A pioneering interfaith community in Omaha, Nebraska, is celebrating 20 years of bringing Jewish, Muslim and Christian neighbors together—not by asking them to set aside their differences, but by giving them space to understand those differences more honestly.
The Tri-Faith Initiative began in 2006 and developed into what organizers describe as a unique American campus: a synagogue, a mosque and a church located in separate buildings on the same 38-acre property, alongside an interfaith center.
The anniversary comes at a demanding time for Jewish-Muslim and wider interfaith relations. Yet leaders on the campus say maintaining relationships through disagreement has become one of the initiative’s most important contributions.
A neighborhood designed for encounter
The campus includes Temple Israel, a Reform Jewish congregation; the American Muslim Institute; and Countryside Community Church, part of the United Church of Christ. Each congregation retains its own worship, leadership and religious identity. The neighboring Tri-Faith Center provides educational and community programs for people from many religious and nonreligious backgrounds.
According to Religion News Service’s anniversary report, the site is the first campus in the United States where separate Jewish, Muslim and Christian houses of worship share the same grounds.
The physical proximity creates opportunities that occasional interfaith events cannot always reproduce. Congregational leaders can contact one another quickly after a tragedy, visit one another’s celebrations and continue conversations after public attention has moved elsewhere.
Those relationships have been tested by the violence of recent years, particularly the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza. At times, pain made ordinary dialogue difficult. Campus members nevertheless found ways to remain present to one another, including a silent candlelight vigil on the circular Abraham’s Bridge.
The experience points toward a realistic form of interfaith work. Cooperation does not require participants to reach identical political or theological conclusions. It requires them to listen, resist dehumanization and remain committed to their neighbors even when agreement is impossible.
Shared service takes root
The initiative’s work is not limited to formal dialogue. Volunteers from across the community maintain a Unity Garden and Hope Orchard whose produce is distributed through food pantries and other local nonprofits. The garden had yielded approximately 3,500 pounds of food during 2026 by the time of the anniversary report.
That practical service offers people a way to work alongside one another while addressing a common local need. It also makes the idea of religious pluralism tangible: neighbors with different beliefs can cultivate food, serve families and care for shared land together.
The Tri-Faith Initiative’s official program continues with workshops on sacred texts, community conversations and education about religious equity. Its stated mission is to create inclusive environments in which differences are respected and relationships can develop across religious boundaries.
An anniversary focused on the future
A free public festival scheduled for Sunday, August 30, will mark the anniversary with cultural displays, family activities and food prepared for different religious dietary needs, including halal burgers and kosher hot dogs. The celebration is lighthearted, but its underlying message is substantial: coexistence is built through repeated, ordinary encounters as much as through formal statements.
Twenty years after its founding, the Omaha experiment does not offer a claim that interfaith relationships are easy. Its significance lies in showing that those relationships can endure strain when they are supported by proximity, shared service and a willingness to keep talking.
At a time when religious identities are often presented as barriers, the Tri-Faith campus offers another possibility. A synagogue, mosque and church can remain fully themselves while becoming better neighbors—and, through that patient work, help their wider community imagine a more durable form of belonging.