JEWISH/MUSLIM DIALOGUE

Dear Members and supporters,

Here is a portion of an email I received from the amazing Sheila.

<Shministim. Have you heard of them? I have – just now. And once I heard about them, I had to <do something.

<The Shministim – all about ages 16, 17, 18 and in the 12th grade – are a new breed of <conscientious objectors in Israel and right now they are taking a stand. They believe in a <better, more peaceful future for themselves and for Israelis and Palestinians, and they are <refusing to join the Israeli army. They're in jail, holding strong against immense pressure <from family, friends and the Israeli government. They need our support and they need it <today.

<The Shministim have asked Jewish Voice for Peace to reach out to people like us to let the <Israeli government know we are watching, and that we support their courage. They're hoping to <receive hundreds of thousands of postcards to be delivered to the Israeli Minister of Defense <on December 18th, when they will hold a massive rally and press conference. They're hoping to <stand strong on the steps of this majestic building - and on the steps of history - <representing not only the thousands of refuseniks who came before them, not only the many <young people to whom they are an example of a better world, but also to represent us. They <have asked you, me, and every person who strives for peace to be on those steps with them, on <that day. I will be there.

<Will you join me? It's simple. Sign a letter. Click here: http://www.december18th.org/
<Under the Do More section on our website, december18th.org, you'll find an email address:
<shministim@gmail.com

<A snail mail address for the Shministim is:
<Salon Mazal (for the shministim)
<Salame 50
<Tel Aviv
<Israel

This sounds like something VFPLI (and everyone else concerned with peace) should be supporting.

The next meeting of VFPLI will be on Tuesday December 9th at 7PM at the Universalist Unitarian Society of South Suffolk, 28 Brentwood Road, Bayshore NY If you have any agenda items you would like to discuss please send them either to me, Ray, or Karen. Hope to see you there.

In peace and solidarity,

mac

Ethnic foundation promotes activities to confront bigotry

When Rabbi Donald Rossoff of Temple B’nai Or in Morristown was asked if he would consider twinning his synagogue with a nearby mosque for a national weekend of Jewish-Islamic interfaith outreach, he said, “It was pretty much a no-brainer.”

B’nai Or is one of several NJ synagogues participating in the Nov. 21-23 project spearheaded by the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.

According to the foundation, 50 mosques and 50 synagogues around the country will hold joint activities to “confront Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in their communities.”

The weekend is the direct result of a summit meeting of 12 rabbis and 12 imams held in November 2007. The event is timed to coincide with a visit by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations.

B’nai Or already has a longstanding relationship with the Jam-e-Masjid Islamic Center in Boonton that dates to before 9/11, and Rossoff had before spoken on the topic of Islamophobia.

For his Reform synagogue, the twinning represents “a widening of our relationship.”

But on the national stage, he said, “it’s going to be a really important weekend. Pretty soon, there will be more Muslims than Jews in this country. If we want to have bridges to cross in times of difficulty, we have to build bridges first. Getting to know each other and trust each other,” he said, marks a first step.

Temple members have been invited to an ethnic dinner at Jam-e-Masjid, to be followed by structured programming designed to discuss stereotypes and prejudices in both communities.

Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills is also participating in the twinning weekend.

On Friday, Nov. 21, the temple’s Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz will speak at Masjid Waarith-ud-Deen, a mosque in Irvington. Plans had already been set for Imam Nahy ud-Deen Shareef to speak at B’nai Jeshurun’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemoration, on Friday evening, Jan. 16, which will serve as a follow-up for the twinning activities.

The exchanges will expand a developing relationship between Gewirtz and Deen to their entire communities.

“In this day and age, how could you not be in?” said Gewirtz. “The only opportunity to finally stop seeing the stereotypes we imagine is to meet real people with real experiences living real lives. It’s our only shot at understanding.”

A ‘Kumbaya’ moment?

The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, established in 1989 by Rabbi Marc Schneier and the late Joseph Papp, began focusing on Muslim-Jewish relations in 2005. The weekend of twinning marks its first major grassroots initiative in the area.

“One of the greatest challenges in inter-religious dialogue is the chasm between Muslims and Jews,” said foundation president Schneier in a telephone interview. “I believe if we can create a paradigm and develop a paradigm in this country and across North America, we can export this model to other countries around the world.”

Advertisements leading up to the weekend and to King Abdullah’s visit have run in The New York Times and on CNN.

