Over 300 people have taken the time to post comments, and I am sorry to report that much of the conversation is disheartening. There is so much ignorance, anger and fear out there!

I urge you to follow this issue and try to steer the conversation in helpful directions. We have a long way to go…

Like my colleague Nancy, who blogged about the experience below, I came away impressed and inspired, also noting many of the recurring themes that Nancy listed in her last post.

One of them- including Evangelical Christians in inter-religious dialogue- resonates deeply with me. A course that I am currently co-teaching with Professor Emmanuel Itapson at Palmer Theological Seminary (PTS) is doing exactly that.

“Jewish-Christian Encounter Through Text”- a course offered jointly by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) and PTS brings together 8 Rabbinical students from RRC and 8 seminarians from PTS to study in interfaith pairs. For a semester, the students engage deeply with one another, with Biblical text as a foundation for their explorations and conversations.

What happens when you bring these seemingly disparate groups of emerging religious leaders together?
A lot.

They seek commonality. They tell stories. They bring their vulnerabilities. They navigate issues of accessibility and ownership of the text. They are offered a new lens through which to view their sacred text. They are forced to articulate their beliefs and explain aspects of their traditions to their partners, helping them to clarify their relationships to their tradition, their sacred literature and to God. As the semester progresses and trust develops, they share their challenges. They question their partners. They practice humility. They come to understand their differences-and respect them.

As the relationships deepen between the pairs, and among the group, so too does understanding. What results is a broadening of the definitions of “Progressive Jew” and “Evangelical Christian” –to include nuance, personal narratives and diversity.

While there is much I could say about the ways this experience has been thus far transformative for the students (and the instructors!) I would rather share a few words from one of the Rabbinical students taking the course. She writes:

“Each study session with [my partner] takes us deeper into the text, into our curiosity about one another and each other’s faith tradition, and into the spaces where we differ, which is where the energy and excitement (and fear of what we will encounter) lie. When we first met, we were a bit shy and polite, almost like a first date when you are excited and want to make a good first impression, and most of all do not want to get off on the wrong foot. Now we jump right into our dialogue, not wanting to waste a second and I feel slightly annoyed when someone comes to the door of “our space” and says we have to stop!…Anyway, the conversations now are beyond intellectually stimulating – they are soul stirring!”

Last week, I had the privilege of attending a wonderful conference, “Educating Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Leaders for Service in a Multi-Religious World: The American Seminary Context.” The college was hosted by  Andover Newton Theological School, Boston Theological Institute, and Hebrew College. To read an overview of the conference written by Joshua Stanton, editor of the  Journal of Inter-religious Dialogue,  click

The conference was extraordinarily rich: two and a half days filled with panels and programs from breakast till late in the evening. A wide range of speakers presented on a rich variety of topics, all related to the question of training the next generation of religious leaders. Certain themes recurred. Here is a brief list of the ones I noted:

1)Radical pluralism—Professor Diana Eck, founder of the Harvard Pluralism Project, was honored with an award at the conference and was quoted often, sometimes merely to note the title of her 2001 book, “A New Religious America: How a “Christian Country” Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation

Curriculum Infusion– Many speakers agreed that adding extra courses, as if multifaith was an added on bonus/elective, was not the best way to transform seminary education. Rather, we need to think about how the formation of our clergy in all its aspects might reflect an awareness of the multifaith world they will confront.

I will be speaking on a panel on educational opportunities “beyond the classroom.” Although we have several major initiatives outside the classroom, including student  internships with multifaith organizations,  I have chosen to present  our co-curricular guest speaker series, “Praying with Your Feet: Conversations with Faith Based Activists.”

. Multifaith education is about imparting information and teaching skills , but it is also about formation and inspiration. One of the values we want to impart to our rabbis  is the willingness to dream big,  to expand their imaginations as they envision how their rabbinates might make a difference in the world.

How do people translate their faith into action?

