It's an intense time of political polarization in the United States. With wars taking place across the Middle East and the 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 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.