“We need to focus on issues that transcend politics and ideological differences and focus on commonalities, like the lies of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia throughout the world,” said Schneier.

In a summit in Madrid in July, King Abdullah preached a message of moderation and interfaith cooperation among Muslims, Christians, Jews, and those of other faiths.

“We are living in extraordinary times — to have the king of Saudi Arabia speak about his conviction that religion can be a positive force for mutual moderation and respect, for King Abdullah to express his concern about the forces of religious extremism and fanaticism,” said Schneier. “That’s our challenge: to identify and strengthen the voices of moderation in Islam.”

Twinning, explained Schneier, is his organization’s message to grassroots communities.

Not everyone embraced the idea, according to Walter Ruby, the foundation’s Muslim-Jewish relations program officer, who helped organize the event.

He acknowledged there were a few clergy members who said, “This isn’t for me,” or “My board isn’t ready.”

He said there were also “a few Jews who questioned the premise of Islamophobia.” But the overwhelming response was positive — the 50 participating communities are twice as many as Schneier said they had hoped for when he conceived the project.

“It’s significant,” said Ruby, “that American Jews and American Muslims are saying we want to build a relationship and be involved in issues of mutual concern. That hasn’t happened before. There’s a thirst on both sides to make it happen.”

Rabbi Allan Brill, the Cooperman/Ross Endowed Professor in honor of Sister Rose Thering at Seton Hall University, who participated in the Madrid conference, likened the twinning weekend to the moment in the 1950s and 1960s when synagogues began pairing off with churches through the efforts of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

Indeed, that is the model Schneier said his organization was following in creating the project.

Brill, however, pointed out that while grassroots activities create a climate for understanding, they must go hand-in-hand with policy shifts at the statesmanship level to be successful.

He called the weekend “the ‘Kumbaya moment’ between American Jews and Muslims, more reminiscent of National Brotherhood Week than ‘Nostra Aetate,’” Brill said, referring to the seminal Vatican document that reformed Catholic teachings about the Jews.

Still, he said, the groundwork for a “Nostra Aetate moment” is also being laid. Last week, Israeli President Shimon Peres and King Abdullah took part in a two-day interfaith dialogue at the United Nations.

“Right now, the big event is King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia wanting dialogue and sitting on a panel with Shimon Peres,” said Brill.

Of course, the 800-pound gorilla in the room is Israel, but that subject is off the table for the weekend.

“If that becomes the focus, the project will be largely unsuccessful,” said Ruby. “There are many things we can do together, and we don’t want our relationship held hostage to the Israeli-Palestinian relationship.”

Other NJ institutions participating include the Jewish Center of Teaneck and Masjid Darul Islah Mosque of Teaneck, Clifton Jewish Center and New Jersey Outreach Group in Nutley, Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick and the Muslim Center of Middlesex County in Piscataway, and Congregation Beth Chaim and the Institute of Islamic Studies, both in West Windsor.

Priest, Rabbi trace Jewish-Christian relations' progress

By Kathleen Ogle
Managing Editor

NEW BRUNSWICK - A Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi, both deeply engaged in the promotion of Jewish-Christian dialogue, discussed the transformation in relations between the two faith traditions and identified areas where additional progress is necessary Sept. 21 at the Douglas Campus Center.

The program was sponsored by the Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life in cooperation with the Diocese of Metuchen. Yael Zerubavel, director of the Bildner Center, served as moderator.

Characterizing the transformation of relations between the two faiths as one of the most remarkable and dramatic events of the 20th century, Father John Pawlikowski, director of Catholic-Jewish studies at the University of Chicago, and Rabbi Eugene Korn, scholar of Jewish ethics and Jewish-Christian relations, summarized the development of Jewish-Christian relations from their different perspectives.

Both agreed that if Jews and Christians could achieve reconciliation and peace then peace is possible between any two people.

“It is really a great source of hope for all of us that if a formerly antagonistic relationship can be transformed then other antagonistic relationships … can also be transformed and that we can move from a situation of human enmity to a situation of human solidarity and human cooperation,” Father Pawlikowski said.

Father Pawlikowski discussed various documents that addressed Jewish-Catholic relations beginning with the Second Vatican Council’s Nostra Aetate (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions) and continuing through the work of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

He cited the support of the American bishops for Nostra Aetate, claiming that the document would “never have seen the light of day if it were not for the very strong and almost universal support given it by the American episcopal delegation at Vatican II.”