2008-2009

*Sheikh Ghassan Manasra — director of Anwar il-Salaam, a Muslim peace and dialogue centre based in Nazareth, Israel  

*Richard Taylor  –  Raised in the Quaker faith, joined the Catholic Church in 1982 at the age of 49. Coordinator of Development for St. Vincent de Paul’s Peace Ministry in Philadelphia.  Author,  A Peace Ministry in Practice, and Why I am Still a Catholic . Read about his visit here.

*Krystin Komarnicki –Editor,  Prism Magazine, published by Evangelicals for Social Action, Philadelphia. Read about her visit here.

*Samir Selmanovic — founder of Faith House Manhattan and author, It’s Really all about God. Read about his visit here.

*Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb —  founder of Shomer Shalom, a network of Jewish individuals committed to the Torah of Nonviolence. ordained in the Jewish Renewal movement in 1981. Author,  She Who Dwells Within: A Feminist Vision of a Renewed Judaism.(Currently Lynn is helping to launch the Community of Living Traditions — an interfaith intentional community dedicated to nonviolence at Stony Point Center(Presbyterian Church USA)Read about her visit here.

2009-2010

* Professor Mohja Kahf —   Poet, Novelist and Professor of Comparative Literature,  University of Arkansas, author, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. Activist on gender issues in Islam.

*Professor Theodore Friend  — former president of Swarthmore College, Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a member of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.  Newest book-in-progress, Toward an Open Islam: Woman, Man, and God in Five Muslim Cultures. Read about his visit here.

*Rabbi Sheila Weinberg — co-founder and Director of Outreach at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. author, Surprisingly Happy: an Atypical Religious Memoir(2010) Active in Rabbis for Human Rights among other justice and peace initiatives.

*Reverend Susan Teegan Case — Founding Director, Arts and Spirituality Center, Philadelphia, a not-for-profit organization comprised of artists and spiritual leaders working with multi-faith constituencies who see the interplay of artistic and spiritual expression as an avenue for social and personal healing,

Several years ago, the dean of the school called our Department of Multifaith Studies seeking a professor who could teach homiletics to her seminary students, Koreans newly arrived in this country. Her goal was for them to learn how to deliver sermons in the style that their American congregants would find congenial.

Fortunately, Rabbi Goldie Milgram was able to fit this assignment into her already busy schedule.  Goldie and the Won students preparing for ordination have both been thrilled to connect and  learn from one another.

Not only is Goldie helping them with public speaking skills tailored to a religious setting, she recently invited this year’s class to her home for a Shabbat dinner.

In between the Jewish rituals, the students were able to practice offering impromptu blessings before and after a  meal, invocations and toasts.

Thanks to Goldie for continuing this interfaith adventure, and thanks to Hubbatzin Barry Bub for taking pictures.

My experience in American Jewish communities, dating back to the seventies, confirms Cohen’s claims.  It was rare to find a serious encounter with religious sources going hand-in-hand with left-liberal Jewish activism. The latter was the province of Reform or secular Jews who grounded their thinking less in Talmud than in Kant. The former was pursued almost entirely by Orthodox Jews who were usually conservative or not involved in the political sphere.

According to Cohen—and I happily agree—that situation is changing. Cohen offers a number of examples of Jews who are engaged in “taking back the texts.” He then asks, Why? One reason he notes is of particular interest to readers of this blog. Cohen writes that the move to ground one’s social activism in traditional Jewish text is, among other things, “a way to participate in a multiethnic and interfaith discussion from a grounded Jewish space and in a textured Jewish vocabulary.”

Fascinating! I think Cohen is right.  Much social justice work in this country takes place in coalitions of faith based activists. Religiously inspired Catholics and Protestants have led many of the great social change movements in America, most dramatically the civil rights movement of the 1960′s. When Jews join with Christians to work on issues from homelessness to undocumented immigrants to the environment, they are encouraged and inspired  to bring to the table their own spiritual idioms. They do not want to share the Christian language, but they are moved by Christian faith.  In seeking the language of Talmud, it seems these Jews are looking less  for guidance on issues than a sense of the religious depths from which they hope to act as they  “heal the world.”

