torah at the center - ordmanordman.net/edward/torahatthecenter_aug2008.pdf · union for reform...

UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISMDEPARTMENT OF LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING

VOLUME II, NO. 3 • SUMMER 2008 • KAYITZ 5768

INTHIS ISSUE JUDAISM AND ISLAM IN DIALOGUE

Torah at the Center

FROM OTHER TO BROTHER 1

PEACE EDUCATION AS A

TYPE OF LITERACY 3

POETRY PALS: CELEBRATING OUR

DIVERSITY THROUGH POETRY

AND ART 4

FROM INTRODUCTION TO ISLAMFOR JEWS 6

FOCUS ON WHAT UNITES US 7

NFTY TAKES A STAND ON

JUDEO-MUSLIM RELATIONS 8

PROPOSAL FOR NFTY STUDY

THEME 2008–2009 8

PAVING THE PATH TO DIALOGUE 10

WHAT I LEARNED FROM MY

TRIP TO CAIRO AND DAMASCUS 12

A TURKISH MUSLIM DIALOGUE

FOR TEENS 13

THESE AND THOSE ARE THE

WORDS OF THE LIVING GOD 14

IS JERUSALEM A DIVIDED CITY 16

REFLECTIONS OF A JEWISH

EDUCATOR ON LEARNING

ABOUT ISLAM 18

SH’MA YISRAEL:START BY LISTENING 19

Department of Lifelong Jewish Learning

633 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017-6778

P: 212.650.4110 F: 212.650.4199

[email protected] www.urj.org

P L E A S E F E E L F R E E T O U S E A N D C O P Y T O R A H A T T H E C E N T E R

Continued on next page

JUDAISM

AND

ISLAM

IN

DIALOGUE

JUDAISM

AND

ISLAM

IN

DIALOGUE

JUDAISM

AND From Other to Brother

Somewhat like the Chasidic counsel to carry one slip of paperwith the words “I am but dust and ashes” and another with thewords “The world was created for me,” in order to find abalance between the heights of hubris and the depths of despairwe experience during the course of a life, I oscillate between feel-ing the confidence of competence and the insecurity ofignorance. I hope I am not alone in this malady, and if I amalone, please allow me to live with this comforting myth. Thesubject of this issue of Torah at the Center, “Judaism and Islam in Dialogue,” isa case in point.

On one hand, I tell myself that I really do know something about Islam. I havestudied medieval poetry, philosophy and philology and learned about the culturalsymbiosis between Jews and Muslims. I have engaged in academic correspondenceand public dialogue with Muslim leaders and educators. I have taught severalcourses to rabbinical and education students at HUC-JIR in New York with thesame title as this article, “From Other to Brother,” exploring historical roots andcurrent trends in interreligious dialogue in general and Jewish-Muslim dialoguein particular.

But I have two hands. And on the other hand, I feel woefully inadequate andignorant as a Jewish educational leader. My knowledge of Islam is circumscribedand safe. It is formal and professional. I know more books about Islam than I knowMuslims. I know more about the Islam in the past than the Islam in the present.I feel fear more than hope, and I do not like that feeling. I intend to correct thispersonal imbalance and, in turn, encourage you to invest time and energy inlearning more about Islam and Muslims. The contributors represent diversity byage, gender, geography, experience and expertise, but they all share a commitmentto dialogue. This commitment should not be underestimated. Dialogue may notcome naturally or generate spontaneously. Rather, it is a learned, practiced skill.As a preface to the Union’s latest effort to catalyze Jewish-Muslim dialogue, Icomposed the following words of caution and encouragement:

Dialogue may be entirely unfamiliar to the participants in this process. They maybe well acquainted with dispute and debate. In both of these forums, there is a goal,that is, to win. In a discussion, the goal is to air views of all types, includingperspectives that clash and conflict. However, a dialogue is qualitatively different.It is a non-zero-sum activity. There is no winner, unless everyone can be considereda winner. There is no attempt to score points for one side or the other. Indeed, adialogue is an effort to find convergence, shared meaning, in which two partnersfind common cause. However, this does not mean that differences are ignored orobscured. Instead, differences are acknowledged as a given. Because the dialogueform is unusual, especially in a Jewish-Muslim context, it is important to make therules of engagement explicit. People need to resist the urge to engage in dispute or

debate. Listening is arguably the most important skill indialogue, closely followed by questioning for understanding.

Dialogue is an art that is both tentative and tolerant. Ideally,there is no other in the room, only brothers and sisters, whoshare an ancestral heritage and a rich history in which therehave been periods of symbiosis and cultural efflorescence, aswell as economic strife, political and military conflict, andreligious oppression. Dialogue cannot rewrite history, but itcan make history, and there are examples of Jewish-Christian dialogue that exemplify and amplify the point.We are barely two generations from “Nostra Aetate,”the groundbreaking document that shook the religiouslandscape and out of which emerged unprecedentedopportunities for Christian-Jewish interaction that could bemutually respectful, affirming and unifying. The trajectoryof dialogue between Jewish and Christians provides ahopeful context for dialogue between Jews and Muslims.Nevertheless, the potential for dialogue between Jews andMuslims depends on taking risks and creating a reservoir ofgood will from which both can drink. Moving frommetaphor to medium, refreshments actually are quite signif-icant in fostering an atmosphere conducive to dialogue.Food and drink that have been approved by all involved arevital components in creating a welcoming, informal contextfor relaxed conversation.

Dialogue is not conducted on a tabula rasa. People havepredispositions and prejudices. In the case of Jewish-Muslimdialogue, it is reasonable to assume that in addition toignorance there is also fear. It is desirable to clarify the goalsof dialogue for all who are participating: to listen, toquestion, to learn, to explore, and ultimately to searchtogether for a common language and perhaps a sharedvision. Dialogue requires openness, a willingness to haveone’s opinion changed, to become, in part, a differentperson as a result of a conversation.

Dialogue is difficult in general, and Jewish-Muslim dialoguemay be especially difficult for some people. We certainlyknow that some alternatives to dialogue have severe, evendire consequences, and we are witness to them in the MiddleEast as well as in North America. Dialogue is not a magicalcure to enmity, but dialogue can build bridges betweenpeople and communities, as well as have a humanizing effectthat can yield healthy relationships, including friendships.

Dialogue is a necessary but insufficient step in developingJewish-Muslim comity. Words are worthy, and when they arecoupled with action, they can become holy. Rabbi JonathanSacks’ The Home We Build Together: Recreating Societymakes this case eloquently. He cites numerous instances inGreat Britain and throughout the world in which faithcommunities collaborated with inspiring results. There isroom for intra- and interreligious dialogue and there is acompelling need for religious groups to act in concertinstead of conflict not only for the betterment of the groupsinvolved but also to demonstrate that religion at its best is acause for universal celebration and hope. This message hasbeen drowned out by religious extremists and by critics ofall religion. It is time—actually, it is long overdue—for areligious renaissance led by people whose love of God isequaled, if not exceeded, by love of human beings. May thisissue of Torah at the Center help to make brothers out ofothers and sisters out of strangers.

L’Shalom, al-Salaam,

Rabbi Jan Katzew, Ph.D., R.J.E.

Director of Lifelong Learning, Union for Reform Judaism

From Other to Brother, continued from page 1

2 UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM • DEPARTMENT OF LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING • VOLUME 11, NO. 3 • SUMMER 2008 • KAYITZ 5768

Torah at the Center

UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM • DEPARTMENT OF LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING • VOLUME 11, NO. 3 • SUMMER 2008 • KAYITZ 5768 3

Torah at the Center

Peace education, like most education, is not formulaic.It depends on context and audience, and the measure ofeffectiveness correlates to the precision of understanding bythe learner-participant.

As a Jewish peace educator concerned with the situationin Israel-Palestine and the attitudes and behaviors of mypeople, I find that the audience for this work varies a lot.We have different peace goals for people who serve in thearmy or are threatened directly by continued conflictfrom those who may not participate in the conflict exceptindirectly through political or philanthropic means.Common humanity, often the basis for dialogue, addressesonly one component of our identities. Besides being humanbeings, we also are members of religious, national and otheridentity groups. In our post-modern world, we need tooperate as if every human being has multiple identities withfluctuating hierarchies of importance. We need attempts atpeace making that unpack the cultural and communicationsbaggage that accompanies the discourse of conflict.

“Discourse literacy” suggests that we treat parties to conflictas we would members of a chevruta, a traditional studypartnership. The word chevruta and the words for “seam”and “connection” share a root in Hebrew. Chevruta studyworks because of the fragile civility that a seam requires; thissame metaphor should be applied to parties to a conflict. Ifwe teach that we are connected through a delicate seam, weremain true to the Hebrew and Arabic root of peace—wholeness. We also give validity to the idea of interconnec-tion between parties in conflict.