He said the bishops’ support was rooted in the work of the National Catholic Welfare Conference in the 1930s and 40s which brought several Jewish and Christian organizations together to collaborate in the advancement of the working class.

The American bishops were also influenced by a study of religious textbooks, which “showed that it was impossible for Catholic Christianity or any form of Christianity to express its own self-identity without reference to Jews and Judaism.”

Although there was opposition to Nostra Aetate from some Catholic conservatives as well as bishops in Arab countries, Popes John XXIII and Paul VI were committed to seeing the document through the council, Father Pawlikowski said.

The most important statement in the document, the priest said, was that Jews could not be held collectively responsible for the death of Christ.

“In removing that theocide charge, it really removed all the layers of theological understanding of the Christian-Jewish relationship that had permeated Christianity for centuries,” he said, including the idea that Jews had been expelled from a covenantal relationship because of theocideand that Jews were to be perpetually homeless people wandering the earth, never to have a state of their own, as punishment for rejecting Christ.

The council also said that Jews remained a part of the covenantal tradition, and emphasized Jesus’ identity as a Jew and his positive relationship with Judaism.

“Those three pillars established by the council have continued to be the basic pillars on which the church, scholars, educators have built a deeper understanding of the Christian/Catholic-Jewish relationship,” Father Pawlikowski said.

Referring to recent biblical scholarship which has concluded that the process of separation between Jews and Christians was longer and more complex than initially thought, Father Pawlikowski said, “our whole picture of the first few centuries of the Jewish-Christian relationship is undergoing profound transformation.”

To help attendees understand the depth of the transformation in the relationship between Jews and Christians, Rabbi Korn recalled examples from the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century in which Vatican publications and popes refused to support the Jewish return to Zion.

He contrasted those examples with Pope John Paul II’s visit to Israel when he met with the Jewish state’s president and chief rabbis and prayed at the Western Wall “for the welfare of the Jewish people as his elder brothers who remain the people of God’s covenant.”

He went on to discuss how three events in particular contributed to the transformation: the Holocaust, the establishment of the state of Israel, and the Second Vatican Council’s proclamation, Nostra Aetate.

While the Holocaust and Nazism were not a Christian doctrine, ideology or movement, they took place in the “heart of Christian Europe,” Rabbi Korn said.

“One can’t say with any integrity that Hitler, or Goebbels or Eichmann were in any way Christians in the religious sense, in the doctrinal sense. But the people who ran the crematory at Aushwitz were Christians, who went to Mass, who were schooled in Christian theology and whose attitudes toward Jews were shaped by Christian teachings,” he continued.

The traditional Christian teaching about Jews, which later came to be known as supercessionalism, held that Christianity had replaced Judaism, that the church was the new Israel that was in covenant with God and that Judaism or the Old Testament was no longer valid, the rabbi explained.

An entire tradition of church literature not only rejected Judaism but demonized Jews and led to persecution of Jews and anti-Semitism, Rabbi Korn said.

He cited theologians who said that such literature was significant in the ready acceptance of Christian Europe to extermination of the Jewish people.

“Christian theology was not sufficient condition for the final solution but it may have been a necessary component to Nazism,” he said.

As the Christian world reflected on the unimaginable evil of the Holocaust, the seed was planted for the Christian reappraisal of the history and its theology of the Jews, he said.

“Something in the Christian world had gone undeniably wrong and Christian thinkers recoiled from what had been wrought,” Rabbi Korn said. “Over the past 40 years this process of reassessment has spawned a discussion that is no less remarkable for its content than its form.”

He referred to Catholic theologian Sister Mary Boise who dubbed the transformation in contemporary Christian thinking regarding Jews and Judaism as the 6 Rs: repudiation of anti-Semitism, rejection of the charge of theocide, repentance after the Shoah, recognition of Israel, review of teaching about Jews and Judaism and rethinking about proselytizing Jews.

The establishment of state of Israel in 1948 not only gave the Jewish people hope for survival after the Holocaust but “it changed the image of status of the Jew in the world,” he said.

“The establishment of statehood I believe helped level the playing field between Jews and the rest of the world including the Vatican.”

Rabbi Korn said the Vatican, which is both the head of the Catholic Church and a city-state as well, understands that that which is political has spiritual implications for the status and recognition of the Catholic Church.

“Similarly statehood for the Jews transformed the way the world began to look at Jews. No longer vulnerable but powerful, having the right of self defense, having some clout both politically and militarily and need to be taken seriously,” he said.

