The Department of Homeland Security is known for fighting terrorism by any means necessary. Now, it’s trying a kinder, gentler approach, giving grants to five schools to sponsor a “dialogue group” for Christians, Jews and Muslims.
The pilot program is almost completely based in Massachusetts, with Tufts, Wellesley, Brandeis and MIT participating. The one exception is the University of Maryland, where Washington Jewish Week writer Eric Fingerhut talked to students.

“I think it’s a great move by them [DHS] targeting students,” said Elana Brownstein, a junior and the Jewish student intern for the group. College students “are at the stage where they’re forming opinions and this is really influential.”

Sabira Aboosaiedi, a Maryland sophomore and another of the student interns, said that she was somewhat surprised to hear about the dialogue sponsor and that it seemed a little “intimidating” at first.

But she also said that “it’s interesting that Homeland Security is interested in funding programs to help understand terrorism.”