This addresses the epistemic foundation of discourseliteracy. If you accept that the parties to a conflict are boundto one another, then you can take the next step and apply aliteracy that helps the parties read and write their discoursetogether. “Society is a conversation scored for many voices,”says England’s chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks. “It is throughconversation that we become conjoint authors of ourcollective future.”

The kabbalists left us a brilliant tool for this task. TheirPaRDeS, an acronym that spells the Hebrew word for“grove,” is actually a superb methodology for unpackingtext. The first step is to examine the p’shat, or “literal text.”This is a description of the text without the nuance ofwhat the author wanted to communicate or how the readerinterprets it. The next letter, reish, stands for remez, the“hinted meaning.” This refers to the author’s intent. Thisis followed by the d’rash, the “reader’s experience andinterpretation.” My hope in introducing PaRDeS is thatparties to a conflict will realize that the baggage they bringto a text has to be unpacked. This is because the ultimategoal of discourse literacy is to get the parties engaged in thetext of their existence to make new meaning. The last letterof our acronym, samech, stands for sod, which means the“hidden meaning of the text.” With conjoint authors, itbecomes the deeper, collective meaning.

Peace making is not an easy chore, and it demands a lot ofwork and a lot of skill. However, as Rabbi Sacks explains,“If we are to live in close proximity to difference, we willneed more than a code of rights, even more than meretolerance. We will need to understand that just as thenatural environment depends on biodiversity, so humanenvironment depends on cultural diversity, because no onecivilization encompasses all the spiritual, ethical and artisticexpressions of mankind.” We need discourse literacy tonavigate our diverse world.

For this reason, I developed the Middle East YouthAssociation (www.meyaonline.org), a nongovernmentalorganization dedicated to teaching teachers to use criticaland media literacy to develop the skills necessary to operatewithin the discourse, especially during times of conflict. Weneed to empower students on either side of the divide thatthe only way back to completeness, shalom and salaam, is toread the hidden and interpretive meaning of our stories andlearn to write as conjoint authors in a way that makes spacefor and celebrates diversity within the context of the fragileseam that is our human civilization.

Peace Education as aType of Literacy

By Dr. David Steiner, Director of Education, Congregation Solel, Highland Park, Ill.

“Poetry Pals” was started inChicago in August 2007 bya group of dedicated volun-teers, mostly retired teachersand Jewish communal workers.The program is modeled after“We the Poets,” created in2001 by Dr. Cathleen Cohen ofPhiladelphia to meet a needfollowing 9/11. Since then,“We the Poets” has grownand is now a part of the

Arts and Spirituality Center of Greater Philadelphia(www.artsandspirituality.org).

In September 2007, after securing a $2,500 grant from theInterfaith Youth Core (www.ifyc.org), a committee wasformed. Comprised of staff from each school, the four poet-educators and the community volunteers, the committeeworked to design and implement this pilot. An amazingbond developed between the Muslim, Christian and Jewishcommittee members, and there has been a request to learnmore about each other’s traditions. Weare asking the Interfaith Youth Core forfunding and assistance for this to occurnext year.

Through poetry, the students learn toexpress their feelings, values and beliefs;they learn to listen respectfully to others.Poetry also offers the participants a newway to express themselves, build self-esteem and enhance communicationskills. The pilot project was an enormoussuccess. In March and April 2008, theMuslim Community Center Full-timeSchool in Morton Grove, Ill., and theBernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School inChicago brought 90 fourth and fifth grade students togeth-er to write poetry, create art and plan a service-learningevent that will take place in September.

The students met in March at the Jewish school and in Aprilat the Muslim school. They wrote poems about themselves,their families, their holidays and their traditions. They

played interactive games and produced two wall hangings,one for each school. The students admitted to being appre-hensive at first but were happy after they met and madefriends. Many students exchanged email addresses and havebeen keeping in contact. A beautiful moment occurredbefore the meal when each group said its respective prayerand explained the prayer’s meaning.

After the first meeting in March, the students had manyquestions for their new friends, such as: What are tradition-al foods and why? How many letters are in your alphabet?Do you pray a lot? Do you have special religious symbols inyour home? What are the head coverings called, who wearsthem and why? Teachers had their students write down theirquestions, and when they meet again in September, time willbe allotted to answer the questions in a game format.The main objective for September, however, will be theservice-learning project through which students will makesandwiches for people at a homeless shelter and write poemsthat focus on the shared tradition of caring for others.

One key to the success of this project is the poet-educators.“Poetry Pals” chooses facilitators from diverse faith tradi-

tions, cultures and ethnic back-grounds who are in tune with themission of the project. Some aremusicians or poets. Others areeducators. The facilitators aretrained to workin small groups for 60 minutes,reading poetry, demonstratingtechniques and guiding the stu-dents as they write and dialogue inan open, safe and nonjudgmentalenvironment. Poems are written inpairs or in groups, as well asindividually. The service-learningcomponent is crucial; by accom-

plishing a task together, the students strengthen their friend-ships, gain a sense of empowerment and pride, and learnthat both faith traditions share similar values.

We recommend that groups meet a minimum of three times.The more times the participants meet, the deeper the topicsthat can be explored and the deeper the relationships that

Torah at the Center


Poetry Pals: Celebrating Our DiversityThrough Poetryand Art (A Jewish Muslim InterfaithYouth Poetry Project)

By DonnaYates, Coordinator, Poetry Pals, Chicago, IL

can be developed. We plan to launch a second pilot programin October 2008 with fourth grade religious school studentsfrom a neighboring mosque and a Reform synagogue. Thisproject will be on a much smaller scale. It will take place onSundays at the mosque and synagogue with a maximum of45 to 50 students.

We continue to seek funding to become sustainable. Ourfunding covers stipends for the poet-educators, bus trans-portation to the schools and to the service-learning site,lunches, art materials and the cost of printing a bookletof the children’s poetry. In 2007-2008, many items werecovered by in-kind donations from the schools andvolunteers. The coordinator is a volunteer as well.

Today there is more awareness about the need to bring theMuslim and Jewish communities together. Many programsare being initiated on college campuses and in synagoguesfor youth groups and adults. However, we have not seen anyprograms targeting elementary-aged children. We feel this isimperative for several reasons. It sends a very powerfulmessage to children that the adults in their lives valueinterfaith dialogue. Creating friendships while young andinteracting through art, poetry, games and service helpchildren see how much they have in common. These actionsalso help to break down stereotypes to which the childrenmay be exposed from the media, in their communities oreven in their homes. By engaging in interfaith programsand sharing our stories and traditions, we can create a senseof pride.

Poetry Pals committee members and the coordinatorwelcome any questions or comments.Contact [email protected].


The Flavors of Ramadan and HanukahGroup Poem

Latkes are potatoish pancakes of steamy, crispygoodness that we eat at Hanukah.

Biryani is a ricey dish with carrots, orange, tomatoesred, and cinnamon sticks brown.

And we eat it at Ramadan.

Gelt is a thing that you win at a dreidel game,chocolate goodness, hard and coin formed that weeat at Hanukah.

Samosas are spicy, crunchy, and come in manyshapes that we eat at Ramadan

Sufganyot are doughy, jellyfish things that stick toour fingers at Hanukah.

And dates are the soft, wrinkled, dry and lumpyoversized grapes that are good even though it doesnot sound like it, that we eat at Ramadan.

Sounds in Our Kitchens

Moms in the kitchenSisters in the bathDads at work,But it’s almost time to laugh.Gather around the tableWe’re having a good time.We’re talking together, becauseIt’s family time.

By: Suha and Shana

Our moms love to cook.Sounds like mixing eggs and baking,washing dishes and making dinner.Even though we are different, we all come togetherIn the kitchen.

By: Madina and Haley

Thunderstorm

I am a thunderstormWet, soggyBlurry and fresh

I remind people of springI am scared of the sun,I want people to stay inside and have no fun.

I don’t like umbrellasSo people can go outside and take a shower.Animals don’t like me because I’mWet, yet, I have no fret.

I laugh at the crying grass when it’s so wetMy only friend is lightning, andThat the sun is so frightening.

By: Medina, Ilyssa, Raihan and Sameer

Torah at the Center


When we refer to interreligious dialogue today, we meandialogue that is not for the purpose of scoring points orgaining converts. We expect something of far greatervalue. Dialogue can bring a deeper and more realisticunderstanding and appreciation between people of differentfaith traditions. Understanding and appreciation can lead toother positive outcomes as well, such as problem solving andconflict resolution.