Here we see an example of one of the ways interfaith encounter enriches our lives.

A Jesuit priest and a Medical Mission Sister, two scholars of Islam wearing hijabs, a healthy dose of rabbis, rabbinical students and ministers, and assorted colleagues and friends gathered to hear a learned historian who is a former college president and a Presbyterian elder……

We were there as part of our ongoing salon series, Praying with Your Feet: Conversations with Socially-Engaged Religious Activists, a program sponsored by RRC’s Department of Multifaith Studies and Initiatives. Over the last three years these salons have brought a diverse group visionary leaders of many faiths to speak to our rabbinical students and to the larger community, to share the spiritual and intellectual journeys that guide their work.

Last week our guest was Professor Theodore Friend.

Friend is an historian, novelist and educator. He is the former president of Swarthmore College, a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and an active member of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.

Friend shared some of the journey that brought him to be writing his book-in-progress, Toward an Open Islam: Woman, Man, and God in Five Muslim Cultures.

He also shared some of his research with us-which is in the form  of hundreds of interviews with Muslim women and men across 5 countries. Not lost on Friend, or the group, was the irony of his endeavor. He opened the session by asking himself, and us, “What’s an old Protestant white guy like me doing studying the Islamic world?”

Listening to Friend was powerful and instructive- not only because of the personal stories he shared, but also in the way he modeled humility and integrity, stopping often to seek input from the group, welcoming interpretation and even gentle critique, as he affirmed the collective wisdom in the room. In doing so, he modeled a person seeking to engage deeply with persons of another faith, taking seriously the responsibility to accurately represent complexities and nuance within Islam. He brings to his work an awareness that facts are not just facts- they land in a social context and become part of that context in ways that can be harmful as well as helpful.

We look forward to our final salon for the year, to take place in late April, when we will welcome Rabbi Sheila Weinberg author of the forthcoming Surprisingly Happy-An Atypical Religious Memior, and a graduate of RRC who has engaged deeply with Buddhism.

Are these videos needed? According to a  Gallup Center for Muslim Studies report released in February,  indeed they are. More than 4 in 10 Americans (43%) admit to feeling at least “a little” prejudice toward Muslims — more than twice the number who say the same about Christians (18%), Jews (15%) and Buddhists (14%).

These two examples are not the same in their method, although both address some of the key prejudices Americans typically hold about Muslims.

The first was created by the Center for American Progress.

The second was by Kareem Salama, a “Muslim cowboy.”

Please check them out and let us know here what you like and why.

In this article, Ira Rivkin raises an interesting question. The New York Times wants us to see the story of the friendship of two Princeton undergrads–a Palestinian and a Jew–as a big deal, worthy of a news item. But, Rivkin points out, doesn’t that just perpetuate the stereotype of emnity the story purports to challenge? What is the role of the “feel good” story in tracking Muslim-Jewish relations? What do you think?

Hilgeman’s  piece tells a powerful story of  how caring human encounter can transcend the divisions of faith traditions.  She was hired to serve the Jewish residents; she wore a kippah and led Hebrew services; differences of class and race set her apart from the non Jewish staff. Both learned something new from this experience.  On her side, she writes, “I have advocated for building interfaith relationships because I believe in its political importance, but until that evening, I still had some doubts about the limits of such connectedness on a spiritual level.”  As for the non Jewish staff members, Hilgeman quotes a nurse saying, “We are all one. I wasn’t sure about this before, but now I know.”

Many of us have had similar experiences, often in the wake of tremendous upheavals that compel us to forge connections we might not have imagined.  How do we keep that energy fresh and vital in calmer times? What are its limits?