Amid cracked and toppled headstones inscribed in Arabic, Haitham Bundakji dropped to the ground sobbing. He laid his hands on the moss-covered grave where, his parents had told him, his older brothers were buried five decades earlier.

Two companions helped him to his feet, brushed the grass from his face and held Bundakji by the arms as he staggered around the weed-choked cemetery, reciting verses from the Koran and kissing the graves. Together, the rabbi and minister asked God--by whatever name--to comfort this devout Muslim from Fountain Valley, who says his brothers were killed by Jewish soldiers and his family run off their land in what once was called Palestine.

"If one Arab and one Jew can be friends, there's hope for all of us," said Melinda Griffith a Catholic, found herself deeply moved by the evolving relationship between Rabbi Bernie King and Haitan Bundakji on the 12-day spiritual trek.

The trip, arranged through the National Conference for Community and Justice, a New York-based interfaith group, is one of only a few such pilgrimages for people of various faiths, including Jews, Protestants, Muslims, Bahais, Catholics, Mormons and Christian Scientists.

Los Angeles Times Staff Photography: Gail Fisher

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer: Elaine Gale