Happily, the Quran acknowledges that it is natural forgroups of people to differ in their religion, ethnicity andgender: “O humankind! We have created you male andfemale, and have made you nations and tribes that you mayknow one another. The noblest of you in the sight of God isthe most conscious of God. God is the Knower, the Aware.”(Quran 49:3)

One of the most interesting and complex verses relatingIslam to prior scripture and religion is Quran 5:48:

We have revealed the Book in truth, confirming theBook you have before you and preserving it. Sojudge between them by what God has revealed, anddo not follow their desires away from the truth thathas been revealed to you. For every one We haveappointed a divine law and custom. If God hadwished, He would have made you all one umma, but[the intent is] to test you by what He has given you.So compete together in doing good works! You willall return to God, and He will then inform you ofhow you differ.

In my research and teaching, I have had occasion to askpeople who are engaged in religious dialogue why they do it,and I found a wide range of answers. Most have affirmedthat their engagement in interreligious dialogue has been ameans of deepening their understanding of their own reli-gion. But for those who told me that they have been involvedin dialogues that have failed, they say that it is because oneside or the other believed that it was their duty to “teach thefaith.” Inevitably, when one side comes to teach, the otherside will close up. Such encounters cannot be sustained.But, when each side comes to learn from the other, then theother side must teach (after having been invited to do so and

with certain limits), so that both learning and teachingnaturally occur.

As we learn more about our partners in dialogue, wenaturally discard the misinformation we have accumulatedabout them through ignorance. That is a good thing,because it builds honest knowing, trust, and appreciationbased on reality and true experience. But there is more,because when we engage in dialogue we also learn moreabout ourselves. As the great religious dialogist, LeonardSwidler, has taught, “Our dialogue partner likewise becomesfor us something of a mirror in which we perceive our selvesin ways we could not otherwise do. In the very process ofresponding to the questions of our partners we look into ourinner selves and into our traditions in ways that we perhapsnever would otherwise, and thus come to know ourselves aswe could not have outside of the dialogue.” (Swidler, Duranand Firestone, 15) In response to my question about why oneshould engage in dialogue, one person immediatelyanswered, “Why not? Dialoguing is life. You can die or youcan dialogue,” not realizing that he had made a pun that hasreal meaning at a variety of levels.

There is an interesting Jewish parallel to that statement.When the famous Talmudic Rabbi Honi was not able tocontinue in the dialogic learning with his peers and col-leagues that served as the mode of education in the house ofstudy, he died. The Rabbis of the house of study coined thefollowing idiom in response, in their native Aramaic: ochevruta o mituta, meaning “without a social environment[for learning] one dies.” (Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 23a)The dialogic nature of the learning environment for JewishSages was one in which they were constantly challenged tothink through their assumptions, often by their colleaguesholding up a mirror to them.

Reprinted from Introduction to Islam for Jews,© 2008 by Reuven Firestone, published byThe Jewish Publication Society, with the permissionof the publisher. For more information, go towww.jewishpub.org/product.php?isbn=9780827608641.

From Introduction to Islam for Jews

By Reuven Firestone, Professor of Medieval Judaism and Islam, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion,Los Angeles, CA

Torah at the Center


How do we teach tolerance? How do we smash the precon-ceptions that can divide people of different faiths who maybe living next door to one another? That was our challengeand mission when we at Temple Israel decided to beginbuilding bridges with the Muslim community. We chose theAmerican holiday of Thanksgiving to be the main tool in thisconstruction project.

There is a history in our community of inter-faith dialogue between Jews and Muslims.These programs were run through our localJewish Community Relations Council, butthey always involved adults; surprisinglythere had been no attempts to bring childrenor teens together. We felt it was time.

In June 2007, I contacted Farah Javed, theSunday school headmaster at our local mosque, the MuslimCommunity of Palm Beach. Ms. Javed was very enthusiasticabout the idea of getting the children together. She present-ed the idea to her school committee who also supported it.

The program took place on the Sunday morning beforeThanksgiving. Fifteen young people from the mosque arrivedat our synagogue and were welcomed by our seventhgraders. The young teens joined together in the synagoguelibrary, participated in an ice-breaker activity and then, withthe help of Temple Israel’s Rabbi Howard Shapiro and Ms.Javed, went on to explore the Muslim ideas of zakat andsadaqa and the Jewish concept of tzedakah. These words allmean “justice,” “righteousness” and “charity.”

Later in the morning we visited Temple Israel’s sanctuary.Our seventh graders served as docents, showing our gueststhe ark and the sifrei Torah and explaining our worship cus-toms. The highlight was when one of our teens, who wasbecoming a bar mitzvah the following Shabbat, read hisTorah portion, surrounded by Muslim boys and girls, someof them wearing traditional head coverings.

The morning ended with all the young people cooking aThanksgiving feast that was later delivered to an elder-carefacility. Thanksgiving food wasn’t the only thing created thatmorning. By joining together to perform this act of sadaqa,

of tzedakah, the teens collaborated in creating a recipe for amore peaceful world in the future, experiencing shared val-ues that can strengthen the bonds between Islam andJudaism, at least in West Palm Beach.

Fast forward five months…The Muslim Community of PalmBeach has invited a group of teens andadults from Temple Israel to visit themosque. During the visit the Muslim reli-gious leader, the imam, talked to us aboutthe traditions and customs of Islam. Thewomen in our group were very surprised(and disconcerted) when they were asked toascend to the women’s section upstairs.They could hear the imam but couldn’t seehim. Interestingly enough, halfway throughthe imam’s talk, the women descended to

the main room, albeit it in the back. In the words of ourhosts, “The women revolted.” This was fine, because theMuslim women seemed to have initiated the move.

Everyone was friendly and welcoming. We spoke of havingour kids visit one another again. We talked about picnics andof creating dialogue groups between adults. We all expressedthe hope that we could find common ground as we built thisbridge between the Muslim and Jewish communities in ourown backyard. We learned that despite differences, we doshare ideas. For example, in both Islam and Judaism, Goddoes not forgive a person when he or she hurts another.Only through asking forgiveness from the wronged partycan a person repent. Also, the Arabic and Hebrew words for“read” are similar. The Arabic word Quran and the Hebrewword Mikra (a synonym for the Torah) both derive from theword for “read.” The word Islam is rooted in the Arabicword salaam, which means peace, like the Hebrew shalom.

Obvious differences exist regarding certain political issuesthat divide the Muslim and Jewish communities. However,the only way our communities can resolve the issues thatseparate us is by first focusing on what unites us. By con-centrating on the positive, we may be able to create real linksbetween the Muslim and Jewish communities.

Kein y’hi ratzon. Insh’allah. May this be God’s will.

Focus onWhat Unites Us

By Peter Eckstein RJE, Director of Education,Temple Israel,West Palm Beach, FL

Torah at the Center


In February 2008 at NFTY Veida, the NFTY general boardadopted its new study theme, V’ahavta L’rei-acha Kamocha(Love Thy Neighbor as Yourself), a theme dedicated toJewish-Muslim relations and dialogue. After hearing RabbiEric Yoffie’s sermon at the Union for Reform Judaismbiennial convention in San Diego, in which he announcedthe initiative “Children of Abraham: Muslims and Jews inConversation,” NFTYites were inspired to take on this ini-tiative and make it their own. The study theme proposal wasborn in order to increase the tolerance and awareness of theMuslim faith in the Union’s teen delegation.

Although the study theme proposal was challenged on manyaccounts at NFTY Veida, the general board agreed that thetopic at hand is relevant in so many ways to teens and highschool students in North America. V’ahavta L’rei-acha

Kamocha challenges NFTYites to realize and appreciate thesimilarities and differences between Judaism and Islamin hopes of embracing Islam. NFTY will work this yearto abolish anti-Muslim incentives and strengthen therelationship between Reform Jewish and Muslim youth withthe help of the Interfaith Youth Core and Muslim Youth ofNorth America.

