Islam has a similar solution, “musharka,” whereby the lender and borrower are considered partners who share the risk of any investment. Islamic banking that allows such contracts is not practiced in Israel.

Judaism found the solution to interest-bearing bank accounts in exemption contract , agreements that legally change the status of a loan. Through this mechanism, when someone deposits money in a bank, he actually becomes a partner in the bank’s investments, for which he receives agreed-upon profits rather than compound interest. This situation is also in force when the transaction is reversed, when the bank is the lending party.

The Jewish and Islamic savings plans for children are supposed to guarantee that no interest is earned. Practically, Sharia favors investing in retirement plans, and Halakhah makes it possible to put money in banks as well as retirement plans. The big problem with having money in banks is that every deposit is essentially a loan to the institution, which then pays interest to the depositor. Even if a depositor requests not to receive interest on his or her money, the bank uses the depositor’s funds to loan with interest to others, which would be in violation of religious law.

Jewish and Islamic law have something in common when it comes to borrowing and lending with interest. “Lending with interest is one of the gravest transgressions in the Torah, and therefore, one of the greatest mitzvoth [good deeds] is lending without interest,” Rabbi Abraham Fine, from the Court for Interest in Jerusalem, explained to Al-Monitor. Similarly, Ibrahim Salma, imam of the Ajami Mosque in Jaffa, told Al-Monitor, “In Sharia, interest is a grave sin , and a Muslim must not pay or receive interest, even a pittance.”

Starting in January 2017, the State of Israel will open a savings account for every child eligible for a child allowance and deposit 50 Israeli shekels ($13) in it every month until the child is 18. These funds will be disbursed in addition to the child allowance received by his or her parents. Under the plan, Saving for Every Child, the funds in the name of the child will be put in a retirement account or a bank account, according to the parents’ wishes. In addition to investment plans at banks and retirement funds, ranked by degree of risk, parents can also select from two other options: a savings plan that conforms to Halakhah (Jewish law) and a plan that conforms to Sharia (Islamic law).

Salma said the Jewish solution of an exemption contract is unacceptable in Islam. “We see an exemption contract as a purely legal status that doesn’t change the essence,” he explained. “The essence is that you receive a certain sum and return more. The difference is forbidden interest.” Salma acknowledged that many Muslims obtain mortgages and other loans from banks, which he sees clearly as interest-bearing transactions, but said, “When reality forces us to do so, we can’t prevent people from doing it.”

Fine, however, asserted, “An exemption contract is absolutely not a verbal trick, since it has full legal force, and it is signed under a valid legal umbrella. Judaism has succeeded in fitting Jewish law to modern banking and doesn’t allow a situation where things are permitted only because there’s no other choice.” On the other hand, Fine clarified that there are many people from the ultra-Orthodox sector who don’t rely on the exemption contract.

Nurdin Shubash, imam of Kefar Kama and a member of the Israeli fatwa committee, explained that according to Islam, every dealing with banks is problematic. “With every overdraft you get embroiled in interest,” he told Al-Monitor. “When you deposit money in a bank and don’t receive interest, the money is used to lend with interest to others. So the bank takes interest from your money and sins with it.”

The imam said that Islam has solutions similar to the exemption contract and that banks in Islamic banks in Europe and Saudi Arabia employ them. Shubash clarified that the fatwa committee’s recommendation is to use the Israeli postal bank, where one cannot overdraw, and there are fewer problems with interest.

Ibrahim Zouabi, a pension adviser from Nazareth, believes that Muslims in Israel are far less observant of the interest issue than Muslims elsewhere. “The number of Muslims who make sure to abstain from interest in Israel is negligible,” Zouabi told Al-Monitor. “Our permission to be lenient is tied to the fact that we don’t live in an Islamic country, so the existing banking situation is forced on us, and we have no choice. We have no other option for receiving the child allowance, for instance.”

He noted that in contradiction to Sharia, most Muslims in Israel freely pay and receive interest. For instance, they obtain car loans and make use of check discounting and bank credit.

Judaism and Islam have other unique limitations on investment. According to Judaism, one should avoid investing in retirement funds that hold shares of companies that work on the Sabbath and sell chametz (non-kosher-for-Passover food) for Passover. In Islam, one should not invest or benefit from the sale of alcohol, marijuana or tobacco.

The desire to abstain from receiving or paying interest has given rise to the fascinating and flourishing phenomena of free-loan societies in Israel, especially in the Jewish sector. Many people do not care to receive even a symbolic amount of interest on their money from a bank and prefer instead to lend their money to others without interest. Another development is the new job of financial kashrut supervisor, the person in investment houses who checks every investment component in plans and decides which to authorize and which to reject based on Halakhah and Sharia.

Although there may be huge rifts between Jews and Muslims on almost every other social issue in Israel, at least on religious matters, it seems they at least have some elements in common.