Years ago, there was a slogan we used, “One people, one voice.” Even then, these words were more aspirational than real. Today, if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that they seem completely out of touch.

In our increasingly polarized political and intellectual climate, we’re quick to put ourselves and others into camps: MSNBC or Fox News. Religious Jew or secular. Israel hawk or dove. And for the most part, we exist in an echo chamber, surrounding ourselves with people and media who repeat our own opinions back to us. The “other” becomes more unpalatable. Our own views become ever more entrenched. As a community, we largely avoid talking about subjects considered too divisive, including Israel, which was once, ironically, the issue that most unified us.

For the sake of the Jewish future, we must do better.

Recently, UJA commissioned a study to try to understand how the Jewish community, with all our differences, might find a way to embrace our full, messy, complicated diversity. Acknowledging we’ll never be “one voice,” could we give space to a range of voices, dissonant and loud as they may be?

The results of the study, while not entirely surprising, contain important takeaways. One of them: when people in particular camps have friends on the “other side,” they have more empathy for that point of view.

For example, if you’re a conservative with liberal friends, you’re going to be more understanding of those who are critical of an Israeli policy. And if you’re a liberal with conservative friends, you’re more likely to understand why it’s so painful to hear an Israeli policy criticized. Additionally, religious Jews with secular friends, and vice versa, are more accepting of those who practice Judaism differently than they do.

In other words, building relationships really matters. Avoidance doesn’t keep us safe from conflict; it just adds more distance between us.

This week, UJA convened a “Jewish connectivity conversation,” where the study’s researchers, led by Professor Steven M. Cohen, presented the findings to a room filled with a wide array of rabbis, educators, professionals, and lay leaders. Each one of them can carry this message out into their individual communities.

And we’re already putting some of these findings into action. Among many other programs, we’re working with three synagogues on the Upper East Side — Central Synagogue, Kehilath Jeshurun, and Park Avenue Synagogue, respectively Reform, Orthodox, and Conservative. Members from each congregation are meeting three times for conversations about Israel. Even after the first conversation, we heard people say: “We have more in common than we thought.”

We do, indeed.

And so, in the spirit of connecting, I have a request for you this week. Venture into an unfamiliar JCC or synagogue. Hear what’s happening outside your local circle. Deliberately engage (civilly, of course…) with someone who does not share your point of view.

It’s where empathy begins. And from empathy, with time and tenacity, comes a stronger community.

Shabbat shalom