Last year, NFTY focused on the idea of pluralism andacceptance of all practices within the Jewish communitywith the study theme Tihyeh Shofeit L’Atzmecha (You WillBe a Judge for Yourself). This year, it is time to expand thatidea outside of the Jewish community and to extend ouryouthful hands to the Muslim community by showing oursupport for their struggles. Islam is the fastest growingreligion in the world, and as a youth movement, NFTY has

NFTY Takes a Stand on Judeo-Muslim Relations

By Jessica Goodman, President, North American Federation ofTempleYouth

Proposal for NFTY StudyTheme2008-2009

V’ahavta L’rei-acha Kamocha—LoveThy Neighbor asYourself

WHEREAS the 69th General Assembly ofthe Union for Reform Judaism adopted aresolution on Jewish-Muslim dialogue thatwill begin a program entitled, “Children ofAbraham: Muslims and Jews inConversation,” at the 2007 Biennial in SanDiego, Calif., and;

WHEREAS the aforementioned resolutionstates, “We as Reform Jews are committedto building relationships and gaining mutu-al understanding with our Muslim neigh-bors through dialogue and shared experi-ences because of our deep conviction thatAmerica is different, one of the very fewplaces where the promise of true pluralismis not too wild a hope,” and;

WHEREAS there are voices in the NorthAmerican Jewish community who criticizeoutreach efforts and the aforementionedresolution states, “We have had quiteenough of the shrill voices who profess tospeak in our name and who use the sloganof ‘unity’ to impose their views on themoderate majority. North American Jewsremain now what they have always been—centrist, reasonable and ready to reach outto their neighbors,” and;

WHEREAS NFTY is the youth movementand voice of the Union for Reform Judaismand should represent the future of theReform Movement in North America, and;

WHEREAS the 2007-2008 NFTY StudyTheme, “Tihyeh Shofeit L’Atzmecha—YouWill Be a Judge for Yourself,” called for tol-erance and acceptance within the Jewishcommunity leading NFTYites to believethat it is time to expand formally ouracceptance to those outside of the Jewishfaith, and;

WHEREAS the Union for Reform Judaismhas pledged to “work with the IslamicSociety of North America (ISNA) andother appropriate partners to promote anew program of Muslim-Jewish dialogue—Children of Abraham: Muslims and Jewsin Conversation—based on building rela-tionships through mutual understandingand shared experiences between congrega-tions, and including a structured dialogueguide for use in such conversations,” and;

WHEREAS Deuteronomy 10:19 states,“Love the stranger in your midst, for youwere once strangers in the land of Egypt,”and;

WHEREAS Leviticus 19:18 states, “Lovethy neighbor as yourself,” and;

WHEREAS hate crimes against Muslims inthe Americas have risen exponentially sincethe 9/11 attacks on the United States, and;

WHEREAS the Jewish people know thefeeling of persecution and because of thismust try to understand the plight ofAmerican and Canadian Muslims intoday’s world, and;

WHEREAS Islam is the fastest growingreligion in the world and NFTYites should

UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM • DEPARTMENT OF LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING • VOLUME 11, NO. 2 • SPRING 2008 • AVIV 5768 9UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM • DEPARTMENT OF LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING • VOLUME 11, NO. 3 • SUMMER 2008 • KAYITZ 5768 9

Torah at the Center

made the conscious decision to learn together about Islam,its practices and its traditions, so that we may understandthis often vilified religion.

NFTY is the future of Reform Judaism, and by adopting thistheme for the upcoming year, the Union for ReformJudaism’s youth movement is promoting a future generationdefined by tolerance, understanding and the thirst forknowledge. NFTY wants to bridge the gap between Judaismand Islam and hopes to makes notable strides this year.

Together, NFTYites will write regional programs pertainingto this theme in order to increase awareness about not onlyNFTY’s study theme but the Union for Reform Judaisminitiative as well. NFTYites will strive to make interfaithdialogue and communication possible within regions and

temple youth groups across North America. At NFTYConvention 2009 in Washington, D.C., there will be anentire day devoted to interactive workshops pertaining tothe study theme so that all participants can experienceinterfaith dialogue together and live the saying, “Love thyneighbor as yourself.”

It is monumental that NFTY’s general board put its faithand concern in V’ahavta L’rei-acha Kamocha and as ReformJewish youth recognize the possible crisis ahead. Today’steens stand on the forefront of a clash of civilizations,and North America’s Reform Jewish youth want to ensurea world defined not by a Jewish-Muslim conflict but bypositive relations between Judaism and Islam.

be knowledgeable and informed about thereligion and culture, and;

WHEREAS the Jewish State of Israel issurrounded by countries all ruled by orinfluenced by Shariah Law, the Quran andIslam, and;

WHEREAS Jews and Muslims have a vio-lent and egregious past that includes mil-lions of deaths and guerilla attacks, and;

WHEREAS the United States of America isinvolved in a “War on Terror” in Iraq inorder to prevent the “clash of civilizations,”and;

WHEREAS “NFTY remains committedto learning, caring and making a differencein the world,” (http://www.nfty.org/about/goals) and interreligious dialoguehas the possibility to make a tremendouseffect on the world;

THEREFORE LET IT BE RESOLVED thatthe NFTY Study Theme for the 2008-2009year be “V’ahavta L’rei-acha Kamocha-Love Thy Neighbor as Yourself”, and;

LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED thatNFTY regions write at least one programpertaining to the study theme (Judeo-

Muslim relations, historical relationshipsbetween the two religions, teen Abrahamicdialogue, overcoming ignorance aboutJudeo-Muslim disputes) and create anenvironment that promotes acceptancethrough the 2008-2009 school year, and;

LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED thatNFTY strives to make it possible for allNFTYites to communicate and createdialogue between temple youth groups(TYGs) and Muslim youth groups, and;

LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED thatNFTY continues to focus on “peace in theMiddle East” and promote positive Judeo-Muslim relations both in North America,and;

LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED thatNFTYites are encouraged to explore theMuslim faith, and;

LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED thatNFTY regional board members encourageTYG board members to program on theaforementioned study theme and produceprograms for the annual Tikkun OlamAward, and;

LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED thatNFTY will endorse examination of Judeo-

Muslim conflicts through programmingand thereby acknowledge the differencesand furthermore discover routes to cooper-ation and peace.

Respectfully submitted,Zachary Bronstein, GER PresidentJessica Goodman, NAR PresidentSteven Moss, SAR SAVP

Co-signed:Alex Rogers, NEL PresidentArielle Elmaleh-Sachs, NAR NYCMVPBJ Michaels, NAR WFMVPElena Zeidman, SW SAVPEmily Watson, NAR CVPEryn Frank, SW MVPHope Spector, PAR PVPJenny Rikelman, SO PresidentMaggie Lowenberg, MV SAVPMichelle Cravez, STR SAVPMolly Bulman, PAR SAVPRobby Liebman, SAR PresidentSally Bronston, SO PVPSarah Harper, STR MVPShelley Adler, NAR LIMVPSimon Stratford, CAR PresidentStaci Bank, NAR PVP

Paving the Path to Dialogue

By Dr. Judea Pearl, President, Daniel Pearl Foundation

First came an “Open Letter From Muslims to Jews,” signedby dozens of leading Muslim scholars and intellectuals in theWest, calling for “Peace, Dialogue and UnderstandingBetween Muslims and Jews.”

The letter, which was initiated by American Universityprofessor Akbar Ahmed and formally presented by OxfordUniversity professor Tariq Ramadan at Cambridge, England,stresses the Quranic acceptance of Jews and Muslims asone nation (umma); elaborates on commonalities ofcontemporary beliefs, rituals and values; celebrates sharedmemories of positive historical encounters; and ends with acall for “concrete outcomes in Muslim-Jewish relations indifferent parts of our shared world.”

Second came an impassioned plea from the Saudi KingAbdullah, for a dialogue among Muslims, Christians andJews, the first such proposal from the custodian of Islam’sholiest shrines and a nation that bans non-Muslim religiousservices and symbols. Abdullah said that Saudi Arabia’s topclerics have given him the green light to hold meetings with“our brothers” in Christianity and Judaism, “so we canagree on something that guarantees the preservation ofhumanity against those who tamper with ethics, familysystems and honesty.”

The official Jewish response to these proposals has beenwholeheartedly enthusiastic.

Oddly, when I was asked by the initiative organizers torespond to the Muslim letter, I felt somewhat reluctant; itseems that all the media excitement caused me to take asober look at the enterprise of Jewish-Muslim dialogue, withwhich I have been involved for almost five years.

My first thought landed, of course, on the positive symbolicvalue of having a visible dialogue going, regardless of itscontent. I, therefore, commended the authors for opening anew channel of communication between Jews and Muslims,and I endorsed the letter as “a welcome first step toward thegoals of peace, understanding and mutual respect.”

But then I asked myself, how would an average Jewishreader react to the content of the letter? It became clear thatthe letter would evoke two immediate reservations, if notobjections: First, it is totally void of self-criticism. Second, itskirts the thorniest of all issues: Israel’s right to exist.

The question then became not whether a dialogue is a goodthing to have (this I take as an axiom) but whether uncondi-tional embracing of an invitation based on certain premisesconstitutes a tacit endorsement of those premises, withwhich one may disagree. In our case, the two premisesin question are, first, that Islam is in no need for reformor introspection because it is already a pluralistic,nonexpansionist, Jew-respecting, violence-minimizing andhuman-rights-protecting religion and, second, that peacecan somehow be achieved without Muslim acceptance of thelegitimacy and permanency of Israel.

