In 2012, one of Sophie Malik’s friends from Daar Ul Islam Mosque asked her what she had planned for Christmas.

A Muslim, Malik does not celebrate the holiday, so she replied:  “I’m probably going to go to the movies. I might go to a Christmas lunch at a friend’s house. I’m probably going to sleep in.”

The friend was involved with Jewish-Muslim Day of Community Service, an annual event on Christmas,  and told Malik that volunteers were needed. She asked whether Malik could come to a planning meeting at the Jewish Federation of St. Louis office. 

“I went really having no expectations,” Malik said. “And I walked in, and it was just amazing.”

For someone who treaded lightly into her first meeting, Malik has left quite a footprint on the event, which consists of volunteer opportunities at sites throughout St. Louis. 

In 2014, she became co-chair of the event. The number of volunteers has increased to more than 1,300 in 2016 from 200 in 2011, the first year of the event. (That number dipped slightly last year to about 1,000; Malik suspects it was because of the weather.)

That growth, fueled in part by Malik’s involvement, has helped not only people who receive assistance from a volunteer site such as the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry, but also strengthened relations between the Jewish and Muslim communities.

“The best interfaith relationships are built between communities of people, but they are always built on the foundation of personal relationships,” said Leslie Heberlie, executive director of Interfaith Partnership of Greater St. Louis. “Sophie builds excellent relationships by bringing her authentic self to the table every time.”

Malik is the daughter of Pakistani immigrants. She grew up in Chesterfield and Florissant. 

She said her Muslim faith “taught me to be as good a person as you can be, to give to others, to help the less fortunate.”

Malik’s father was a doctor who died when she was young; her mom would volunteer at hospitals and for groups like the Pakistani Student Association.

“Volunteering was something we always did,” Malik said.

She also learned what it’s like to be the outsider and to step outside your comfort zone. In seventh grade, she started attending a Catholic school that didn’t have a cafeteria, which meant her mom often gave her “tandoori chicken in a foil pack. My mom didn’t believe in Saran wrap, so everything was in a foil pack.”

“People would be like, ‘What is that?’ ” she recalls.

At home, they spoke only Urdu, and her parents wouldn’t even respond if she spoke in English.

“They would laugh because as soon as we left the house, abu would turn into dad and ammi would become mom,” said Malik, who works as a stylist and cares for her mother, who is in poor health. “For a Pakistani-American Muslim girl, a lot of the cultural and religious stuff gets intertwined, and I think a lot of my faith is what makes me do the interfaith work.” 

As a co-chair of the event, Malik starts planning in August. She helps with fundraising, finding volunteer sites, collecting supplies and recruiting volunteers, among other tasks. Then on the day of, she might be assisting at the welcome breakfast or preparing volunteer sites or facilitating interviews for members of the media.

“She puts in dozens and dozens of hours,” said Gail Wechsler, who spent eight years working for the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis, which sponsors the day of service. “She is really tireless in terms of recruiting Muslims to be site captains, recruiting them to donate. And a lot of the detail work, making sure we have enough supplies. Really, just whatever was needed, she would do.”

Malik also came up with the idea in 2014 to alternate the welcome breakfast each year between a Jewish site and the Daar Ul Islam Mosque. 

“A lot of people asked me, why is the breakfast always at [Jewish Community Center]?” Malik said. “[Alternating] gives Jews the opportunity to tour the mosque.”

Wechsler said Malik’s idea to alternate sites and her involvement generally “ensures that all of the partners are at the table and have a voice with how things are done. Otherwise, you run the risk of having it look like the Jewish community is running this event even though it’s really a joint program.”

As Malik has taken a leadership role in the day of service, she also has become involved with other interfaith efforts. She volunteers with JCRC’s anti-poverty program, recruited Muslims to participate in an anti-hunger walk and accompanied JCRC volunteers on congressional visits to discuss the problem of hunger, Wechsler said.

Heberlie also added that even though Malik does not have a formal title with an organization such as the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis, “she makes it her job to relate to other people from other entities.”

“I think interfaith work is being done by a lot of people who tend to stay invisible because the work that they do to build relationships across lines of religious difference is happening …  in their living rooms, in their dining rooms, in their coffee shops,” Heberlie said. “So it’s good to see that work get honored.”