They are only teenagers, but a pair of New Jersey high school students -- one Jewish and one Muslim -- are tackling an issue much bigger than themselves, bridging divides in their suburb shaken by the Israel-Hamas war.

The effort originated soon after the October 7 attacks by Hamas and Israel's invasion of Gaza, when Rawda Elbatrawish, 17, took to Instagram to pitch an educational event.

"I was originally going to do a protest, but I decided to do a dialogue instead," recalled Elbatrawish, who is Muslim.

Liora Pelavin, 15, a fellow student at Teaneck High School, and a Jew, quickly responded and helped to pull together an initial session for the end of October.

The unexpected success of that first meeting led to a second, larger one, and the girls since have enjoyed support -- but also faced some derision -- from their traditionally tolerant town.

Elbatrawish had expected the initial meeting would draw perhaps 10 people, but soon realized "we were getting way more than we can hold," she said -- some 60 in all.

Despite the strong turnout, the girls were not overly optimistic about the outcome of the meeting.

"We had a lot of people telling us that this was not going to do anything,........

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