The concept of reform is a sensitive one in conversationswith Muslims.

Understandably, no person, let alone a community leader,would engage in an interfaith discussion only to listen to asermon on how his or her religion should be reformed.Reforms, as Jews surely would recall, emerge from internaldebates, not external criticism. Dealing with reform isespecially difficult for Muslims because they are instructedto view the Quran as the final, perfect and immutable wordof God.

In view of these constraints, what the Muslim letter ispresenting to us is, in effect, a progressive reform strategythat we might as well call “stealth reform,” namely, reformcast as reinterpretation of the sacred scriptures.

This strategy invokes a simple recipe of dealing with contra-dictory texts in the Quran: Texts that conform to acceptednorms of modernity are to be considered central, universaland intentional, while those that deviate from modernnorms are contextualized to specific events in seventhcentury Arabia and marginalized from modern discourse.


Torah at the Center

Before we dismiss this strategy as self-deceptive or disingen-uous, we should be reminded that an identical strategy hasbeen used to great advantage in the Jewish tradition sincethe time of the Mishnah. Its most explicit expression isencapsulated in the Talmudic saying, “Whatever a seasonedscholar is destined to innovate before his master was alreadyrevealed to Moses at Sinai.” (Yerushalmi, Peiah 2.4) In otherwords, the Talmud bestows divine power unto the capacityof the human mind to reason and innovate.

The secret of this “stealthy” strategy lies in its power tousher in reform without challenging the divine origin of thescriptures; modern interpretations, however creative, aregiven equal chance to compete against extremist, literalistinterpretations that accord universal validity to morallyoutdated texts. Stealth reform worked marvels in the Jewishtradition. (For example, no child was ever stoned fordisobeying his parents. [Sanhedrin, 71]) And, if it worked inthe Muslim world, we would be the last ones to quibble withits logic.

However, the effectiveness of this strategy depends criticallyon finding authoritative spiritual leaders who are willingto implement it in practice and turn it into the rulingphilosophy of religious education. In other words, progres-sive interpretations of the Quran would become credible ifsustained and reinforced by educational and jurisprudenceinstitutions, such as Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the mostprestigious center of Muslim learning in Sunni Islam.Unfortunately, the leaders of these institutions, includingMuhammad Sayyid Tantawi, grand imam of Al-AzharUniversity, often support literalist interpretations that depictJews as despicable, eternal enemies of Islam, and theseinterpretations are the ones that currently are gainingmomentum in vast areas of the Muslim world.

It seems reasonable, therefore, to suggest that the Muslimletter would do more good if sent to Grand Imam Tantawiand other Islamic leaders in the Middle East who, evidently,have compelling reasons to object to the conciliatoryinterpretation espoused in the letter.

The Israeli-Palestinian issue is more subtle. Although theMuslim letter tries hard to avert controversial topics, itadmits nevertheless: “At the core of the Muslim-Jewish ten-sion lies the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and proposes:“A peaceful resolution that will assure mutual respect,prosperity and security to both Palestinians and Israelis,while allowing the Palestinian people their rights toself-determination.”

Readers familiar with the history of Israel’s plight for a two-state solution would notice immediately the asymmetricallanguage in which the proposed resolution is cast. Whereasthe rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination areaffirmed explicitly, the rights of Israelis to the same status ofself-determination are left undeclared, vulnerable to futureassaults by enemies of co-existence.

In my response to the letter, I therefore expressed hope thatthe next phase of the dialogue “will bring Muslim andJewish leaders closer toward a position of symmetry and rec-iprocity, and boldly acknowledge the historical rights ofboth sides to self-determination in two, equally legitimate,equally indigenous and equally secured states.”

I am convinced thoroughly that such acknowledgment,benign and neutral as it may sound, would do more forworld peace than theological accounts of shared prophetsand common rituals. And if King Abdullah’s conferencemanages to sprout such acknowledgment, we will indeed befacing the dawn of a totally new era in the Middle East.

What I still am unable to determine, though, is whetherentering a dialogue in response to an asymmetrical invitationhas a better chance of restoring symmetry than insisting onsymmetry at the onset.

A longer version of this article was published in the JewishJournal of Greater Los Angeles, Opinion, April 18, 2008.This article is reprinted with permission.


Torah at the Center


Torah at the Center

What I Learned From MyTrip to Cairo and Damascus

By Rabbi Jeremy Schneider,Temple Shalom, Dallas,TX

In June of 2008, I joined an eight-person, multifaithAmerican delegation on an international citizen-to-citizenexchange program. The program was sponsored by theNational Peace Foundation (NPF), a Washington, D.C.-based nongovernmental organization, in partnership withthe Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a nationalMuslim organization. The experiential workshop on“Religion and Society” focused on learning about Islam inthe Middle East. Members of the delegation includedMuslims, Jews, a Lutheran, a Methodist and a Quaker.

My experiences on the “Religion and Society Tour” openedmy eyes to the Muslim community. Many Jewish Americansstruggle with Islamophobia, the fear of Islam based on mis-understandings and misconceptions. My teacher, RabbiReuven Firestone, teaches in his book An Introduction toIslam for Jews, “When people of different cultures, religionsor nations live in fear or resentment of one another, negativestereotypes grow apace.” The best way to break this viciouscycle is by engaging in sincere and honest dialogue with ourMuslim neighbors. Dialogue means being willing to listenand learn from the Other, not teaching or changing theOther. As we communicate in dialogue, the misinformationwe have accumulated through ignorance is discarded.Honesty, trust and appreciation based on real experiencesare built instead.

In my experiences in Egypt and Syria, I met with Muslimthinkers, practioners, writers and activists. After only a dayof encounters, the misinformation I held about Islam wasstripped away, and seeds of trust for growing meaningfulrelationships were laid in my heart.

In addition to having the chance to talk and learn, I was wit-ness to Muslims living out our shared values. In Kafr ElSheikh, a city located in an Egyptian province of the NileDelta (about two and a half hours north of Cairo), I metwith 20-something-year-old activists and organizers of“Kinooz” (Arabic for “treasures”), a grassroots community-development organization. The countless hours they havevolunteered in establishing programs to address needs of thecommunity, including clothing drives, computer training

and literacy programs, resonated with my understanding ofthe value of tikkun olam.

Another highlight was meeting with the grand muftis ofEgypt and Syria, Sheik Ali Gomaa and Sheik Badr al-DinHassoun. During my meeting with Sheik Gomaa of Egypt, Ilearned about the true meaning of Islam as it pertains tosharia and Islamic law. Sheik Hassoun of Syria spoke aboutthe need to focus on the similarities in our beliefs in theoneness of God, the same God. He encouraged us to riseabove our labels of Jews, Christians and Muslims and to seethat we are all God’s creations. Rather than refer toeach other as “Other,” we should call each other “Brother”and “Sister.” The way we refer to one another can create amindset that leads to more positive or negative encounters.

I asked Sheik Gomaa what he would say to those in mycommunity who are afraid of Islam because of the extrem-ism in Islam we see so prominently in the media. Heresponded by reminding me that there are extremists inJudaism, Christianity and Islam. He then pointed out thatthere are probably 12,000 Muslim extremists in the worldand probably 1.2 billion Muslims in the world—about oneMuslim extremist for every 1 million moderate Muslims. Ifwe would focus on what we have in common and what ourdifferences are, we could have meaningful and inspirationaldialogue and growth. He wanted to remind all of us whofollow the Western religions that we are listening to the samemessage from God, who teaches love, truth and justice.

This comment got me thinking about Moses and the story ofthe burning bush, the story of a man who one day looks upand truly perceives the miracle that is before him. It is easyto be distracted by the extremists who are making news, butour challenge is to look closely at our society, notice theproblems and take time to learn about our neighbors. Wemust fight extremism. As Rabbi Yoffie said, “Extremism hashijacked our religion, and we, as moderates, must worktogether to take religion back for each of us.” We can beginby dialoguing to build trust and understanding and thenwork together to realize our shared values.


Torah at the Center

Two years ago, my friend Rabbi Amy Small introduced meto Dr. Levent Koc, director of the New Jersey branch ofthe Interfaith Dialog Center (IDC). Having participated ininterfaith dialogue with this Turkish Muslim group, shedescribed very positive experiences.

Temple B’nai Or (TBO) of Morristown, N.J., has a longtradition of interfaith dialogue. Our senior rabbi, DonRossoff, has made it a priority in his community work. Wealso have an active high school program, designed by oureducator, David Iskovitz, that includes interfaith programs.Therefore, when I reported back to TBO that there was anew Muslim group in New Jersey seeking active dialoguewith all religions, the entire staff was very interested andsupportive.