Further, Rabbi Korn said that Jewish statehood constituted the Jewish return to the land of the covenant that was promised in the Bible, which reinforced the notion that the covenant between Abraham and his descendents on one hand and God on the other hand was still alive. This was the basis for the Christian covenant and the basis for the Jewish covenant.

Rabbi Korn said the Vatican’s proclamation Nostra Aetate “proved to be a point of departure for the Christian journey from which there will be no return.”

Saudi King Abdullah’s plan for an interfaith conference that would include Jews, announced last week, was the third Muslim gesture in six months aimed toward a Jewish-Muslim interfaith dialogue.

The outreach began in October, when 138 Muslim clerics, scholars, and political leaders presented a document called “A Common Word,” which directly addressed Christianity but implicitly addressed Judaism as well. By now, it has more than 240 Muslim signatures from a broad spectrum of Muslim countries, including Jordanian Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal; clerics from Indonesia, Nigeria, Italy, and Bosnia; and even U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.).

Where most Christian groups responded before the year’s end, the Jewish response, mindful of the situation in Israel, was measured and deliberate — as it should be. In early March the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, which represents world Jewry to other world religions, issued a call for Jewish-Muslim dialogue.

In fact, by the time all participating Jewish organizations were on board and IJCIC’s invitation was publicized, there was a new Muslim statement, “A Call to Peace, Dialogue and Understanding between Muslims and Jews.” It was issued in February through the Centre for Muslim-Jewish Relations at the University of Cambridge, England. “Call to Peace” directly addressed the Jews for academic, theological, and political dialogue.

Still, the Jewish response has been criticized by some in the community as hasty — an error in assuming that IJCIC was responding to the new statement, rather than responding slowly to the letter from last fall.

These statements come as the Islamic world seeks to overcome the isolation brought on by the 9/11 attacks, and as the Jewish community is coming to appreciate the impact of five decades of Jewish-Christian dialogue.

Many Jews are ready to be partners to these dialogues. But it is understandable that Jewish-Muslim dialogue would have its Jewish critics.

The critics complain that dialogue is not appropriate when an Islamist group — Hamas — is carrying out warfare against Israel.

These critics fail to appreciate the serious and wide-ranging nature of Islam’s outreach to the Jews, even as they fail to perceive the true nature of the Muslim community. Islam is the faith of 1.3 billion people — 19 percent of the earth’s people. Most are not Arabs or connected to Middle East events. India and China each have more Muslims than the entire Middle East.

Some Jewish organizations clearly accept as one of their basic tenets that one can raise much more money and community support not by diplomacy but by screaming “anti-Semitism.” Many also generate broad guilt-by-association, claiming that no Muslim cleric is ever more than two degrees of separation from a terrorist.

Yet in February, Commentary magazine, not a progressive or liberal journal by any standard, ran an important article, “In Search of Moderate Muslims,” by Joshua Muravchik and Charles P. Szrom. They advocated outreach to Islamic moderates who promote democracy, advocate equal rights, and avoid violence.

American Jews who fail to see an immediate purpose to any interfaith encounter with Islam must remember that dialogue is a long-term process. They should also know that extremists on either side are not part of dialogue; rather, dialogue aims to remove the ground from beneath extremists.

Dialogue does not assume that both parties enter dialogue on equal footing with comparable goals and motives. This approach would have guaranteed that the Jewish community would not have been speaking to Catholics or Protestants in the early days of Jewish-Christian reconciliation. Requiring shared motives is unfair and unreasonable.

After the Holocaust, the Christian communities undoubtedly had more work to do in the dialogue than the Jews. Should we not have engaged in that dialogue until we were “on equal footing”? Yet look at the amazing results from that encounter. When dialogue with Catholics started in the 1950s some Christians entered with a problematic treatment of Judaism. Eventually, the Catholic Church moved from teaching contempt to recognizing Judaism as a living faith. It recognized the State of Israel, and sought to remove anything in Catholicism that can be used to teach anti-Semitism.

Several of the Muslim positions recently circulating, such as the Cambridge statement, are at least equally problematic. They offer to include Judaism under the Islamic polity, as part of the same entity. While a vast improvement over the Islamicist position that Jews are a foreign cancer in the Muslim polity, the statement still seeks to consider Judaism a part of Islam.

