come,” Dead Can Dance will donate 50% of the proceeds to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians).

MAP does incredible work to provide medical care, food, and nutritional aid to the Palestinian people. The new single also came with an announcement that all of their future music will only be released on Bandcamp, a platform that bans AI music. Their statement is below:

“We have decided to no longer support streaming platforms that continue to exploit artists and promote AI generated music. In future we will sell our music directly to the public via Bandcamp, a platform that continues to support independent artists and which has commendably banned all forms of AI generated music, a technology that threatens the very life and soul of our profession.”

We also took the new Depeche Mode and Beth Gibbons War Child Records Help(2) tracks for another spin. Proceeds help to protect, educate, and stand up for the rights of children living through conflict around the world.

In other new music, we heard the latest from Deary, ACTORS, Art School Girlfriend, Plastic Milk, and more. 

Plus, we celebrated 30 years of Stereolab’s album, “Emperor Tomato Ketchup!” Yay!

Check the playlist below and listen to the episode for two weeks after it airs using the player above. 

• “You Do Something To Me” – Sinéad O’Connor
• “All That We Had Is Lost” – Postiljonen
• “Alma” – deary
• “Love Less” – New Order
• “Vertigo” – Miki Berenyi Trio
• “Our Day Will Come” – Dead Can Dance
• “Railwayed” – Kitchens of Distinction
• “Primitive Painters” – Felt
• “Universal Soldier” – Depeche Mode & War Child Records
• “Les Yper -Sound” – Stereolab
• “Sugar Phantom Blackout” – Bluhm
• “Torture” – The Cure
• “Other Things” – Ringo Deathstarr
• “Almost Transparent” – Art School Girlfriend
• “It’s Enough Now” – Mandalay
• “A Return” – The Tear Garden
• “Overcome” – Tricky
• “chained to a cloud” – Slowdive
• “Thursday” – Asobi Seksu
• “CTRL” – ACTORS
• “Heart and Soul” – Joy Division
• “Deep Ocean Vast Sea” – Peter Murphy
• “The Robot Girl Psychiatrist” – The False Dawns
• “Punish Me With Kisses” – The Glove
• “Kiss Of Snow (feat. Krissy Vanderwoude)” – LongingSky
• “Vapour Trail” – Ride
• “Sunday Morning” – Beth Gibbons & War Child Records
• “Carolyn’s Fingers” – Cocteau Twins
• “Into You” – The Haunted Youth
• “Klettur” – Sigur Rós
• “Sticky Halo” – Plastic Milk
• “I Tried” – Shoestrings
• “Kiss a Girl In Black” – Fleeting Joys