David and I contacted Dr. Koc. We agreed it was veryimportant to have a solid understanding of the group and itsgoals before we committed to programs with it. At a lengthylunch, David and I listened carefully and asked manyquestions, which Dr. Koc answered patiently. After an hourof discussion, we even asked a particularly challengingquestion about the Armenian genocide (and received asufficient answer). It was important to hear Dr. Koc’sreaction because IDC represents Turkey. Through this initialinteraction, we learned that IDC’s members are ardentfollowers of Fethullah Gülen, a present-day Muslim thinkerwho promotes peace through interfaith dialogue andencourages modern education for his own people. Foundedin 2003, IDC advances a positive image of Turkey and Islam.

At the end of the lunch, we were given books writtenby Gülen, and we were invited to IDC’s yearly Ramadaninterfaith dinner. We read the books and attended the dinneralong with Rabbi Rossoff. The dinner was an amazing, hugeevent with participants from every possible religion. I hadthe luck to sit next to a charming teenager, named Semra,whose family is involved deeply with the IDC. Over thecourse of several hours, we talked about many topics, includ-ing her journey from Turkey to New Jersey; her religiousIslamic school, which emphasizes scientific learning; herreligious beliefs; and her anxieties about taking the SATs.Semra was an engaging young woman who spoke English

articulately and represented her people passionately. On topof that, she was a cool, regular 16-year-old teen. At the endof the night, we swapped contact information.

In the meantime, Rabbi Small had invited the IDC to demon-strate their Noah’s Pudding program after Friday nightservices at her synagogue, Congregation Beth Hatikvah, aReconstructionist synagogue in Summit, N.J. Through thisprogram, IDC volunteers go to houses of worship to deliverNoah’s pudding, a sweet concoction that supposedlysustained Noah and his wife during the flood. The serving ofthe pudding is a tradition for both Muslims and Christiansin the Middle East. It is a symbol of neighborly love andrespect akin to our inviting a non-Jew to one’s Passoverseder or sukkah

Inspired, David and I set out to design a Noah’s Puddingprogram involving our teens. That is when I rememberedSemra, the delightful, well-spoken teen who sat next to meat dinner. David and I felt it was very important to create aprogram that was engaging to our 80 high school students.We felt that they would react particularly well to teensaddressing them. Fortunately, Dr. Koc was willing to createa new program model, and David worked patiently with theIDC to plan the details.

The result was a fantastic program. Their first time leadingan interfaith discussion, Semra and a friend created a pres-entation to teach the tenants of Islam. The two youngwomen, in religious dress, gave a lengthy talk about theirreligion, emphasizing especially the value of peace, notviolence. Our teens listened patiently; they respectfullyasked questions that reflected their teenage world. Theyparticularly wanted to know about clothes, music and dat-ing. Islamic values were communicated through the girls’answers. A Turkish dinner and the Noah’s pudding wereserved by the teenage presenters’ mothers. It was a proudmoment for David, Rabbi Rossoff and me as we witnessed afantastic program presented by teens to teens. Building onthis successful interchange, David already has scheduled anadult dialogue for the fall, and we surely will build on theteen program.

ATurkish Muslim Dialogue forTeens

By Rabbi Mary L. Zamore,Temple B’nai Or, Morristown, NJ

Torah at the Center

By Rabbi Peter Knobel, Beth Emet,The Free Synagogue, Evanston, IL

These andThose Are theWords of the Living God

UNIOUNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM • DEPARTMENT OF LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING • VOLUME 11, NO. 2 • SPRING 2008 • AVIV 5768 14

One of the most poignant scenes in the Torah is found inGenesis 25:8-9:

Then Abraham expired and died in a good old age,an old man and full of years, and was gathered to hispeople. And his sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried himin the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron theson of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre.

In 1967 I was standing in the Cave of Machpelah, filled witha sense of awe. This was a place venerated by Jews andMuslims as a holy site. I have never returned to Machpelah,but I have a dream that one day I will stand in that holy placewith a Muslim friend. At that moment, the sons of Abrahamwould be reunited in harmony. One wonders what allowedIshmael and Isaac to reconcile. There is no talk of dialoguein the Torah, only the description of this moment as theymourn the loss of their father together.

The separation between Jews and Muslims in the UnitedStates has been sharp. Some of it is rooted in the Middle Eastconflict, but some of it is attributable merely to the fact thatin the United States Jews enjoy a special status as part of thetrio of Protestant, Catholic and Jew. Jewish-Christiandialogue has matured through a long, complex andsometimes painful process, with Jewish religious and secularorganizations devoting much time and resources to creatingdialogue on both the leadership and grassroots levels, withoften equal responses from Christian groups.

Today it is clear to all that Islam is a significant and complexforce on the world stage and that here in the United States agrowing Muslim community exists. Much of the Muslimcommunity is well educated and professional, but it ismostly first or second generation American. The Muslimcommunity is diverse and is only now recognizing the needto enter into serious dialogue with Jews. There is muchsuspicion on both sides and also a lack of knowledge.

The challenge for Jewish-Muslim dialogue will be to findknowledgeable leaders who can lead conversations to createtrust on both sides. The image of the Muslim as terrorist, theconflict in the Middle East, the feeling that Islam does nottreat women as equals and the identification of Islam with itsmost extreme and conservative practitioners are all barriers

to real dialogue. While the Jewish community mainly feelssecure in the United States, anti-Muslim prejudice isrampant, and from my own conversation with Muslims, Iknow that many feel very insecure. Jews and Muslims areminorities in the United States, and both communities aretrying to maintain unique identities in an overwhelminglyChristian environment. We have much to share and much togain from developing a serious relationship.

The key to dialogue will be honesty. We will have toacknowledge our similarities but also our differences. Wemust avoid the trap of beginning our discussion by askingthat we each disavow our extremists. This can come onlyafter we have established a relationship.

I remember vividly failed conversations with the African-American community. We insisted that before we even couldget to know each other, they had to disavow Jesse Jackson’s“Hymietown” remark. They insisted that we disavow Israel’sselling arms to South Africa. This caused each side tobecome defensive and ultimately fail to understand theconcerns and vulnerabilities of the other.

Dialogue means sharing our personal stories about beingJews and Muslims in the United States. What are our preju-dices and our fears? What are our hopes and our dreams?Dialogue means really listening, but it also means seriousstudy. What should each of us read that the other believesbest describes his or her faith? We will have to establishground rules for conversations that allow for deep honesty,even when listening can be painful.

Dialogue will require that we speak about our tradition andour faith honestly. How do we interpret uncomfortable doc-trines? How do conservative believers deal with more liberalbelievers? The prospects are exciting but also daunting. Inspite of all these potential difficulties, it is imperative thatwe begin.


I am writing this note from Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the citywhere Prophet Muhammad was born in 570 C.E. and fromwhere he was forced to migrate by people who opposed hismessage of monotheism and egalitarianism. I am hereattending the International Islamic Conference on Dialogue.This is the first of its kind and the first step in the directionof promoting dialogue as an approach to interfaith relations.Approximately 500 Muslim leaders are coming from differ-ent parts of the world, committed to dialogue in variousdegrees. As American Muslims, we believe that dialogue is away of life, and we take pride in the legacy that Americanreligious pluralism richly has provided for us to moveforward. We are confident that our religion, Islam, providesus with shining examples of interfaith relations and under-standing from our long history.

The Quran commands Muslims to invite the Jews to “acommon word” identifying common ground between themto build an alliance with them. (Quran 3:64) About the Jews,the Quran tells us, “We gave Moses the Book, so be not indoubt about his having received it. And we made it guidancefor the children of Israel. We raised among them religiousleaders who instructed them with divine commands andshowed greatest patience and fortitude.” (Quran 32: 23-24)

We believe that if we are able to build bridges of under-standing between the Jewish and Muslim communities inAmerica, then we should be able to contribute tremendous-ly to the enrichment of American society. Jointly, our worknot only will contribute towards peace building in theMiddle East, but we also will be able to strive to bringjustice, peace and prosperity to the human family at large.The trust and confidence that we will build will help usto contribute towards peace building and conflictresolution around the world. Our mutual respect will rein-force American commitment towards a just and peacefulpluralist democracy at home and make it a model for the restof mankind.

There will be serious challenges posed by those who do notwant to see this kind of dialogue and direct interactionbetween our two faith communities. They not only want tosubvert our efforts and spoil our present, but they also wantto make sure that the future is far more chaotic. The mosttragic situation is being created by extremists on both sides

who are trying to rob us of our past as well. The brilliantexamples of our joint achievements in different parts of theworld, from Spain to Istanbul, are either being destroyedphysically or denied the historical recognition as evidence ofour successes.

The mountains of misunderstandings and misrepresenta-tions about these two religions are reinforced every day byhorrific images from the Middle East and disseminatedwidely throughout the world. This is all the more tragicbecause these two religions share the same legacy andbelong to the same family of Abrahamic faiths. The twocommunities not only share their belief in one God and acommon line of prophets, but they also share manypractices—from birth to death, circumcision, kosher/halaldietary restrictions, burial and funeral requirements.

What makes us hopeful about the Muslim-Jewish dialogue isthe success of this initiative from the very beginning of thisblessed relationship in the United States. We have beenencouraged greatly by the success experienced this last year.We started with pairing 10 synagogues and 10 mosques, butin a matter of few months, the number has gone up to 30.We want to request that our Jewish brothers and sisters notwait for our formal invitations and dialogue programs. Theyshould go to the website of ISNA and look for our variousconferences and conventions. They should know that theseevents are open to all. If they have time and are interested ina particular event, then they should inquire about it andattend the event. We want to assure that our ISNA events areopen and transparent, that they can be safe, and that theywelcome entry points into Muslim communities for a long-lasting relationship and understanding. These events notonly will provide warm contacts with Muslims in differentfields, but they also will provide an exposure to the cultureand concerns of Muslims. It will be in these forums that indi-vidual and organizational alliances will be forged and newrelationships developed.

Versions of these articles first appeared in Volume 28 of theelectronic newsletter Eilu V’eilu. To view the full conversa-tion, go to the archives at urj.org/torah/ten/eilu/archives/.

Torah at the Center

15 UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM • DEPARTMENT OF LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING • VOLUME 11, NO. 2 • SPRING 2008 • AVIV 5768UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM • DEPARTMENT OF LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING • VOLUME 11, NO. 3 • SUMMER 2008 • KAYITZ 5768 15

By Dr. Sayyid M. Sayeed, National Director of the Interfaith and Community Alliance,Islamic Society of North America

UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM • DEPARTMENT OF LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING • VOLUME 11, NO. 2 • SPRING 2008 • AVIV 5768 1616 UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM • DEPARTMENT OF LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING • VOLUME 11, NO. 3 • SUMMER 2008 • KAYITZ 5768

Torah at the Center

Is Jerusalem a Divided City?

By Rabbi Ron Kronish, Director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel, and Amy Kronish, Director ofCoexistence Programs, Jerusalem InternationalYMCA

Jerusalem is not divided in the traditional sense: There areno borders, no barriers and no checkpoints. Jews andPalestinians share this city. Nevertheless, we live our livesseparately—educationally, socially and economically. In fact,in our daily lives, we have almost no reason to interact. Wedo not send our children to the same schools, and we do notmeet in community centers or in the workplace.

Although this is an honest reflection of the reality inJerusalem today, there are a few amazing exceptions. At theeducational center of the Interreligious CoordinatingCouncil in Israel (ICCI), Jewish, Muslim and Christianreligious leaders, youth and young adults all meet on aregular basis to discuss issues, to study religious texts and totry to understand one another. At the JerusalemInternational YMCA, across the street from the King DavidHotel, 140 families bring their children to a bilingual PeacePreschool; dozens of Arab and Jewish staff members worktogether daily; and coexistence programs are offered foryouth and young adults.

KEDEM—Voices of Religious Moderation, a program ofthe ICCI, brings together religious leaders (currentlyapproximately 24 rabbis, imams, kadis and priests) fordialogue, text study and distribution of the message ofmutual tolerance and religious understanding in thecommunity.

Over the years, since 2003 when the project began, we havetaken the religious leaders abroad for intensive study anddialogue. The following story illustrates one of the advan-tages of being together in a foreign setting:

One summer, we took the KEDEM religious leadersto Northern Ireland to learn about a post-conflictsociety. We were planning to attend prayer servicestogether in a mosque on Friday morning. It all hadbeen worked out carefully in advance, with the helpof a good contact, deeply involved in interreligiousdialogue in Belfast and Dublin. Nevertheless, a faxcame on Thursday morning, indicating that some-one in the mosque felt that the rabbis should berequired to remove their kippot before entering themosque. When this was brought to the group fordiscussion, one rabbi offered a compromise by say-ing that he would be willing to wear a hat instead ofa kippah; but another rabbi said that he was not pre-pared to do this, that the kippah was too central tohis identity.

Suddenly, two of the Muslim religious leaders roseto their feet and said, “We will not go to themosque. If our brothers and friends, the rabbis, willnot be welcome as they are, we are not going. Oursolidarity is with them. They are our partners in thisdialogue—our destiny is with them in Israel, morethan with the Muslims in Ireland or in other placesin the world.” This beautiful and poignant statementwas the first real act of solidarity and reconciliationfor this group. It was a moving and genuineresponse to a real dilemma that left its mark on thegroup in a profound and lasting way. Indeed, one ofthe rabbis, who had to leave to go back to Israelafter lunch, said to the Arab clergy: “You have givenme a wonderful gift to take home to Israel forShabbat.”

MVP—Moderate Voices for Progress, a program of theYMCA, brings together young adults, ages 22 to 35,for long-term dialogue and action programs. Lamees is amarried Muslim woman, with a master’s degree in nonprof-it management from Hebrew University. She tells thefollowing about her experience:

It was a wonderful experience being a part of theMVP program. The people who built this programnot only gathered Palestinians and Israelis togetherfor just a few meetings or a small trip. They had anaim: to let us grow to know each other as humanbeings, with no barriers or stereotypes, no matter ifwe were Arabs or Jews, Palestinians or Israelis. Theprogram gave us a chance to hear each other, tolisten carefully to the different experiences andpoints of view. We now know very well that thereare two sides of the story and that there’s no totaltruth about who is bad and who is good or who isguilty for all that has happened. We now know thatall of us suffered and still are suffering from thiseverlasting war.

Bilingual Peace Preschool—a program of the YMCA, bringstogether children, half from Hebrew-speaking homes andhalf from Arabic-speaking homes. Approximately 140children, their parents and families have been involvedannually in the Peace Preschool since it was founded in theearly 1980s. It is unclear what these preschool children learnabout the “other” in such an educational setting. As part ofan evaluation interview, one mother offered the following:

My son certainly does not understand the concept ofwho is Jewish and who is Muslim. Nor does he real-ize that some are Israelis and some are Palestinians.But, he certainly knows that Christmas belongs tothis friend and Id El Fitr belongs to that one!

All of these programs bring people together to learn aboutthe possibilities of living in peace, even amidst the ongoingconflict. Led by experienced facilitators and educators, bothPalestinian and Jewish, these programs give some hope for

the future by affording people on both sides the opportuni-ty to encounter the other in significant, substantive andserious ways. We have learned that when dialogue groups areplanned and executed carefully—and they include thefostering of good interpersonal relationships, interreligiouspartnerships, honest discussion of issues in the conflict andplans for action following the dialogue—then they can betransformational for people in such significant ways thatthey become life-changing experiences. The challenge for thefuture is for the graduates of these programs to becomechange agents in their communities; in some cases wealready have begun to see this happen.


Torah at the Center

UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM • DEPARTMENT OF LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING • VOLUME 11, NO. 2 • SPRING 2008 • AVIV 5768 1818 UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM • DEPARTMENT OF LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING • VOLUME 11, NO. 3 • SUMMER 2008 • KAYITZ 5768

Just about one year ago I was approached by the ReligiousAction Center to craft a brief curriculum that would serve asan introduction to Islam for members of Union congrega-tions. I simultaneously was intrigued and repelled by theidea of delving into Islam. My awareness of Islam was ignit-ed in the post-September 11th world. I felt fear and evenanger at a faith that seemed blatantly to promote hatred ofJews and of the West.

My repulsion quickly gave way to wonder and even admira-tion. As a Jew, I found great commonality with the core ideasand values of Islam. I also was saddened at what I now con-sider to be a perversion of much of Islamic thought. As withmany religious faiths, the fringes who speak the loudest areoften the least representative of the mainstream. Many of usremember Yigal Amir and Barukh Goldstein, who acted inways that put all Jews in an extraordinarily negative spot-light. So, too, many Muslims are disturbed deeply by andopposed to the actions of certain segments of the Muslimcommunity.

Here is what I, a Jewish, neophyte scholar of Islam, found tobe so profound and affirming about Islam:

The Muslim community (umma) is made up of many nation-alities, only a small segment of which are Arab. Indonesia isthe country with the most Muslims today, most of whom livecomfortably in the modern world.