Yet, when Jews first engaged Catholics, the immediate narrow focus was fighting anti-Semitism. Over time, Catholics began to address the very nature of their relationship with Judaism, and the problematic elements were overcome. So, too, with Islam, we need to start with small steps. Islam should be given the same chance to show reciprocity and respect. In fact, the Muslim representatives to the Vatican last month to start this round of interfaith activity even included a noted Muslim Zionist.

Many in the Jewish community resist all such endeavors, and we are similarly aware that not all Muslim leaders are themselves prepared to sit with us. The Saudis may not yet be ready for religious tolerance, but right now, Muslims from Minnesota to Malaysia are seeking dialogue as a means of overcoming Western stereotypes of their faith.

We should not kiss every hand extended to us, nor expect every initiative to be successful. But we should not refuse to shake hands with those who have the ability to significantly change the face and future of Islam.

Rabbi Alan Brill holds the Cooperman-Ross Distinguished Professor Chair in Jewish-Christian Studies in Honor of Sister Rose Thering at Seton Hall University in South Orange. He engages in interfaith encounter under the auspices of the IJCIC

*************************************************

The Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel

Monday, May 19, 7:30 p.m. at Temple Sinai of Roslyn, 425 Roslyn Rd., Roslyn Heights

Religiously-motivated violence has been a significant deterrent to the progress of the Middle East peace process, and yet little to no attention has been paid to the Israeli and Palestinian religious communities, and few attempts have been made to utilize religion as a tool for peace and reconciliation.

The mission of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel (ICCI) is to harness the teachings and values of three Abrahamic faiths and transform religion's role from a force of division and extremism into a source of reconciliation, coexistence, and understanding. To accomplish this, ICCI works with youth, women, and religious leaders to promote Jewish-Arab coexistence and peace-building projects.

Issa Jaber was educated in Turkey and Israel and has held a variety of educational leadership positions in Abu Ghosh, an Arab town west of Jerusalem. He currently serves as Director of Education, Abu Ghosh Local Council

Rev. Fanous, an Anglican priest, serves Emmanuel Church of Ramle in central Israel.

Rabbi Kronish is the Founder and Director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel. An author, scholar and activist, Rabbi Kronish has been intimately involved in interreligious reconciliation for almost three decades.

The program is free and all are invited. Call 516-621-6800 for directions or further information.

Rabbi Michael White invites clergy and religious leaders of all faiths to a lunch with these three speakers from the ICCI at Temple Sinai at 12:30 on May 19. Please RSVP to the synagogue office at 516-621-6800 if you can come.

*********************************

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 4, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the communiqué released today by the Vatican press office on the publication of the new "Oremus et pro Iudaeis" for the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal.

* * *

Following the publication of the new Prayer for the Jews for the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, some groups within the Jewish community have expressed disappointment that it is not in harmony with the official declarations and statements of the Holy See regarding the Jewish people and their faith which have marked the progress of friendly relations between the Jews and the Catholic Church over the last forty years.

The Holy See wishes to reassure that the new formulation of the Prayer, which modifies certain expressions of the 1962 Missal, in no way intends to indicate a change in the Catholic Church's regard for the Jews which has evolved from the basis of the Second Vatican Council, particularly the Declaration Nostra Aetate. In fact, Pope Benedict XVI, in an audience with the Chief Rabbis of Israel on 15 September 2005, remarked that this document "has proven to be a milestone on the road towards the reconciliation of Christians with the Jewish people." The continuation of the position found in Nostra Aetate is clearly shown by the fact that the prayer contained in the 1970 Missal continues to be in full use, and is the ordinary form of the prayer of Catholics.

In the context of other affirmations of the Council -- on Sacred Scripture (Dei Verbum, 14) and on the Church (Lumen Gentium, 16) -- Nostra Aetate presents the fundamental principles which have sustained and today continue to sustain the bonds of esteem, dialogue, love, solidarity and collaboration between Catholics and Jews. It is precisely while examining the mystery of the Church that Nostra Aetate recalls the unique bond with which the people of the New Testament is spiritually linked with the stock of Abraham and rejects every attitude of contempt or discrimination against Jews, firmly repudiating any kind of anti-Semitism.

The Holy See hopes that the explanations made in this statement will help to clarify any misunderstanding. It reiterates the unwavering desire that the concrete progress made in mutual understanding and the growth in esteem between Jews and Christians will continue to develop.

****************************************************************

Ethnic foundation promotes activities to confront bigotry

A ‘Kumbaya’ moment?

Copyright 2007-2008 | The New Jersey Jewish News | All Rights ReserveD

Muslims are reaching out. We should reach back

The Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel