Tri-Faith News and Updates

Sukkot is a Jewish Festival being celebrated this week to mark the final harvest of the year.  This year the Union for Reform Judaism is urging everyone to spend some time learning more about our food supplies, to consider how we can live healthier and greener lives while being ever more appreciative of God’s bounty in our lives.

The Union for Reform Judiasm publishes a daily reflection called “Ten Minutes of Torah”, which covers Torah passages from a wide variety of perspectives.  To subscribe to the daily email go to http://www.URJ.org.  The Torah is the first five books of scriptures sometimes referred to as the Old Testament by Christians.  Because it is a fundamental scripture to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, studying Torah is something all people of the Tri-Faiths are called to do.

Eboo Patel, a leader in interfaith relations focusing on youth, wrote a thoughtful piece this week in response to current events in the Middle East.  This is a short excerpt — the link to the complete story is below.

“Muslim and Jewish organizations once considered it a matter of pride to engage in a communications blockade of organizations “on the other side”. The basic line I’ve heard from both sides is, “We can’t talk to people we have such fundamental disagreements with.” And so interfaith groups break apart. Friendships between Muslims and Jews are strained. And we revert back to shouting our own talking points louder and louder.

But, slowly, it seems that some people are realizing that increasing the volume on your own talking points and trying to drown out the other side is not a strategy for getting to a solution.

A senior American Jewish official told me yesterday “Jews and Muslims in America should be modeling positive relationships here, and hoping that pattern offers a way forward over there.”

I emailed with senior officials of the Islamic Society of North America yesterday and they expressed a similar sentiment. In fact, point five of ISNA’s press release on the Gaza situation says the following: “Engage in informed dialogue with other Americans, especially Jewish Americans, so that religious differences do not become a source of civil discord and division ….”

My guess is that the idea of continuing positive engagement with people on the other side is probably gaining ground within Muslim and Jewish organizations, although it’s still very much a minority attitude (inertia is a powerful force).

And so we’re looking at a very small step towards a potentially big win.

The win isn’t just a rewriting of the respective playbooks that Muslim and Jewish organizations use when the Middle East conflict heats up. It’s the recognition that, if we want to actually solve the conflict, Muslim and Jewish groups should be writing a new playbook together - because they’re on the same side.

The first phone calls Jewish and Muslim officials should make when bombs explode over there are not to organizations within their own religious community, but to reasonable people in the other community.

The first line should be, “I’m on the side of coexistence, and I bet you are too. What public statements can we collectively make, what press releases can we cooperatively issue, which helps the side of coexistence defeat the demon of conflict?”

That’s a play that could change the game. ”

Read the complete column here:

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2008/12/same_old_middle_east_playbook.html

Our own Tri-Faith Initiative in Omaha is one of those new models of how we can work together and continue to commit to finding new solutions to age-old problems by behaving in new ways.

I just came from the Friday evening Shabbat service at Temple Israel.  After the traditional Friday night prayers and wonderful leadership from Cantor Wendy Shermet and Rabbi Aryeh Azriel, the speaker for the evening was an Episcopal priest, Canon Greg Howe, Keeper of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP).  He spoke on the roots of the BCP in the Torah and other Jewish scriptures.  While the talk was fascinating, even more exciting was the fact that during his visit to Omaha and a very full program at Trinity Cathedral, he was invited and made time to be the speaker at the Temple service tonight.  What a great example of the kind of respect our faith groups are showing for each other, and the call we feel toward greater understanding of the faith experiences of our respective religions.  We share so much more than we hold as distinctions.

Canon Howe talked about how the most sacred practicies of Christians including baptism and communion have their origins in Jewish traditions.  As we read the Sabbath prayers from the prayer book, in many cases the readings were word for word the exact same prayers that appear in the Book of Common Prayer.  Wonderful service.  Thanks to all involved and thanks for the invitation to attend.

Nancy Kirk

Mark your calendar now for March 27, 2009.  The Tri-Faith Initiative of Omaha, NE will be hosting a major event that evening featuring national leaders of the three faith partners — Reform Judaism, Islam and Christianity.