At the core of Islam is the notion of tawhid or “oneness” ofthe universe and among all living creatures as stated in theProphet Muhammad’s final sermon:

All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has nosuperiority over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab has anysuperiority over an Arab; also a White has no supe-riority over a Black nor a Black has any superiorityover a White except by piety and good action.

Islam has developed its own form of interpretive literature(like our Rabbinic literature) called Hadith, which hasenabled Islam to grow and change with the times. The radi-cal Islam we see today is a resurrection of an older form of

Islam that most Muslims reject today. This includes thesharia, or Muslim rule of law, as practiced in countries likeSaudi Arabia and Iran.

Two core terms, jihad and Islam, often are mistranslated,which leads to incorrect understandings of the Muslimworld. The term Islam means “submission,” as in “submis-sion to God’s will.” The term jihad means “striving.” Thiscan mean striving in a warlike fashion, but it also often isunderstood as an internal striving to do God’s will.

Many core concepts in Islam are found in Judaism. Forexample, the term haj, or “pilgrimage” is related directly tothe Hebrew term hag, meaning “holiday.” In biblical times,hehag referred to the pilgrimage holiday of Sukkot, whenJews went up to the Temple in Jerusalem. The notion ofzakat is identical to the Jewish concept of tzedakah.The notion of divine revelation is core to both religiousframeworks.

It would, at the same time, be naïve to look only at thatwhich unites us. In my short journey into the world of Islam,I was struck most by the extraordinary difficulty the Muslimworld has had in its encounter with the modern world. Itseems to me that the Jewish experience of exile and adaptingcontinually to the world around us made our encounterwith the modern world more palatable. In an era where theseparation of church and state and the existence of a secularnation-state are the norm, a group in which religion andgovernment are bound inextricably, such as in the Muslimcommunities, will have a difficult time finding its modusoperandi. From its inception, the polity and the reli-gious/spiritual aspects of Islam were one. In Jewish life, fromthe outset, they were separated. (Aaron oversaw the spiritu-al aspects of the life of the people and Moses the politicalaspects.) I wonder how this understanding as well as the pre-ceding insights can help me reach out to Muslims, share oursimilarities and, through an understanding of the differentforces that shaped us, find bridges across the divide.

To see excerpts from the curriculum, go tourj.org/muslimdialogue.

Torah at the Center

Reflections of a Jewish Educator on Learning About Islam

By Lesley Litman, Executive Director, Hebrew at the Center:Advanced HebrewTeaching and Learning,Newton, MA


Torah at the Center

As an interfaith couple, we began our interfaith dialoguework many years ago with our synagogue, Temple Israel, andour church, Balmoral Presbyterian Church. After Sept. 11,2001, we were motivated to learn about and dialogue withour Muslim neighbors. We firmly believe that we simplycannot afford to treat our Muslim neighbors in the U.S. asstrangers. In this article, we share some of the approachesthat have helped us succeed. In our experience, the way tobegin a dialogue is by listening.

GET INFORMEDThere are many places to learn about Muslims and theirreligion. In addition to the Union for Reform Judaism’sexcellent “Children of Abraham” course and half-hourvideo, we recommend obtaining copies of the followingMuslim reference works for your synagogue’s library:

• The Meaning of The Holy Quran by Abdullah Yusuf Ali.This is a Koran, translated, with explanations and foot-notes, laid out similarly to our Torah commentary.

• Stories of the Prophets by Hafiz Ibn Kathir. These arefamiliar Bible stories as taught in Mosque Sundayschools. The names may be unfamiliar at first, as theyare transliterated from the Arabic, but the variations inthe stories are of special interest.

• In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons From theLife of Muhammad by Tariq Ramadan. Ramadan is amoderate teaching at Oxford. You can hear himinterviewed at www.trinitywallstreet.org/education/?institute-2008&s=ramadan.

• Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim,The Struggle for the Soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel.Patel has become a major figure in interfaith youthwork. His blog, “The Faith Divide,” can be found athttp://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/.

• Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life by SariNusseibeh and Anthony David. Nusseibeh is presidentof Al-Quds University, the Arab university in Jerusalem.

• Islamic Horizons, a monthly magazine published bythe Islamic Society of North America (www.isna.net).The publication looks strikingly like our ReformJudaism Magazine. They are happy to provide copies forsynagogues.

In 2004, the Kingdom of Jordan hosted two significantconferences of Muslim scholars and clerics, representing allmajor branches of Islam. That same year, they issued aremarkable call for tolerance, “The Amman Message,”found at www.ammanmessage.com. It is four pages, easy toreproduce, and a wonderful way to get a sense of whatMuslims are saying to each other. In 2007, they wrote “ACommon Word,” expressing commonalities betweenChristianity and Islam (www.acommonword.com).

More educational information about Islam is availablefrom the Institute of Islamic Information and Educa-t ion in Chicago (www.i i i e .ne t ) and DiscoverIslam (www.discoverislam.com). You also can get a flavor ofcurrent Muslim American sermon content through themonthly newsletter of the mosques of Connecticut onlineat ccm-inc.org/iqra/.

VISIT

A good directory of Muslim communities can be foundonline at www.islamicfinder.org. The service with a sermonand social visiting is probably held around 1 or 1:15 P.M. onFridays. When you visit, you should expect that there will beseparate places for men and for women, and if you haven’tcalled in advance, stand at the door until someone tells youwhere to enter. Dress modestly (long trousers or a long skirt,sleeves, a head scarf for women, shoes you can removeeasily). Head coverings for men are optional, and a kippah isacceptable.

Muslims usually sit on the floor and kneel (forehead to floor)during prayers, but every mosque we’ve been to keeps asupply of folding chairs and is happy to have visitors ask forone and sit in it when the Muslims are praying. Much of theservice is in Arabic; although, in some mosques, the sermonis all or partially in English. Prayers tend to be much morebrief than those in a Jewish or Christian service, but thesermon tends to be longer. During the Arabic prayers, youmay sit and read the Quran. Listen; ask a few politequestions; if you come back, you can ask more questions.A few Muslims may express an interest in visiting a classor service at the synagogue.

Sh’ma,Yisrael: Start by Listening

By Dr. Edward and Eunice Ordman,Volunteer Leaders,Temple Israel, Memphis,TN.

Continued on next page

20 UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM • DEPARTMENT OF LIFELONG JEWISH LEARNING • VOLUME 11, NO. 2 • SPRING 2008 • AVIV 5768

©2008

RABBI JAN KATZEW, PH.D., RJE, Director

WENDY GRINBERG, RJE, Editor

RABBI JOAN GLAZER FARBER, RJE, Director of Adult Learning

CATHY ROLLAND, Director of Early Childhood

JOANNE DOADES, RJE, Director for Curriculum Development

ASHLEIGH COPELAND, Office Manager

NATALIE SELTZER, Web Assistant/Registrar

Contact us at:

Union for Reform JudaismDepartment of Lifelong Jewish Learning

633 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017-6778 • Phone: 212.650.4110 • Fax: 212.650.4199Please visit our website at www.urj.org/educate


Torah at the Center

Extend an Invitation

After we attended services at a mosque, we socialized, gotacquainted with people, and asked for their names and emailaddresses. Then we hosted get-togethers for Muslims, Jewsand Christians. We asked everyone to sign a guest bookand wear nametags. Because many Muslims observe somemeasure of dietary laws, it was necessary to omit alcoholand meat; we found that vegetarian Mediterranean or Indianfood is a good option.

After an initial success, more people were interested inattending the next get-together. Some Muslim womenapproached Eunice and asked for a party for women only.They could hardly wait to talk with each other about theproblems they were having as Muslims in America or whenvisiting family in Israel. They felt that the Jewish womenwere helpful to them and were interested particularly intalking to one woman who practices meditation.

Why it Matters

Many Jewish-Muslim interfaith efforts may prefer to avoidthe issue of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but it has been abig part of our successful interfaith discussions in Memphis.In summer 2007, we took a trip to Israel and the West Bankwith Interfaith Peace Builders, a group with Quaker andFellowship of Reconciliation sponsorship. The goal was notto see the main Jewish sites but to visit nonviolent peaceactivists on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides. Recently inMemphis, there was a pro-Palestinian demonstration. Jewishcounterdemonstrators arrived, and an altercation developed.Jews, Christians and Muslims in our interfaith group wereextremely helpful in trying to control this delicate situation,and ultimately, a message of nonviolence was affirmed.

To read more about Eunice and Edmond’s work and tocontact them, go to www.ordman.net/Islam.

Sh’ma, Yisrael, continued from page 19

torah at the center - ordmanordman.net/edward/torahatthecenter_aug2008.pdf · union for reform...

Documents